Mike on the Middle East Committee

All day the committee has discussed, reflected, prayed and debates what to do about Divestment. The good thing is that they are VERY serious in wanting to consider all aspects of the issues. The troubling thing is that the professional staff attending the committee meeting and acting as Resource people are uniformly pro-divestment (from my perspective). The open hearings went well. Probably 60 people testified, all respectfully and with a sense of gravity and passion. Tonight the committee is trying to digest all they have heard and learned. They are honestly wrestling with the issues of how to honor our partnership with both Palestinian and Israeli partners. They are debating the recommendation by MRTI to divest. My assumption is that the recommendation on that MRTI recommendation will be the response to the New Covenant overture not to divest.