"...and all the world wondered after the beast" Revelation 13:3

Ex Jesuit Priest Alberto Rivera states... "The main underlying Roman Catholic purpose is to infiltrate, and penetrate all the areas of life, were the Roman Catholic Church can have control with excess in a One World Government. ...this have been in preparation especially since the formation of the Jesuit order in 1541 to infiltrate absolutely every area of society so as to take over the world politically and religiously. The two main doctrines of Catholicism that define this are... The doctrine of the Apostolic succession, which is actually the Papacy. And the  doctrine of temporal power which is secular government.  The office of Pope illustrates this easily... The Pope is the head of the Church as well as the head of the State of Rome."

The only hope for this western world is an alliance between the Roman Catholic church which is the most commonly, influential, controlling, unifying, element, in Europe and the western orthodox church. ...The only hope for the western world lies then in a united Europe under the control of the Pope. -Charles Malik former president general assembly of the united nations. Ambassador to the U.S. from Lebanon.

Not only is it prophetically of the Beast of Revelation to look for this "One World Church" It is also totally against the Word of God to do as the Popeis doing...

2 Corinthians 6:17, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,"
2 John 1:9-10, "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:"

"State of the World Forum" to advance "GLOBAL GOVERNANCE" for everyone 

United Nations needs overhaul, panel says  

Clinton mandates multilingual America  

List of Participants at UN Millennium Summit  

POPE URGES NEW PUSH FOR MIDEAST PEACE 

Global Church gaining popularity  

Numerous different churches write President Clinton Letter  

Mideast negotiators propose putting God in charge  

ARE BELIEVERS OF OTHER RELIGIONS SAVED?  

'Jerusalem should be a unified world capital'  

Globalization Tops Agenda for World Leaders at U.N. Summit  

Religious leaders present UN with peace declaration  

World religious leaders seek elusive peace  

ITALIANS DEBATE CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS

A HISTORIC FIRST IN WEST AFRICA  

CUBA PREPARES FOR EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS  

THERE'S NO TURNING BACK IN ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE, POPE SAYS  

Religious leaders unite to save environment  

EUCHARIST CHALLENGES CHRISTIANS TO RETURN TO LOST UNITY, JOHN PAUL II SAYS  

Muslims and Catholics in the United States looking for unity  

U.N. Faithful Eye Global Religion

CATHOLICS AND ARMENIANS MAKE ANOTHER STEP TOWARD UNITY  

Orthodox patriarch and Pope pray together

EUCHARIST IS DENIED WHEN ONE LIVES WITHOUT LOVE, POPE SAYS  

EUCHARIST, "SACRAMENT OF UNITY"  

IRANIANS HAIL POPE'S ROLE IN INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE  

LUTHERAN-CATHOLIC DECLARATION, ONE YEAR LATER  

POPE DONATES MONEY FOR ORTHODOX CHURCH, REPORT SAYS  

"LUTHERANS READY TO ACCEPT POPE"  

Pope, Queen Speak of Christian Unity

Pope calls for bolder dialogue between religions   

``Seventeen Million Syrians Could be Considered Christians,''  

Israel weighs international control over Temple Mount  

Jewish scholars and rabbis are extending a hand to Christians.  

Catholics and Protestants Appeal for Peace in Indonesia 

Cardinal Arinze's Message to Muslims at End of Ramadan

Cuba's Eucharistic Congress a First Under Castro

Cardinal Etchegaray Meets Patriarch Alexis II

New Yugoslavian President Meets With Pope

Kazakhstan Invites Pope to Visit in June

SLOVAKIA-VATICAN PACT EXPECTED THIS WEEK

CARDINAL CASSIDY IN U.S. FOR ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE

POPE GIVES A ROMAN CHURCH TO CONSTANTINOPLE

POPE CONTINUES TO PUSH INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE

To view the entire article, visit
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_btl/20000808_xcbtl_world_gove.shtml

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United Nations needs overhaul, panel says

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (August 23, 2000 12:58 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The United Nations will face more peacekeeping failures in the 21st century without major overhaul, according to an international panel. The panel called Wednesday for the equivalent of a U.N. ministry of defense to bolster the world body.

The panel of experts was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to look at U.N. peacekeeping operations after highly critical reports on the U.N. performance in the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the 1995 fall of the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica, which led to the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims.

The 10-member panel did not endorse a United Nations army, but it did encourage the 188 U.N. member states to form several brigade-size forces of 5,000 troops each that could deploy in 30 to 90 days, depending on the complexity of the U.N. peacekeeping operation.

The United Nations must have "the tools" to address any conflict situation - from prevention to actual enforcement - and at the moment it doesn't have the headquarters staff, the troops, money, or the information to properly analyze and plan strategically, said former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, who chaired the panel.

"I very, very much hope the member countries are going to put their money where their mouth has been if they really believe in this organization," Brahimi told a news conference launching the report.

The 58-page report called for a substantially larger, modernized, high-tech U.N. peacekeeping department in New York staffed by well-trained military professionals who use information technology and plan operations with a U.N. team including political, human rights, development and election experts. It did not give a price tag.

At the moment, the panel said, just 32 officers at U.N. headquarters are responsible for 27,000 U.N. troops from 20 countries scattered across the globe in 14 peacekeeping operations - a staff that no national government would tolerate. Similarly, it said, more than 8,600 civilian police are deployed in U.N. missions with a headquarters staff of only nine civilian police.

"This is clearly not acceptable," Brahimi said. "This has got to change."

The report said the need for changes in U.N. peace operations has become even more urgent following the hostage-taking of 500 U.N. peacekeepers by rebels in Sierra Leone in May, and the prospect of expanded U.N. peacekeeping operations in Congo.

Annan asked the panel to make recommendations to improve prospects for peace in the 21st century, which he wants world leaders to consider at the upcoming Sept. 6-8 Millennium Summit at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The historic meeting presents a unique opportunity to begin renewing the United Nations' capacity "to secure and build peace," the secretary-general said in letters asking the Security Council and General Assembly to circulate the report to U.N. member states.

In examining U.N. peacekeeping, the panel recalled that the organization was founded after the devastation of World War II in order "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" - and it stressed that meeting this challenge was the yardstick that the peoples of the world still use to judge the United Nations.

"Over the last decade, the United Nations has repeatedly failed to meet the challenge, and it can do no better today," the report concluded.

Panel members said that consent of the parties, impartiality, and use of force only in self-defense "should remain the bedrock principles of peacekeeping." But they stressed that in the case of obvious aggressors and victims "peacekeepers may not only be operationally justified in using force but morally compelled to do so."

"No failure did more to damage the standing and credibility of United Nations peacekeeping in the 1990s than its reluctance to distinguish victim from aggressor," panelists stressed.

In the future, the panel said, U.N. military forces must be capable of responding to such challenges - which means bigger, better equipped, and more costly missions with the authority to use force. It also means radical changes in U.N. procurement to facilitate rapid deployments.

"Without renewed commitment on the part of member states, significant institutional change and increased financial support, the United Nations will not be capable of executing the critical peacekeeping and peace-building tasks that the member states assign to it in coming months and years," the panel said.

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Thursday, August 24, 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------
Clinton mandates multilingual America
Executive order says programs must be offered in foreign languages
by Jon E. Dougherty
------------------------------------------------------------------

A new Executive Order signed by President Clinton, requiring federal agencies to provide "programs and activities normally provided in English" to non-English-speaking residents, will effectively elevate the inability to speak English as "a protected civil right," say critics.
 
The order, signed Aug. 11 while Clinton was in Los Angeles preparing to attend the Democratic National Convention, is listed as  EO 13166,  and was entered into the Federal Register Aug. 16.
 
Titled, "Improving Access to Services For Persons With Limited English Proficiency," the order calls on the federal government "to improve access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs and activities for persons who, as a result of national origin, are limited in their English proficiency (LEP)."
 
The order requires that the "Federal Government provides and funds an array of services that can be made accessible to otherwise eligible persons who are not proficient in the English language. To this end, each Federal agency shall examine the services it provides and develop and implement a system by which LEP persons can meaningfully access those services consistent with, and without unduly burdening, the fundamental mission of the agency."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000824_xnjdo_clinton_ma.shtml
 
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Sep 6, 2000 - 11:17 PM

Participants at Millennium Summit
The Associated Press

World leaders scheduled to attend the Millennium Summit, according to a list released by the United Nations.

HEADS OF STATE:

Afghanistan, President Burhanuddin Rabbani

Albania, President Rexhep Meidani

Algeria, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Argentina, President Fernando de la Rua

Armenia, President Robert Kocharian

Austria, President Thomas Klestil

Azerbaijan, President Geidar Aliyev

Bahamas, Gov.-Gen. Orville Turnquest

Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko

Benin, President Mathieu Kerekou

Bolivia, President Hugo Banzer

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic

Botswana, President Festus Mogae

Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah

Bulgaria, President Petar Stoyanov

Cameroon, President Paul Biya

Cape Verde, Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro

Chile, President Ricardo Lagos

China, President Jiang Zemin

Colombia, President Andres Pastrana

Comoros, Col. Azali Assoumane

Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou-Nguesso

Costa Rica, President Miguel Angel Rodriguez

Croatia, President Stipe Mesic

Cuba, President Fidel Castro

Cyprus, President Glafcos Clerides

Czech Republic, President Vaclav Havel

Djibouti, President Ismael Omar Guelleh

Dominican Republic, Hipolito Mejia

Ecuador, President Gustavo Noboa

El Salvador, President Francisco Flores

Equatorial Guinea, President Teodoro Obiang

Eritrea, President Isaias Afwerki

Finland, President Tarja Halonen

France, President Jacques Chirac

Gabon, President Omar Bongo

Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh

Georgia, President Eduard Shevardnadze

Ghana, President Jerry Rawlings

Guatemala, President Alfonso Portillo

Guinea Bissau, President Kumba Yala

Guyana, President Bharrat Jagdeo

Haiti, President Rene Preval

Honduras, President Carlos Flores Facusse

Hungary, President Ferenc Madl

Indonesia, President Abdurrahman Wahid

Iran, President Mohammad Khatami

Jordan, King Abdullah

Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev

Kenya, President Daniel arap Moi

Kiribati, President Teburo Tito

Latvia, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga

Lithuania, President Valdas Adamkus

Madagascar, President Didier Ratsiraka

Malawi, President Bakili Muluzi

Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

Mali, President Alpha Oumar Konare

Marshall Islands, Kessai Note

Mauritania, President Mawa Ould Sid Ahmed Taya

Mexico, President Ernesto Zedillo

Micronesia, President Leo Falcam

Mongolia, President Natsagiin Bagabandi

Mozambique, President Joaquim Chissano

Namibia, President Sam Nujoma

Nauru, Bernard Dowiyogo

Nicaragua, President Arnoldo Aleman

Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo

Norway, King Harald V

Peru, President Alberto Fujimori

Philippines, President Joseph Estrada

Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski

Qatar, Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

South Korea, President Kim Dae-jung

Moldova, President Petru Lucinschi

Romania, President Emil Constantinescu

Russia, President Vladimir Putin

Rwanda, President Paul Kagame

St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Gov.-Gen. Charles Antrobus

San Marino, Maria Domenica Michelotti and Gian Marco Marcucci

Sao Tome and Principe, President Miguel Trovoada

Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade

Sierra Leone, President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah

Slovenia, President Milan Kucan

Somalia, President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan

South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki

Sudan, President Omar el-Bashir

Swaziland, King Mswati III

Tajikistan, President Emomali Rakhmonov

Macedonia, President Boris Trajkovski

Togo, President Gnassingbe Eyadema

Tunisia, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

Turkey, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer

Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni

Ukraine, President Leonid Kuchma

United States, President Clinton

Uruguay, President Jorge Ibanez

Uzbekistan, President Islam Karimov

Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez

Vietnam, President Tran Duc Luong

Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh

Zambia, President Frederick Chiluba

Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe

HEADS of GOVERNMENT:

Andorra, Marc Forne Molne

Antigua and Barbuda, Premier Lester Bird

Australia, Prime Minister John Howard

Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheik Hasina

Belgium, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt

Belize, Prime Minister Said Musa

Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk

Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen

Canada, Prime Minister Jean Chretien

Chad, Premier Nagoum Yamassoum

Denmark, Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen

Dominica, Prime Minister Roosevelt Douglas

Estonia, Prime Minister Mart Laar

Ethiopia, Prime Minister Meles Zinawi

Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

Greece, Premier Costas Simitis

Grenada, Prime Minister Keith Mitchell

Guinea, Prime Minister Lamine Sidime

Iceland, Prime Minister David Oddsson

India, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Ireland, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern

Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Barak

Italy, Premier Giuliano Amato

Jamaica, Prime Minister Percival J. Patterson

Japan, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori

Lesotho, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili

Liechtenstein, Prime Minister Mario Frick

Malta, Prime Minister Edward Fenech Adami

Nepal, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala

Netherlands, Prime Minister Wim Kok

New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark

Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf

Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta

Portugal, Prime Minister Antonio Guterres

Saint Lucia, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony

St. Kitts and Nevis, Prime Minister Denzil Douglas

Singapore, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong

Slovakia, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda

Spain, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar

Sweden, Prime Minister Goeran Persson

Tonga, Prince Ulukalala Lavaka Ata

Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday

Tuvalu, Prime Minister Ionatana Ionatana

United Kingdom, Prime Minister Tony Blair

Vanuatu, Prime Minister Barak Sope

HIGH-RANKING U.N. OBSERVERS:

Holy See, Cardinal Angelo Sodano

Switzerland, President Adolf Ogi

Palestinian Authority, President Yasser Arafat

CROWN PRINCES:

Monaco, Prince Albert

Morocco, Prince Moulay Rachid

Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdullah

VICE PRESIDENTS:

Brazil, Marco Maciel

Panama, Arturo Vallarino, first vice president

Paraguay, Julio Cesar Franco

Suriname, Jules Ajodhia

United Arab Emirates, Sheik Hamad Bin Mohammad Al-Sharqi

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTERS:

Barbados, Deputy Prime Minister Billie Miller

Iraq, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz

Laos, Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad

Luxembourg, Deputy Prime Minister Lydie Polfer

MINISTERS:

Angola, Foreign Minister Joao Miranda

Bahrain, Sheik Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa

Burundi, Severin Ntahomvukiye

Central African Republic, Foreign Minister Marcel Metefara

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia

Egypt, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa

Ivory Coast, Foreign Minister Charles Providence Gomis

Kuwait, Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah

Kyrgystan, Foreign Minister Muratbek Imanaliev

Liberia, Foreign Minister Monie Captan

Libya, Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam

Malaysia, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar

Myanmar, Foreign Minister Win Aung

Niger, Foreign Minister Sabo Nassirou

Oman, Minister for National Heritage and Culture Faisal bin Ali bin Faisal al Said

Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar

Syria, Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara

Tanzania, Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete

Thailand, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan

Turkmenistan, Foreign Minister Batyr Berdyev

CHAIRPERSONS of DELEGATIONS:

Burkina Faso, U.N. Ambassador Michel Kafando

Lebanon, U.N. Ambassador Selim Tadmoury

Mauritius, U.N. Ambassador Anund P. Neewoor

Palau, U.S. Ambassador Hersey Kyota

Samoa, U.N. Ambassador Tuiloma Neroni Slade

Seychelles, U.N. Ambassador Claude Morel

Solomon Islands, Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jeremiah Manele

AP-ES-09-06-00 2317EDT

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Global Church gaining popularity

C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y by the Editors of ReligionToday September 7, 2000 

Conservative and liberal religious organizations are talking about forming a new broad-based national ecumenical body that would work together on common social causes. The National Association of Evangelicals (see link #1 below) and National Council of Churches (see link #2 below) are considering realigning and forming a third group, according to the Los Angeles Times (see link #3 below).
...A summit of leaders from a broad range of Christian denominations probably will be held next spring, according to the Times. Leaders of the National Council of Churches are working on ideas to bring other churches together for such a meeting. Kevin Mannoia of the National Association of Evangelicals and John Hotchkin of the Catholic ecumenical affairs office in Washington said their organizations probably would participate.
..."The block walls are coming down and giving way to picket fences," Mannoia told the Times. "The old compartmentalized segmentation of the church is giving way to a new sense of vision and mission and presence of God in America." The financially troubled NCC voted earlier this year to disband over the next three years if a new broad-based church group is formed, said Robert Edgar, the council's general secretary. Also, the NAE has removed the rule prohibiting churches that are affiliated with the NCC from also joining the evangelical group.
...Evangelicals are "rediscovering the integration of social holiness and personal holiness," Mannoia said. Churches that join the evangelical group still must subscribe to its statement of faith, which says that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that the Bible is "the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative word of God."

North and South Korean Christians are praying for reunification of their countries. The South Korean National Council of Churches, in agreement with the North Korean Christian Federation, has published a prayer guide that all Koreans can follow in praying for reconciliation, idea, the news agency of the German Evangelical Alliance, reported.
...One prayer calls on God to "unite those who are separated" and to "make us instruments of our own reunification and let us tear down all material and spiritual walls that separate us." Both church groups favor an end to the hostilities that have divided the countries since the Korean War.
...Religious life is vastly different in the two countries. The South has 17 million Christians, about 38 percent of its population, idea reported. The communist North recognizes only two Christian churches and says there are about 12,000 Christians. There are an estimated 500 underground house churches with 90,000 members, but they are harshly persecuted.

The U.S. government has named the usual culprits in its report on religious freedom. China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Myanmar head the list of countries that violate freedom of religion in a State Department report released Sept. 5, Reuters reported. Communist China has taken a hard line on all kinds of religious expression, while the others persecute religious minorities, according to the report.
...Longtime U.S. allies France and Germany came under criticism for laws that restrict religious minorities, including fundamentalist sects. The report lists a variety of sanctions that can be taken against the offending governments.
..."Not just intolerance but extreme forms of persecution are on the rise in a number of countries," said Nina Shea of Freedom House (see link #4 below), a group that advocates for religious rights, commenting on the report.

Attendance increased this year at Burning Man, an annual blasphemous and anarchistic revelry held in the Nevada desert.
The anything-goes five-day party, billed as a celebration of art and radical self-expression, drew 25,000 people from 40 states and 20 countries, according to news reports.
...Drug use is tolerated and clothing is optional at the counterculture festival. The climax is the ceremonial torching of a 52-foot-high wooden man for whom the event is named. After a solemn, freakish procession marches up to the statue, the cheering crowd dances in painted skin and loincloths and screams in ecstasy, according to Christian missions researcher George Otis, Jr., (see link #5 below) who reported from Burning Man four years ago.
...Otis said the event was thoroughly pagan and filled with horror. He said he saw people dressed as demons performing pagan rituals, men and women dancing nude before fiery idols, and revelers daring God to consume them with brimstone. The final procession around the Burning Man celebrates the knowledge that all the dancers will enter hell one day, Otis said.

Siamese twins pose an ethical dilemma for Catholic parents. A court in London has ruled that the 3-week-old twins, known only as Jodie and Mary, should be separated in order to save the life of one of them, news reports said. They are joined at the abdomen and share one heart and set of lungs.
...Their parents have rejected the verdict, which would result in the death of the weaker twin, Mary, and are appealing the ruling.
The couple, who have remained anonymous, say they want nature to take its course, but doctors have warned that a failure to separate the twins will result in both of them dying within six months. Mary is surviving only because she is using Jodie's heart and lungs, but the heart reportedly is showing signs of strain as a result, news reports said.
...The parents say they do not believe it was God's will to allow one child to die to save the other, but also recognize the "dire prognosis without separation." Pro-life groups have criticized the decision that would result in Mary's death. "The argument that the cutting off of somebody's natural blood supply does not represent direct killing is absurd. It is simply and unequivocally judicial murder," the Pro-Life Alliance said in a statement, according to Conservative News Service (see link #6 below).

> RELATED LINKS:
> 1: http://www.nae.net/index.mv
> 2: http://www.ncccusa.org/
> 3: http://www.latimes.com/
> 4: http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/
> 5:
http://www.religiontoday.com/Archive/FeatureStory/view.cgi?file=19970829.s1.
html
> 6: http://www.conservativenews.net/Welcome.asp
>

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Numerous different churches write President Clinton Letter

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The Globe and Mail, Thursday, August 31, 2000

Divine solution urged for Jerusalem
  Mideast negotiators propose putting God in charge as a way to resolve impasse over city's holy sites
By Michael Valpy


 Out of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process comes a new proposal for how to govern Jerusalem's holy sites, ground zero in the conflict over control of the city: Hand them over to God.

The sacred 14 hectares within the Old City are known to Jews as Temple Mount, the site of the Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 except for the Western Wall. To Muslims, the area is known as Haram al-Sharif, the platform whence Mohammed by tradition rode to heaven on his horse and on which sit two pre-eminent mosques, Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock.

The idea, studied by Israeli and Palestinian officials at recent meetings in Cairo, was reportedly first proposed by a Roman Catholic, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah.

The idea of declaring God sovereign over the area has won the support of Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, a leading figure in the main Israeli opposition party Likud, who generally has opposed making sweeping concessions to the Palestinians.

"Divine sovereignty is something that can be pursued," he told a news conference yesterday.

The idea also has the backing of at least one Palestinian cabinet minister, Ziad Abu Zayyad. And Israel's Justice and Religious Affairs Minister, Yossi Beilin, has said he prefers the concept of "divine sovereignty" to that of "international sovereignty."

No one is sure how it would work in practice or who on Earth would represent God -- or whether it would be anything more than a glib way of describing the status quo -- but it has excited biblical scholars because of its deep roots in historic Hebrew theology.

Israel has held all of Jerusalem since the 1967 Six Day War, although its control of East Jerusalem has never been recognized internationally. The Palestinians claim Arab East Jerusalem -- which includes the Temple Mount -- as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian Islamic officials effectively control Haram al-Sharif, while Orthodox Jews control access to the Western Wall, which is essentially one wall of Haram al-Sharif: the Jewish temple ruins are beneath the Muslim platform.

What captures the interest of biblical and theological scholars such as Rev. Gordon Davies, a professor at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, is that the language of the proposal -- sovereignty vested in God -- resonates with the constitutional teachings of the old Hebrew Prophets.

"If the idea is being taken seriously," he said, "it is an important shift in the application of theological thought, and so much of Middle East politics is theological and biblical."

But not necessarily toward an easy meeting of minds.

For example, Ikrimeh Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem, the Palestinians' senior Islamic cleric, recently told a British Broadcasting Corp. interviewer: "Sovereignty is for God. And it is God who decided that Jerusalem is for the Arabs and the Muslims."

Mr. Olmert, speaking on the same program, responded: "With all due respect, we [Jews] got the word from God that he wants us to run this place."

The idea of God being put in charge, said Father Davies, significantly moves the definition of how land is controlled from one theological concept to another.

In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible's Old Testament, land is defined as an outright gift from God to the people.

But in the biblical books about the Hebrew prophets, the idea of an outright gift is nuanced. God is said to give land to the people only on condition they obey His law. If they don't obey, the land is taken away from them. Thus, whenever the Jews are exiled from the land or dispersed, it is because they have failed to be obedient to the law.

Central to the law is justice, and growing out of justice is love.

In Hebrew theological terms, therefore, God's sovereignty over land would mean it was there for people's use, but only if they behaved with justice and love for one another.

Biblical and theological scholars use, as a concrete illustration of God's sovereignty, the example of the great Hebrew King David, who 3,000 years ago made Jerusalem his capital.

He picked Jerusalem as the site because it lay outside the territories claimed by any of the 12 Israelite tribes whom he sought to unite in a single nation. It was, in other words, the centre, the political and spiritual hub, there to be used by the people of Israel but now owned by them.

As for Islamic law, it can be extrapolated in a parallel manner. God is all powerful. All things come from God and belong to Him. God is just. God is merciful.

What both Israelis and Palestinians may find most attractive about the idea is that it is an alternative to international or United Nations control over the Old City, which neither endorses. International control, up until now, has been the position of the Roman Catholic Church.

The devil would appear to be in the details of what sovereignty by God means in temporal terms.

For example, Mr. Olmert said that while the concept of "divine sovereignty" is worth examining closely, "Fundamentally it offers a continuation of the present status quo, which means there is complete security control over the Temple Mount by Israel and at the same time complete access for Muslims at the holy places of Islam."

But Mr. Zayyad said that, while he backed the idea of not assigning sovereignty over the holy sites to either side, the Palestinians, not Israelis, should be in charge of security.

"If in practical terms, we will be the landlord there, why argue about the issue of sovereignty?"

That isn't quite what the prophets had in mind.

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Globalization Tops Agenda for World Leaders at U.N. Summit

September 3, 2000
By  BARBARA CROSSETTE

The stormy battle over globalization that brought protests to the
streets of Seattle and Washington  moves this week to the heart of
the  world's only truly global organization, the United Nations.

 An extraordinary, three-day summit meeting  of more than 150 world
leaders called to thrash out problems  of poverty and peace is
turning instead into a debate about the future  of the
organization, as well as the   world, at a time when national
boundaries have become nearly as  irrelevant to economic and
political  tides as they are to infectious diseases or popular
music.

 The summit meeting, which will  begin Wednesday and end Friday, is
the pivotal event in a two-week, traffic-stopping extravaganza for
New  York that began last week with a  conference of world
religious leaders, an assembly of scores of speakers from nearly
all the world's elected parliaments and a meeting of  hundreds of
nongovernmental organizations from every continent.

 A dozen or more other events are  planned for the fringes this
week,  including a "dialogue of civilizations" featuring President
Mohammad Khatami of Iran, a "state of the  world forum" of
government and  private sector leaders, numerous  street protests
and a 10-hour teach-in  against a greater role for global business
in world affairs.

 The United Nations is a more diversified organization than those
that have been the focus of recent  protests -- the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the  World Trade Organization.

 So it is still seen as a hope for  solving problems of
globalization,  rather than as a source of them, and  it is not
expected to be subjected to  the same heated demonstrations that
caused so much havoc in Washington  and Seattle. Still, the debate
over  globalization will be intense.

 At the United Nations, globalization means many things to many
people. It is not simply the greater  movement of goods, jobs and
capital  across borders, but also includes  equally important
cultural, environmental and political components.

 For some countries, most in the  industrial world, globalization
is an  opportunity to expand international  standards in law,
social development  and human rights. For others, many  of them
developing countries, it holds  out the worrying prospect of a
United  Nations aligning itself ever more  closely with new power
centers: the  big corporations, high technology gurus and cultural
icons of the industrialized world.

 But unlike other summit meetings,  the one here will give the
fears and  frustrations of the world's smallest  and weakest
nations equal time  alongside the powerful, whose governments and
-- increasingly -- corporations are feared for the influence they
seem to be gaining inside  the organization.

 President Clinton, who will give  the opening address and stay for
three days, will be followed to the  podium by the president of
Equatorial Guinea. Russia's president will be  followed by the
leader of the Maldives, who likes to remind others  that the big
worry for his tiny nation  of atolls is that globalization could
mean disappearing completely -- if  the warming of the world's
climate is  not halted.

 "Globalization is seen by some as  a force for social change, that
it will  help to close the gap between the rich  and the poor, the
industrialized north  and the developing south," said  Theo-Ben
Gurirab, the foreign minister of Namibia and the General Assembly
president for the last year.

 "But it also is being seen as a  destructive force because it is
being  driven by the very people, the colonial powers, who launched
a global  campaign of imperial control of peoples and resources in
what we call  now the third world. Can we trust  them?"

 Secretary General Kofi Annan, a  Ghanaian with an American
education who straddles two worlds, is  at  the center of the
debate.

 "Globalization is really defining  our era," he said in an
interview,  explaining why he forged alliances  with multinational
corporations to  improve labor and environmental  standards as well
as to bridge cyberspace gaps between the industrial  and developing
worlds.

 He also warns political leaders  that they have to govern well and
learn to take advantage of international opportunities or their
fragile  economies are doomed. He argues  that when citizens of any
country are  abused, the rulers can no longer tell  others to stay
out of their affairs.

 "It's not that the secretary general  is changing things too
fast," Mr. Annan said, ranging over topics of relevance to the
United Nations as varied as genetically modified foods or
intellectual property rights. "The  world around us is changing,
and we  change with it or we will be left  behind. We have to adapt
to the realities outside."

 Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the United Nations
Development Program, said the organization  cannot ignore economic
changes at a  time when government aid has  shrunk and
international organizations have to look for new sources of  money.


 "At the end of the day," he said,  "everybody has to acknowledge
that  the primary source of finance for  development is going to
come out of  the private portion of the global and  national
economy."

 Within the United Nations system,  some officials are concerned
that  overtures to giant corporations and  multinational industries
from the top  of the organization will set the stage  for problems
at lower levels. There  are rules of engagement for working  with
governments, one official said,  but there are no guidelines for
working with businesses or independent  advocacy groups.

 Powerful corporations, encouraged by an open door in the secretary
general's office, have the means  to introduce corrupt arrangements
or to pay for special favors among  lower-ranking officials,
including the  handing over of insider information  like
unpublished research findings,  some United Nations employees
fear. Such acts would be easier to  conceal than overt pressure
from  governments, which is a constant  problem in the
organization.

 Mr. Annan's "global compact" --  a program intended to enhance
cooperation between the United Nations and private corporations on
things like labor standards and the  environment -- has drawn the
strongest criticism from American  groups opposed to globalization,
among them the Transnational Resource and Action Center in San
Francisco.

 Its director, Joshua Karliner, said  the image of the secretary
general  standing beside the top executives of  companies with bad
reputations in  the developing world sent the wrong  message about
the United Nations,  and could make it a target of protest.

 Mr. Karliner's organization is part of  the International Forum on
Globalization, which is sponsoring the 10-hour teach-in at Town
Hall in Manhattan, beginning at 1 p.m on Tuesday.

 Debi Barker, deputy director of  the forum, said in an interview
that  the teach-in follows similar events in  Seattle and
Washington, where the  targets were the World Trade Organization,
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. "The  U.N.,
unlike the W.T.O., the World  Bank and the I.M.F., was really
created to be a space to promote peace,  human rights, the
environment, social justice, livelihoods and democracy," she said.
"This is a worthy institution and these are worthy goals.

 "We are concerned that things  such as the global compact,
encroaching its way into the U.N.,  means that the U.N. is being
usurped  a bit by corporations and by people  who are driving this
globalization  agenda. We would encourage the  U.N. to take the
high road; keep to its  mandate; separate itself from corporations
and deal instead with citizens."

 Carol Bellamy, the executive director of Unicef, the United
Nations  Children's Fund, said that in the confrontation over
globalization there  has been an unfortunate tendency to  adopt
extreme views about business  and that these get in the way of
exploring new ways of cooperating  with the private sector.

 Ms. Bellamy, a former American  Peace Corps director and New York
City politician, has been wrestling  recently with critics who want
the  Children's Fund to break ties with  international corporations
contributing to the organization. "The world  demands a more
sophisticated response today," she said.

 "An outright rejection of globalization is a head-in-the-sand
approach,"  she said in an interview, adding that  the goals of
international aid organizations may often coincide, at least  in
part, with those of business.

 "The business community needs  peace to see economic growth," she
said. "They need kids to be educated  to be consumers and workers.
The  rule of law, good governance, is important for creating an
environment  that will probably also be good for  investment."

 Mr. Malloch Brown of the United  Nations Development Program says
the debate about globalization in  richer countries clouds the fact
that  a significant number of political  leaders and
nongovernmental organizations in developing nations are not
opposed to a more interdependent  world economy. They just want to
be  part of it, and they want it to be more  sensitive to the needs
of those least  able to compete.

 Mr. Annan, responding to frustration about the pace and effects of
globalization in the developing world,  said he had asked the
United Nations  Conference on Trade and Development to work on ways
to assist  smaller nations in analyzing and  simplifying complex
economic and  trade agreements so that they can  benefit.

 "It has been said that arguing  against globalization is like
arguing  against the laws of gravity," Mr.  Annan told the
international conference of nongovernmental organizations last
week. "But that does not  mean we should accept a law that  allows
only heavyweights to survive.  On the contrary, we must make
globalization an engine that lifts people  out of hardship and
misery, not a  force that holds them down."

 The United Nations expects all the  world's major powers to be
represented at the summit meeting,  and  will make an effort to
limit their  formal speeches to five minutes  each, with unlimited
time for more  informal talking later.

 In addition to President Clinton,  President Jiang Zemin of China
will  attend, as will President Vladimir V.  Putin of Russia,
President Jacques  Chirac of France and Prime Minister Tony Blair
of Britain.

 Leaders of most African nations,  including Olusegun Obasanjo of
Nigeria, will speak. President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia is
coming, as are Prime Minister Ehud  Barak of Israel and the
Palestinian  leader, Yasir Arafat. Fidel Castro,  the Cuban leader,
is also planning to  come.

 Shadowing the United Nations  summit meeting will be the fifth
annual State of the World Forum, a  private gathering at the New
York  Hilton of more than 500 prominent  figures in finance, labor,
science and  government. Speakers include Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the
former Soviet president; Thabo Mbeki, president  of South Africa;
Gen. Colin L. Powell,  former chairman of the Joint Chiefs  of
Staff; the financier and philanthropist George Soros, and John
Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

 When the summit meeting ends,  there will be commitments to some
very ambitious goals, part of an action plan advertised on
billboards  around New York. World leaders will  pledge to halve
the number of the  world's people who live on less than  $1 a day.
There are more than a  billion of them. Almost an equal  number --
many of the same people  -- do not have access to clean water.

 Their number should also be  halved by 2015. By that year, leaders
will pledge to have given all children  a full primary school
education. To  show determination in the battle  against H.I.V. and
AIDS, the leaders  will be asked to halt and reverse the  spread of
the disease by 2015.   


The New York Times on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com

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Religious leaders present UN with peace declaration

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Religious leaders have presented U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a commitment to global peace, declaring all religions equal while recognising the equality of men and women.

The Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhists, delivered, in absentia, an official message to the "Millennium World Peace Summit" on Tuesday after being excluded from events at the United Nations by the non-U.N. organisers due to Chinese government pressure.

The document, titled, "Commitment to Global Peace," condemns all violence committed in the name of religion.

Participants in the four-day meeting of 1,000 religious leaders are being asked to sign the declaration and demonstrate a commitment to take an active role in helping to reduce war and poverty and make environmental protection a priority.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, is viewed by China as a political rather than religious leader.

Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche, head of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism delivered the Dalai Lama's message:

"The different faiths need to develop mutual respect for and understanding of each others belief and values. There can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental degradation and as long as the weak and small continue to be trodden by the mighty and powerful."

Members of China's delegation, including a Buddhist and a Protestant, left the hall before the message was delivered to delegates, Chinese sources and the official Xinhua news agency reported.

However, Bawa Jain, the gathering's general secretary, said later that if there was a protest it went unnoticed.

Bishop Fu Tieshen, a member of China's delegation, condemned the "tragedy of desecrating or distorting or abusing religion."

But he added: "Some people want to trample on the sovereignty of other countries under the pretext of protecting religious human rights. Some people want to fish for fame by deceiving the world under the cloak of religion and going in for separatist activities."

Over the final two days of the event religious leaders will sit across the table from one another and talk about regional conflicts in private working session groups.

The sessions will mirror next week's Millennium General Assembly meeting of political leaders, covering conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia, poverty and the environment, among others.

One of the points highlighted in the declaration was that "men and women are equal partners in all aspects of life and children are the hope of the future."

Speakers and participants noted the dearth of female religious leaders at the event.

"It's a big issue, but we wanted religious leaders and very few women are in the leadership hierarchy," said Dena Merriam, vice chair of the event's executive committee.

Attacks on women and the disproportionate suffering they endure as a result of violent conflicts and poverty were highlighted by several speakers.

"War has traditionally been man's work. Even at this summit, the majority of people up here speaking have been the male of the species," said Betty Williams, a Catholic from Northern Ireland who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.

"We women say 'we love you men, we really love you, but we say to you move over', and if we take the world and we make it any worse than you have, then we will give it back," she said.

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World religious leaders seek elusive peace

Summit at U.N. criticized as being too political

By Stephen Handelman
Special to The Star

UNITED NATIONS - Can 1,000 religious leaders find peace and love by sitting down together in the same room?

The search for an answer to that question starts today, when representatives of most of the world's religions gather in New York for nearly a week of ``frank and meaningful'' discussions supported by the United Nations and private foundations.

The ``millennium peace summit,'' billed as the largest ecumenical religious gathering in history, is expected to bring together spiritual authorities from over 90 nations.

In a modern-day version of the Tower of Babel, the summit will represent a breathtaking - and combustible - mix of doctrines and dogma.

There will be ``mainstream'' religions such as Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and Jews, as well as lesser-known faiths practised by aboriginals in North America, by Jains from the Indian subcontinent and by Shinto adherents from Japan.

Canada will field a delegation of more than 30 leaders, including Jim Boyles, General Secretary of the Anglican Church, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Sodarkos and Clan Mother Carol Jacoba of the Cayuga Nation.

The proceedings will open at the U.N. General Assembly, a place more commonly associated with quarrelsome governments, with a ceremonial mingling of ``waters from sacred rivers'' of each faith.

After two days of speechmaking, the delegates move to New York's plush Waldorf Astoria Hotel for workshop sessions.