Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, a leading Christian advocate for Palestinian rights, has told a local Jewish organization that he will oppose efforts, now sweeping through mainline Protestantism, to divest church funds from Israel.

Shaw's statement, nearly four years after he provoked the ire of local Jewish leaders by joining a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate, paves the way for a joint Jewish-Episcopal trip to Israel and Palestine this winter during which each group will introduce the other to different perspectives on the Middle East conflict.

The American Jewish Committee, a century-old advocacy organization with an emphasis on interfaith dialogue, had told the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts that it could not proceed with preparations for a joint trip unless Shaw publicly articulated his opposition to divestment from Israel.

''Our feeling was, we could not really go on an interreligious trip if the divestment issue were not resolved," said Lawrence D. Lowenthal, executive director of the American Jewish Committee's Greater Boston chapter. ''This really is a gut issue for the Jewish community -- I know that Christians don't see it this way, but increasingly the Jewish community sees this as a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the state of Israel."

In his statement to the Jewish group, Shaw wrote, ''I do not support proposals for divestment in Israel." He said divestment is ''especially inappropriate" now, at a moment he described as a ''period of hope for peace," and he also said divestment would harm Palestinians because of the interrelationship of the Israeli and Palestinian economies. ''I will continue to work for the rights of the Palestinian people and a secure state of Israel," Shaw wrote...

...The Jewish community is increasingly focused on threats by churches and other organizations to divest from Israel. Last month, the three major Jewish denominations, along with four advocacy groups, sent a letter to mainline Protestant churches, warning that ''any Protestant denomination that would consider the weapon of economic sanctions to be unilaterally and prejudicially used against the state of Israel . . . creates an environment which makes constructive dialogue almost impossible."...