08589
August 15, 2008
PC(USA) and RCA send letter to churches in Georgia and Russia
LOUISVILLE — As the conflict in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia continues, the Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has joined with the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), in sending a letter of concern and solidarity to church partners in Georgia and Russia.
Copies of the letter were also sent to other church partners throughout Central and Eastern Europe as well as to all mission personnel in both denominations.
The full text of the letter from Parsons and Granberg-Michaelson:
“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26.
His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos Patriarch of all Georgia and Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi of the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church
Reverend Malkhaz Songulashvili, President of the Union of Evangelical Baptists of Georgia
Dr. Johannes Launhardt, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia
His Holiness Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia of the Russian Orthodox Church
Archbishop Edmund Ratz of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States
Reverend Dr. Yuri Sipko, President of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia
Bishop Hans Växby of the United Methodist Church in Russia
Dear Brothers in Christ:
We write on behalf of two historic American churches to promise our prayers in this difficult time in the life of your churches.
With great sadness, we and the members of our churches have watched and listened to reports of the destruction in the recent fighting. We know that all of those who were killed or wounded or bereaved as a result of the fighting were children of God and that many of them were members of your churches. With you we confess that war is always an expression of human sin and failure. But no matter how powerful evil is or how profoundly people are suffering, we know that the God we know in Christ always has the last word and that that word is good news.
We promise to keep all of you in our prayers. As churches in the world respond to this humanitarian crisis, we will work with the ecumenical relief agency, Action by Churches Together, on behalf of those who have been hurt or displaced in the fighting.
May the God of healing through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit bind up your wounds.
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