UNITED REFORMED CHURCH DENOUNCES AFGHAN KILLING AS "OFFENCE AGAINST GOD"
By agency reporter

Ekklesia
21 Oct 2008
UK

The United Reformed Church in Britain has condemned as "an offence
against God" the assassination of Gayle Williams, a Christian aid
worker in Kabul, and the chilling comments of those who killed her.

Taliban insurgents said "This woman came to teach Christianity to the
people of Afghanistan. Our leaders issued a decree to kill her. This
morning our people killed her".

The Rev John Marsh, Moderator of the General Assembly of the United
Reformed Church said: "It is deeply sad and sickening that Gayle
Williams has been deliberately targeted as a Christian, and gunned
down in the streets of Kabul. She had been welcomed into Afghanistan,
and was working with Serve Afghanistan, a trusted organisation,
bringing skilled assistance to people with disabilities".

He promised that the Church would pray for her family and
colleagues. "We will also pray for the families and individuals in
Kabul who delighted in and depended upon her skills, and the people
who actually killed her and those who support them explicitly or
implicitly. We pray with all Christians, Muslims and people of faith
everywhere, for whom this is an offence against God and a violation
of all that their spiritual traditions mean".

The Rev Peter Colwell, convenor of the URC’s inter-faith relations
committee said: "Like Christians, the vast majority of Muslims abhor
this kind of violence. Some Taliban factions operate far outside
mainstream views and actions. The Taliban are not a single united
entity".

When news of the killing broke, Peter Colwell was attending an
ecumenical consultation in Geneva, reflecting upon Christian attitudes
to Islam The keynote address was given by Catholicos Aram, head of
the Armenian Apostolic Church, who said that prevailing misperceptions
and polarisations between Muslims and Christians, which are hijacked
by ideological agendas, could be transformed only through a shared
life in community.

The United Reformed Church, through a series of unions over the
past 35 years, has brought together English Presbyterians, English,
Welsh and Scottish Congregationalists and members of the Churches
of Christ. One hundred thousand people make up 1600 congregations,
with more than 700 ministers, paid and unpaid.

Worldwide, more than 70 million Christians are members of the
Reformed family of churches, the largest Protestant tradition. They
call themselves Reformed because their churches began to emerge with
reform movements in the sixteenth century.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress