[09.40 GMT] Baptists urge support for Norman Kember 31/12/05 (includes full, updated index of CPT-related material on Ekklesia); New bomb blast threat to Christians in Indonesia 31/12/05; Freedom for Kate Burton comes with fresh threats 31/12/05.

[00.05 GMT] Vigils go on for Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages in Iraq, 30/12/05

[285.1] GOOD NEWS AT LAST FROM GAZA

Wonderful news came through less than an hour ago that Kate, Hugh and Win Burton have been released by their captors in Rafah, Gaza, after two days of no news and frantic diplomatic and security activity. There is, of course, no connection between this abduction and those of the four Christian Peacemaker Team activists in Iraq - but it will nevertheless be good and encouraging news in the midst of their continuing ordeal. The strenuous Muslim and Palestinian calls for the release of abductees have echoed once more across the region, and this will be picked up in Bagdhad and elsewhere as efforts to free Norman Kember, Tom Fox, Jim Loney and Hameet Singh Sooden go on.

I had an additional reason to be thankful, in that I have met Win several times. She worked for the European Union's 'Soul for Europe' programme in Brussels for a number of years, and cooperated with both ecumenical Christian organisations (including the one I worked for, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland) and various interfaith networks. A marvellous woman. She is pictured here with Michael Taylor, former Christian Aid director and professor of development studies at the University of Birmingham.

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[23.15 GMT] Release of human rights worker in Gaza announced, Ekklesia, 30/12/05

[17.00 GMT] Keep hostages in your prayers (Baptist Times, UK); France pleads with hostage takers (Middle East Online, UK); Hostage takers' silence likely a good sign for Canadians (National Post, Canada); Search for kidnapped Gaza Britons continues (Guardian Unlimited, UK - picture of abducted aid worker Kate Burton); Security chiefs hold talks with Scottish woman's kidnappers (Scotland Today, UK); German ex-envoy missing in Yemen (Chicago Tribune, United States); Kidnapping rife as anarchy rules (The Herald, UK); Language of the Heart By Cindy Sheehan (The Nation, United States); The Assassins' Gate: America In Iraq By George Packer (Christian Century, United States).

[16.45 GMT] Canadian Muslims Appeal for Release of Iraq Hostages (Islam Online, Qatar); Threat against French engineer seized in Iraq (Radio New Zealand); Canadians Imagine an 'Army' of Peacemakers (Inter Press Service. Italy); Kashmiri activists back Harmeet Singh Sooden (Greater Kashmir.com - beware pop-ups); Bethlehem hosts nonviolence conference with 350 attendees (Palestine News Network, Israel-Palestine); Silent vigil for hostage Kember (BBC News, UK); Radio appeal fails to move kidnappers (Ottawa Sun, Canada).

[20.10 GMT] Iraqi and Palestinian Christians seek an end to violence, Ekklesia, 28/12/05

[13.30 GMT] Radio messages sent to captors in Iraq 27/12/05; Christian leaders hold out love as the alternative to terror 27/12/05.

[12.00 GMT] Questions asked about God and tsunami one year on (Ekklesia).

[21.30 GMT] British Muslims in fresh plea for Norman Kember, Ekklesia, 25/12/05

[21.15 GMT] Insurgent attacks rock Iraq (Euronews.net, France); Loney family remain hopeful (Ottawa Citizen, Canada); Muslims in plea for Kember release (ic North London Online, UK).

[12.15 GMT] Christmas Arrives But Still No Word on Hostages' Fate (580 CFRA Radio, Canada)

[14.00 GMT] Watching and waiting with the Christian peacemakers in Iraq, by Lee McKenna duCharme (Ekklesia); 'Waiting has taken on a whole new meaning' by Rose Marie Berger (Sojourners, well worththe free registration).

Please note that FinS may be infrequent over the next few days, but will try to keep up with major developments. With good wishes and prayers to you all for the Season of Christ's birth and renewed hope in the midst of darkness. Simon Barrow.

[13.45 GMT] Questions asked about God and tsunami one year on, 24/12/05

[GMT 13.10] New appeal for release of Iraq peace workers (Ekklesia, 24/12/05)

Updated full chronological list of related articles on Ekklesia as of 24 December 2005 PM: Features - Christian Peacemaker Teams full briefing (with links to features and stories on CPT's work); Christian peacemakers - a lesson to the peace movement (by Mark A. LeVine); A culture of Christian citizenship (Pat Gaffney, CAFOD, Advent inc. Iraq); Why are we here? (by CPTer Tom Fox). Advent hope for Iraq, captives and Limbaugh (Sojourners magazine). What on earth are we waiting for? (Simon Barrow, Advent and Iraq). Updates: FaithInSociety; News - Churches Urged to pray for Iraq hostages this Christmas 24/12/05; United Church of Canada calls for an end to detention and occupation in Iraq 21/12/05; Christians and Muslims show continued support for Norman Kember 21/12/05; Christian Peacemakers say they will carry on their work 18/12/05; Lack of evidence for Iraq negotiator abduction claim 17/12/05; Fears 'unfounded' over Iraq hostage negotiator 16/12/05; Search goes on for missing Christian peace workers 16/12/05; UK envoy remains hopeful on Iraq captives 16/12/05; Muslim envoy to Iraq returns as al-Jazeera publicizes mercy pleas 14/12/05; Christian peacemakers demand entry to Guantanamo Bay 14/12/05; Canadian churches pray for missing peace activists 13/12/05; Cardinal joins pleas for Iraq peace workers; Praying for a miracle amid Iraq hostage silence 12/12/05; All faiths candlelit vigil in London for Norman Kember 12/12/05; Officials and families seek news on Iraq Christian peace workers 12/12/05; Lobbying goes on as Iraq hostage deadline passes 11/12/05; Hope continues as Iraq captive deadline looms 10/12/05; Embattled Hezbollah backs Iraq 'doves of peace' 09/12/05; UN secretary general calls for release of all Iraqi captives 09/12/05; Former Guantanamo Bay detainees call for release of Christian peacemakers 08/12/05; Jack Straw says he will talk on Iraq hostages 08/12/05; Abu Qatada pleas for Iraq captives as deadline is extended 08/12/05; Christians criticize UK Iraq war budget increase 08/12/05; Christian peacemakers say the work must go on 08/12/05; Last minute appeals made for Christian peacemakers 07/12/05 ; Muslim detainees plead for lives of Christian peacemakers 06/12/05; Faith groups in the US unite to back Iraq captives 06/12/05; French engineer seized in Iraq 05/12/05; Norman Kember's wife pleads for his life 04/12/05; Iraqi, Muslim and Palestinian support for peace hostages grows 04/12/05; Insurgents say they will kill Christian peacemakers 02/12/05; WCC calls for freeing of Christian peace workers 02/12/05; Vigils and messages of support for abducted peace activist 02/12/05; Palestinian bishop seeks mercy for Iraq peace workers 02/12/05; Anti-war campaigner flies to Iraq to plead for Christian peacemakers 01/12/05; Muslims urge release of Christian peacemakers missing in Iraq 01/12/05; Al-Jazeera releases film of Iraq peace hostages 30/11/05; Search goes on for Christian peacemaker kidnapped in Iraq 28/11/05. Key book: Patricia Gates-Brown (ed.), Getting in the Way: Stories from Christian Peacemaker Teams, Herald Press]Christian Peacemaker Teams full briefing (with links to features and stories on CPT's work); Why are we here? (by CPTer Tom Fox); Christians criticize UK Iraq war budget increase 08/12/05; Christian peacemakers say the work must go on 08/12/05; Last minute appeals made for Christian peacemakers 07/12/05 ; Muslim detainees plead for lives of Christian peacemakers 06/12/05; Faith groups in the US unite to back Iraq captives 06/12/05; French engineer seized in Iraq 05/12/05; Norman Kember's wife pleads for his life 04/12/05; Iraqi, Muslim and Palestinian support for peace hostages grows 04/12/05; Insurgents say they will kill Christian peacemakers 02/12/05; WCC calls for freeing of Christian peace workers 02/12/05; Vigils and messages of support for abducted peace activist 02/12/05; Palestinian bishop seeks mercy for Iraq peace workers 02/12/05; Anti-war campaigner flies to Iraq to plead for Christian peacemakers 01/12/05; Muslims urge release of Christian peacemakers missing in Iraq 01/12/05; Al-Jazeera releases film of Iraq peace hostages 30/11/05; Search goes on for Christian peacemaker kidnapped in Iraq 28/11/05. Key book: Patricia Gates-Brown (ed.), Getting in the Way: Stories from Christian Peacemaker Teams, Herald Press.

[12.40 GMT] Message of peace plays out in Iraq (Toronto Star, Canada); Kember: 'A man of peace' and Kember 'may still be freed' (both BBC archive).

[00.40 GMT] Churches Urged to pray for Iraq hostages this Christmas (Ekklesia, 24/12/05) ; Kember family's new appeal (BBC). The family of Iraq hostage Norman Kember are to make a new plea for his release in radio and newspaper adverts; Hostages' families issue joint appeal (ABC Online, Australia); Plea for hostages to be released (Scotsman, UK Families of Western hostages take out ads in Iraqi papers (CBC News, Canada).

[284.1] WHY DISORGANISED RELIGION IS BEST

An excerpt from my end-of-term Ekklesia colum on The case for disorganised religion. It incorporates, by happy accident, references to other material I have written throughout the year.

Jesus may well have caused division, kicked up a bit of a fuss. He certainly wouldn’t have found himself on trial before the ruling authorities if his only crime had been to be too blandly reassuring. However the real shock of Jesus was not that he rudely pushed forward his own interests and his own tribe through his confrontations with authority – but that he didn’t.

Instead, in words and actions that disturbed the comfortable and comforted the disturbed, he showed that God’s ‘weapons’ against wrong are disarming love, unadvertised truth, difficult peace, costly forgiveness and indiscriminate table fellowship.

None of these Gospel gestures is undemanding or un-political. But the demand they make is not for recognition, influence, privilege and power on our own behalf. It is for transformation, starting with us. The tough virtues which Jesus exhibits are ones which dis-organise and re-orient our natural human disposition towards self-interest. The movement he creates is not an Imperial guard, it is an odd group of misfits and unfortunates (described in the Beatitudes) who are prepared to see in one another, and in the God who loves without favour, the hope of a new world coming.

The church is supposed to be made up of those who recognise Jesus’ transformative agenda and are willing to implement it – not by seizing power, but by redistributing it and turning it into something that gives rather than takes.That is what I mean by ‘disorganised religion’ – a movement among God’s people which resists what doyen US economist John Kenneth Galbraith called ‘institutional truth’: that version of events which makes sure that ‘we’ end up being the winners. [Continued]

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[283.3] HATING PEACE ACTIVISTS MORE THAN TERRORISTS

Reading Mary Gabel's response (Praying for Light to Reach Peacemakers' Captors, Embassy, Canada) to CPTer Greg Rollins' letter from Iraq made me think. In addition to such gestures of solidarity, there is a good deal of vitriol out on the web (especially among bloggers) about Christian Peacemaker Teams in general, and the four captives in Iraq in particular. People with jerky-knees doubt their integrity, their sanity, their grasp of reality - and, in the US especially, accuse them of being mere ideologues in religious garb.

Much of this is as unfair in selection as it is nasty in tone. There are legitimate questions to be asked about the politics, theology and tactics of CPT. But they are not to be found in the mean distortions that circulate in some quarters, often introduced with the prefix 'so-called' to deride and dismiss a costly vocation. Besides, other analysts have a different perspective on the politics of peace. (See also Denying reality, by Dave Warnock, who has discovered the curious, alternate universe that is SoCal).

On the Canadian Christianity website, there is a rounded piece by David F. Dawes, Hostage-taking provokes international outcry, which examines a range of reactions, including those from people suspended in Limbaugh (a state which, ahem, I thought had been abolished by the new Pope). As Ted Olson and Rob Moll of Christianity Today observe, "the only thing some people like less than a terrorist is a peace activist." Discuss! See also the different responses to Michelle Goldberg's Salon article, Love Your Enemies, about Tom Fox.

Among the other pieces of spleen currently circulating is an article called Pray for captives, not the captors in the Toronto Star - a normally reliable paper which sadly has not distinguished itself with concern for verifiability in some aspects of its coverage of the Iraq hostages situation. There are many misunderstandings in this piece. Tim Nafziger of CPT UK, the Anabaptist Network and the London Mennonite Centre [enough seasonal plugs for you there, Tim?] says:

Rosie Dimann's call to pray only for "our side" and not the captors goes against everything that the men being held stand for. She draws on a Christendom theology that claims God for "us" and ignores the clear [injunction] of Jesus to pray for those who persecute us. She claims to support the hostages but belittles their friends, family and supporters for following God's call to love our enemies. It is not relativist compassion, but a radical commitment in the transformative love of Jesus that is at the core of the work of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

One can, of course, support the captives without agreeing with them. And one can find their commitment too one-sided or radical. That's an arguable position. But it is sad that those who feel this way often resort to little more than insult and innuendo.

[On the tricky question of relating principled Christian nonviolence to realpolitik, see - as one starting point - Of Bishops, bombs and ballast. Also the post below on the UCC statement]

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[283.2] THE NEED FOR SAPIENTIAL DOVES

UPI has just put out a brief statement (Canadian church pressures PM on Iraq) about the letter from the United Church of Canada calling for the withrawal of troops from Iraq and an end to illegal detentions, covered more fully on Ekklesia. I don't dissent from their basic stance, though the 'when' and 'how' of military disengagement is a complex question which needs to be related to the development of a peacemaking force on the ground, the role of the UN, aid and development. (On theological grounds I am deeply committed to principled non-violence as the form of engagement and witness required of the Body of Christ, but I don't think we should duck the policy issues pressed upon those who have to manage the reality of the situation.)

What worries me more, however, is the UCC's rather stark rooting of blame for the whole Iraq quagmire on US and British intervention - as if the forces of violent insurgency, militarised jihadism, criminality and malignant Baa'thism could be ignored, or were mere epiphenomena of (undoubted and long-standing) Western failings which will disappear when "we" choose to "go home". As if.

A sound political understanding of the situation, and of how the difficult peace of Christ might be brought to bear in the midst of it, cannot in my view be sustained on the basis of such a thin analysis. As they say, "its a long conversation", but I have tried to boil down some of the issues here, starting from the war-on-terror question.

Without the dove the serpent lacks the capacity for redemption, but without the serpent the dove lacks the means to face the world's wiles.

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