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INDIA:
A group of missionaries who refused to leave .... |
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TURKEY People lined the streets to applaud as a group of "peace walkers" ....
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GUATEMALAAn unexpected reunion on a medical missionary ship ...
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SWEDEN Candidates for a fast-response crisis relief team ....
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UNITED STATES: A Christian relief group leader met with national security advisors ....
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| - | BRAZILFast-moving roller hockey is helping former street kids.... | | - | WORLD An attempted murder and a mock funeral highlight .... |
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2. T U R K E Y :MUSLIMS APPLAUD RECONCILIATION WALK'S APOLOGY PEOPLE LINED THE streets to applaud, last month, as a group of "peace walkers" ended the first leg of a four-year effort to build bridges between Christians and their historical "enemies", Muslims and Jews.
Wearing tee-shirts proclaiming "We Apologize" in Turkish, the 60-strong group walked into Istanbul at the end of a 1,500-mile journey retracing the steps of the Medieval Crusades which, they say, are the root of the "bitter legacy" of centuries of conflict between the religions.
Carrying a statement expressing regret for the way the Crusades had misrepresented Christianity, the Reconciliation Walk participants had a "wonderfully warm reception" from senior civic and religious leaders, and members of the public.
The applause for the end of the first phase of the project echoed the way it had begun in Cologne, Germany last Easter. Muslims at a Turkish mosque in the city, the first to publicly hear the statement of apology, had applauded when the message was read out to them by the visiting walkers.
From Cologne - scene of the launch of the First Crusade, 900 years ago - the group had passed through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria on their way to the Turkish capital.
Another team, following one of the other main routes of the Crusades - which saw thousands of Muslims and Jews killed in the fight for control of the Holy Land - arrived in Istanbul in late August.
Media coverage produced crowds waiting to welcome the walkers as they neared Istanbul, last month. "One day the team had mayors in five different towns give us receptions," said Reconciliation Walk international coordinator Lynn Green. "Time after time the response was the same - people told us that they were so happy about what we were doing."
During the next two years, up to two million Muslims and Jews are expected to hear personally the reconciliation statement, which expresses regret for the way the Crusades have misrepresented Christianity by corrupting "its true message of reconciliation, forgiveness and selfless love".
The message is to be spread throughout Turkey over the next two years as hundreds of Christians join small teams walking throughout the country. The first groups will set out from Istanbul in April. The Reconciliation Walk is due to end in Jerusalem in July 1999, with a special event to mark the 900th anniversary of the fall of the city to the attacking Crusaders.
As well as "diffusing some of the bitterness and suspicion with which Muslims view Western Christianity", the project is also intended to change participants' attitudes towards Muslims. "Experiencing the kind of warmth and hospitality we enjoyed, they will return home with a completely different perspective on Muslim people," said Green, Youth With A Mission's area field director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.- Photo available on request from Kim Darnell.
Fax: (44) 1582 766019. Internet: 101643.1246@Compuserve.com
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