Church bars investing in arms firms

The Presbyterian General Assembly in Belfast formally endorsed yesterday a decision by the church's trustees to avoid investing in companies linked to the arms trade.

In their report adopted by the General Assembly, the trustees said that "having noted the church's concern about recent tragic events in some areas of Indonesia", they had decided to dispose of shares in one company engaged in arms trading with the government of that country.

It is already the church's policy not to invest in companies "substantially concerned" with gambling, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks.

On Indonesia, the former Moderator, Dr John Lockington, spoke about the conflict between Christians and Muslims there, especially in the Moluccas where "appalling suffering is being endured", he said.

He told the assembly of a private meeting he had with a leader of the Evangelical Christian Church there. He was "personally deeply affected and disturbed by what I heard and learned from a man who has a bounty of £30,000 (on his head), a fortune in that country, for any Muslim who kills him."

The Rev Margaret Johnston drew the Assembly's attention to "the worldwide persecution of Christians". Quoting from the book, Their Blood Cries Out, by Dr Paul Marshall, she said that 600 million Christians were "under some degree of political pressure" in 60 countries.

Of those, 200 million faced harassment, abuse, arrest, torture and execution, she said, while in Sudan, they faced enslavement, systematic starvation, and forced relocation.

In 1996, 159,000 Christians had been martyred for their faith, she said. And it had been forecast that, unless something was done, Christians in the Moluccas would be wiped out within a few years, she said.

The Rev Jan Henzel spoke of difficulties facing his Church of the Brethren in the Slovak Republic. In the past there, "truth was the opinion of the Communist Party. Now there is no such thing as truth," he said.

"Justice was the dictatorship of the proletariat. Now it is the establishment of my interests. Materialism was ideological, now it is practical. And what was pluralism is corruption on an unprecedented scale, with crime and violence."

He appealed to the assembly: "You were with us while we were lingering in Communist jails and labour camps. Don't forget us now when we are drowning in the rough sea of nationalism, pluralism, and mafia-ism."