Contact: David Runnion-Bareford, 800-494-9172

MEDIA ADVISORY, Sept. 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today, United Church of Christ renewal leader David Runnion-Bareford, Exec. Dir. of the confessing movement in the UCC and President of the Association for Church Renewal, called for the World Council of Churches and The Episcopal Church to cancel their plans to host Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a celebrative dinner in New York City on Thursday.

"It is an outrage that Christian leaders would so abjectly sacrifice justice for peace by feting a known murderer, anti-Semite, and international criminal. There is documented evidence that Ahmadinejad is a holocaust denier who has supported the killing of innocent civilians in Israel, killed and tortured political opponents personally, executed children and sponsored legislation about to be finalized this week which will criminalize conversion to Christianity in Iran," Runnion-Bareford said. "Some of our mainline denominations such as the United Church of Christ, The United Methodists and the Presbyterian Church USA are already under indictment for entertaining anti-Semitic resolutions and ideologies promoted by opponents of Israel, this dinner only compromises our interfaith relationships even further," he added.

The dinner for "His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, is the fourth in a series of "high-level bridge-building and reconciliation efforts that have helped to build mutual understanding between our peoples, nations and religious traditions." Last years World Council of Churches event on the 27th of September 2007 drew 140 people from across the U.S. including mainline denominational leaders.
http://www.oikoumene.org (World Council of Churches)
http://www.associationforchurchrenewal.com

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