Bishop John Chane and the release of the American hikers held prisoner in Iran

The Episcopal News Service tells us about the role Bishop John Chane  of Washington DC (former Dean of St Paul's) played in the release of the American hikers held prisoner in Iran.

The Sept. 21 release of U.S. hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal from an Iranian prison "affirms the importance of the role of religious dialogue and its end product in this case, public diplomacy, as we seek ways to define common ground between our two countries," said Diocese of Washington Bishop John Chane, who returned from a weeklong visit to Iran on Sept. 19.

Chane and a delegation of Christian and Muslim leaders had traveled to Iran at the invitation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; one objective was to seek the release of the hikers on humanitarian grounds.

The delegation included Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, former leader of the Archdiocese of Washington, and Nihad Awad and Larry Shaw, national executive director and board chairman respectively of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Chane said in a Sept. 21 statement e-mailed to ENS that the hikers' release "reaffirms the promises made during our conversations with the president of Iran and representatives of the Iranian foreign ministry ... I look forward to good conversations with representatives of our government with the hope that it finds a way to address the Iranians' concern for their citizens who are currently in detention in the United States."