Jews Object to Wording in Prayer Day Service : Celebration: Given the events of this week, Jewish leaders find a World Worship program written by Palestinian women to be outdated. Defenders say they must be allowed to voice their views.

An international religious celebration intended to symbolize goodwill and reconciliation has created conflict between Christians and Jews, even as Israeli and Palestinian leaders have vowed to work toward peace.

Jewish leaders have raised strong objections to elements of a program for a worship service for World Day of Prayer 1994, a program written by Palestinian women.

The program, the subject of headlines in Germany and England, is included in a package of materials that will be used around the globe in observance of the international event. World Day of Prayer is an annual initiative of the International Committee for World Day of Prayer. The event is sponsored in the United States by Church Women United, an ecumenical organization with chapters in every state. It will be held March 4.

Among the material Jews find offensive are references to Palestine as a nation and portrayals of Jews that some perceived as negative and hostile, particularly in relation to Jesus’ death.

Ironically, a meeting to soothe tensions was held here Monday, the same day that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, shook hands over a peace accord in Washington.

At the meeting here, Rabbi Lori Forman of the American Jewish Committee noted that there had been a “paradigm shift” in the Middle East, and that the World Day of Prayer program “reflects an old reality.” She, like other Jewish leaders, observed that while the materials describe suffering of Palestinian women at the hands of the Israeli military, they contain no acknowledgment of the pain and suffering of Israeli women caused by Palestinian terrorists.

Forman called upon the leaders of Church Women United to “play a leadership role” by ensuring that the program shows that a change has occurred in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Patricia Rumer, general director for Church Women United, said that she hoped to provide participants in the meeting with “accurate information” about the materials and to provide a model for discussions at the local level.

Almost three years ago, the International World Day of Prayer Committee invited the World Day of Prayer Committee of Palestine to write materials for the 1994 theme, “Go, See and Act.”

The most troublesome part of the program is a letter reprinted from a 1991 issue of “Perspectives,” the magazine of the Middle Eastern Council of Churches, which is offered as an address to “Israeli women and mothers.” In it, the wife of a Palestinian talks about the oppression she has experienced at the hands of the Israeli military.

The Rev. Peggy Thomas of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) defended the program, arguing that the women who developed it should be allowed to speak their minds. In the telling of the passion narrative, Thomas said, the women identified with those who followed Jesus and experienced oppression and resurrection.

After listening to the Palestinian women, she said, it is up to listeners to decide how they will address the issues raised.

“It would be a mistake for anyone to parrot the voice of a Palestinian woman,” Thomas said, “but we have to find our own voice.”

Rabbi Bruce Cohen of Interns for Peace, a nonpolitical agency that trains Jews and Arabs as professional community workers, noted that the program encourages a shift from conversation to constructive action. It encourages World Day of Prayer participants to make contributions to a women’s crisis center and a women’s union, both in Israel.

Cohen said the program, in light of the new peace accord, was similar to what might have occurred had one been prepared by people living under Communism but distributed after its downfall. “It would be appropriate to go back to these women and ask: ‘How do you feel now?’ ” Cohen said.

Mary Cline Detrick, a member of the Church Women United group responsible for World Day of Prayer materials in the United States, said that local women who organize the observance tend to be “very alert” and that the materials could be updated locally to reflect new developments in the Middle East.

Rumer said that mailings of updated materials and inserts in the Churchwoman, the organization’s magazine, could reach participating churches.

After the meeting, Forman, interreligious program specialist of the American Jewish Committee, said she was pleased that the women were willing to make changes in the program and hoped to assist in their efforts.