Jerusalem, 24 January (ENI)--Hosam al-Taweel seems an unlikely candidate to run in the Palestinian parliamentary elections on behalf of the militant Islamic group Hamas. Al-Taweel, 40, is a Greek-Orthodox Christian living in the Gaza Strip who has volunteered at the local YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) for more than three decades.

But he decided to join Hamas - a group that seeks to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state based on strict Sharia law - because he believes a Hamas government is in the best interests of the Palestinian people. "We are all - Christians and Muslims - united for a free Palestine. Our ancestors fought with the Muslim leader, Salah al-Din, against the crusaders," he told the Arabic-language al-Jazeera satellite television channel during an interview. "We also share a common suffering under Israeli occupation and each of us has reciprocal respect towards our religious beliefs."

Hamas is expected to strongly challenge President Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah movement in the 25 January parliamentary elections. Hamas' Change and Reform party stands for ending rampant corruption in the Palestinian Authority. But the prospect it could win the election or do well enough to influence the Palestinian Authority has some Western countries worried as Hamas is regarded as a terrorist group that has spearheaded a wave of suicide bombings against Israel.

This does not concern al-Taweel, who has said he opposes the 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel and calls for Palestinians to continue to resist Israeli occupation. "My programme isn't specifically for Christians only, but designed for all Palestinians," he said. "We are fighting for the right of return of displaced Palestinian refugees and fighting corruption in Palestinian governance."

There are about 10 000 Palestinian-Christians living in the Gaza Strip and as in the West Bank their numbers have dwindled over the past century. Christianity in Gaza dates to shortly after the death of Jesus. The first Christian martyr in Gaza was Bishop Sylvanus, who was killed in AD 284. Cooperation between Christians and Hamas is not new. In the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Christian mayor took power due to a coalition he formed with the Hamas dominated city council. [376 words]

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Geneva, 23 January (ENI)--The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, has urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to start peace talks with Tamil rebels, warning that a recent upsurge in violence risks escalating into all-out war. "It is feared if the rapidly deteriorating situation is not brought under immediate control, it is likely to result in another long drawn out war in which many more people may perish and hopes of peace and development suffer a major setback," Kobia wrote to Rajapakse in a letter published on 23 January.

A two-decade-long civil war between government forces and rebels seeking autonomy for Tamil-majority areas in the north and east of the ethnically-divided island led to the deaths of about 65 000 people prior to a 2002 cease-fire brokered by Norway. "The cease-fire agreement and the peace talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the [rebel] Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam had provided joy and hope to the people," Kobia noted. He backed an appeal for peace talks from the heads of the country's churches after a sudden surge of violence in recent weeks, particularly in the north and the east of the island.

The church leaders had urged President Rajapakse, the heads of political parties and the Tamil rebels "to take immediate steps to stop this spiral of violence".

Rajapakse came to power after elections in November 2005. Before the poll he said he would review the cease-fire with the Tamil rebels, and cancel a fund-sharing agreement with them to rebuild tsunami-battered parts of the country that they controlled. The Geneva-based WCC groups more than 340 churches from throughout the world. [289 words]

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Geneva, 20 January (ENI)--Pope Benedict XVI is to join delegates from other Christian traditions who will gather in Rome from 24 to 27 January for the opening event of the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly which organizers hope will promote the cause of church unity. The meeting is intended to "help European churches make their common voice heard on the challenges of our time," said a keynote speaker at the Rome meeting, Lutheran Bishop Margot Kaessmann from Hanover in northern Germany.

The gathering is organized by the Council of European (Roman Catholic) Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC). The two church groupings between them account for almost all of Europe's Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic churches. It is the first step in what has been called an "ecumenical pilgrimage" that will be followed by national meetings and a gathering in early 2007 in Wittenberg, Germany, where Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517.

It will culminate in the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, Romania, which will bring together 3000 delegates from all Christian traditions, and follows previous assemblies in Basel, Switzerland, in 1989, and Graz, Austria, in 1997. The Rome meeting opens on 24 January with speeches by the presidents of CEC, the Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont from France, and of CCEE, Bishop Amedee Grab from Switzerland.

The meeting will then focus on prospects for church unity in Europe with addresses by Bishop Kaessmann, representing the Evangelical Church in Germany, the country's main Protestant umbrella, and by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. On 25 January, delegates will attend a service at the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls at which Pope Benedict will preside. He is also scheduled to receive the participants at an audience in the Vatican.

Pope Benedict after his election in 2005 said his "primary task" would be to promote the unity of all Christians. And on 18 January to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity he praised progress in dialogue between churches. "We can also give thanks to the Lord for the new situation painstakingly created through ecumenical relations among Christians in their newfound brotherhood," he said.

Still, churches remain divided over issues such as celebrating together the Eucharist or Holy Communion, the sacrament that commemorates Jesus' last supper with his disciples. Christian Weisner, chair of the international movement "We Are Church" which campaigns for reforms inside the Catholic Church said his movement hoped the Rome gathering would promote genuine dialogue between delegates.

"We also deeply hope that the Rome meeting will result in a real debate that focuses upon the relations between the churches, not only at the top, but at the grassroots. We hope they will recognise the very real difficulty caused by withholding Eucharistic hospitality, thus wounding the whole Christian family," said Weisner. "It would be a real shame if the Rome meeting dries up with the usual threadbare platitudes." [508 words]

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Jerusalem, 20 January (ENI)--The Pope's envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories is leaving after eight years of service in the Holy Land during which he was instrumental in warming relations between the Vatican and the Jewish state. Italian Archbishop Pietro Sambi heads to Washington where he will serve as the Vatican's new papal nuncio to the United States. "We are losing a good friend today," said Israeli tourism minister Avraham Hirchson at a farewell reception for Sambi earlier in the week.

The Vatican diplomat said in response he was sad to be leaving the Holy Land and Jerusalem which he called "the spiritual capital of humanity". "It is not so easy to go away from Jerusalem," Archbishop Sambi said. "Jerusalem always gives you much more than you can give it." As a parting message he said it was incumbent upon Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to work together to create a climate of respect and humanity that could eventually lead to peace in the Holy Land.

During his tenure Sambi prepared for Pope John Paul II's historic visit in 2000 and worked to bring Christians back to the Holy Land despite the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising five years ago. Sambi was also involved in informal dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians on arrangements for holy sites under any future peace agreement. In 2002, he helped end a tense 39-day stand-off between the Israeli army and Palestinian gunmen holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. He was also involved in ongoing negotiations with Israel on the Roman Catholic Church's tax and property status in the Jewish state.

The 67-year-old Sambi will replace Colombian Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo who is retiring after serving as the Vatican's envoy to Washington since 1998. [304 words]

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New Delhi, 19 January (ENI)--Churches in Sri Lanka have pleaded for an end to escalating violence in the troubled north and east of the country that threatens a fragile four-year cease-fire in the ethnically-divided island nation. "No one seems to be able to stop the spiral of killing for killing," lamented all the country's major churches in a joint statement in the second week of January. "The people of this country must take serious note that the culture of violence is spreading dangerously and indiscriminately."

The call follows a sudden surge in violence with more than 120 people including 60 soldiers killed in the past month in the north and east. That is where rebels belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have waged a two-decade campaign for autonomy from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

"Any killing is an indication of our failure to live with differences and our inability to find a non-violent, inclusive and civilised way to deal with grievance and conflict," said the statement signed by officials of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, which groups eight major Protestant churches, and of the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Members of the security forces have been killed in landmine blasts and suicide attacks. For its part, the army has been accused of targeting Tamil civilians in retaliation. Three women said to be supporters of the Tamil rebels were shot dead on 16 January in Jaffna in the north, which is under army control. Meanwhile, Tamils in Jaffna have been fleeing to the LTTE-controlled Wanni region amid fears of an imminent war following the escalation in violence.

The civil war which broke out in 1983 has claimed more than 65 000 lives and displaced 1.8 million people prior to the 2002 cease-fire brokered by Norway. Sri Lanka's mainly Buddhist Sinhala-speaking majority accounts for about 70 per cent of the country's 20 million people, while ethnic Tamils are believed to make up between 8 and 17 per cent. [347 words]

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Canterbury, England, 19 January (ENI)--Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver, and reviled as the ultimate symbol of betrayal, is getting a chance to redeem himself according to Vatican scholars, Europe's media are speculating. "Judas was doing God's business and so might just as easily be deemed a saint as an ultimate sinner," wrote Peter Stanford, a former editor of the Catholic Herald, in the Daily Mail newspaper.

That reading on the acts of the man who has often been seen as a powerful symbol for treachery was also supported by a contributor to the London Times newspaper. "The Judas myth helped to shape 2000 years of anti-Semitism. It remains illegal to name a child Judas in Germany," commented Ben Macintyre in The Times.

The newspaper reported that a campaign led by Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science at the Vatican, is seeking to persuade believers to look more kindly at Jesus' disciple, often blamed for enabling the crucifixion to take place.

St Luke wrote that "Satan entered into Judas".

Italy's La Stampa newspaper quoted Vittorio Messori, a Roman Catholic writer close to both Pope Benedict XVI and the late John Paul II, saying that the rehabilitation of Judas would "resolve the problem of an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus towards one of his closest collaborators". He told La Stampa that according to one Christian tradition, Judas was forgiven by Jesus and ordered to purify himself with "spiritual exercises" in the desert.

Switzerland's Basel-based Maecenas Foundation has said that at Easter it will publish a copy of a 62-page papyrus manuscript of the text of a gospel according to Judas, discovered in Egypt almost 60 years ago. The London-based Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that although the text has not been made public, discussions in academic circles suggested it would claim that Judas was acting at the behest of God when he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. [345 words]

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London, 18 January (ENI)--The Church of England has edged a step closer to accepting women bishops and the ability to have a female Archbishop of Canterbury as spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican communion following a report by a denominational group. The 57-page document entitled "Women in the Episcopate: the Guildford Group Report", issued on 16 January by a group of bishops, was produced at the request of the General Synod, the Church of England parliament. It will be debated in February but a final vote on further action is not expected to be taken until members meet again in July.

The first response by opponents of change came from the Anglican evangelical Church Society whose chairman the Rev. George Curry said: "The Church continues to disintegrate. It is losing its credibility in the nation." In July 2005 the synod voted overwhelmingly in favour of the principle of women bishops.

The new report puts forward a compromise to avert the threat of a schism which faced the Church of England over the admission of women priests a decade ago and more recently over its position on homosexuality and same-sex civil partnerships. It recommends a panel of male bishops should be appointed to care for all parishes that reject women bishops.

Christopher Hill, the bishop of Guildford, who led the group that issued the report, says it would be illogical to have women priests without bishops. He noted, "We have identified a way forward which, we believe, has the potential to permit the admission of women to the episcopate and preserve the maximum degree of unity across the Church of England."

On the question of a female Archbishop of Canterbury, likely to be strongly opposed by many Anglicans in Africa and Asia, he noted that the church would fall foul of Britain's Sex Discrimination Act if its highest post were denied to women. [326 words]

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Galle, Sri Lanka, 3 January (ENI)--One year after Sri Lanka was struck by a devastating tsunami that wreaked destruction throughout south and southeast Asia, churches in the island nation say their relief work has promoted better relations with the country's Buddhist majority. "It [the tsunami] has given us an opportunity to work closely with the Buddhist people and win their confidence," said the Rev. Lesley Weerasinghe, Methodist pastor in the southern port city of Galle, where more than 4000 people were killed by the giant waves.

Initially, Weerasinghe recalled, local Buddhists staged demonstrations when he tried to start building houses for Buddhist tsunami victims at a plot purchased by the church at Pujadigama village. "They thought we were going to build a church in their village. But when they realised that we were building houses for Buddhists, they started supporting us," said the Methodist pastor.

Buddhists had been the major beneficiaries of Methodist relief work including houses, items such as boats and financial assistance to restart business destroyed in Galle, he noted. "Before the tsunami, many Buddhists thought that Christians were trying to convert the Buddhists by our social service. But our tsunami relief work has started removing that fear," said Weerasinghe.

Buddhists account for almost 70 per cent of Sri Lanka's 20 million people, while Christians tally just over 6 per cent. The 26 December 2004 tsunami claimed more than 35 000 lives and displaced nearly one million people. The Rev. Kingsley Perera, chairperson of Sri Lanka's National Christian Council and president of the Baptist Council of Sri Lanka, told Ecumenical News International that the tsunami relief work has "certainly led to better harmony and understanding" with Buddhists.

When local Buddhists opposed construction of houses for tsunami victims by the Baptist church in Paraliya village, 70 kilometres south of the capital Colombo, church workers approached the chief Buddhist monk of the area, Perera noted. "The monk went from house to house explaining our work to the people and got their consent for our work," he said.

The venerable Hedigalle Wimalasara, a leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, a political party formed by Buddhist monks, said, "The tsunami has brought the people and the religious leaders together." Speaking to Ecumenical News International, Wimalasara noted that when the tsunami struck, more than 1500 families including Christians and Muslims took shelter in his monastery 65 kilometres south of Colombo. The Buddhist monk said, "We are coming closer day by day." [424 words]

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