Ronald H. Stone, a Presbyterian elder from Pittsburgh whose laudatory comments about a Lebanon-based terrorist group have sparked a storm of interdenominational protest, said yesterday his comments had been taken out of context.

Reached at his hotel in Jerusalem, where he was staying with a delegation representing the Presbyterian Church (USA), Stone said he was against all forms of terrorism, including that advocated by Hezbollah, the Shiite group he and 23 other Presbyterians met with Sunday in southern Lebanon.

Stone, 65, of Highland Park, retired last year after 34 years as a professor of Christian ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is taking part in a two-week fact-finding mission by the denomination's Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. The trip ends Oct. 29.

He said his comments at the meeting had been "blown out of proportion" and characterized them as "off-the-cuff remarks" extracted from the nearly 15 minutes he spoke.

Hezbollah, Arabic for "Party of God," is on the U.S. Department of State's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Strongly anti-American and an avowed enemy of the state of Israel, the group has been implicated in numerous attacks around the world, including the 1983 truck bombing in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aries that killed 85 people.An 83-second videotaped excerpt of the meeting, which first appeared on Hezbollah's television network, Al Manar, was translated later by the Middle East Media Research Institute and posted on its Web site (www.memritv.org). Sheik Nabil Qauq, the Hezbollah leader in southern Lebanon, speaks first, comparing American foreign policy to "an owl bringing bad tidings."

"All we hear from Bush are words of war, evil, destruction, killing, siege and threat," Nabil Qauq is translated as saying. The videotape then shows Stone behind a microphone.

"We treasure the precious words of Hezbollah and your expression of goodwill toward the American people," Stone says. "Also we praise your initiative for dialogue and mutual understanding. We cherish these statements that bring us closer to you. As an elder of our church, I'd like to say that according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders."

Presbyterian Church leaders, including General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, characterized Stone's comments as "misguided" and "reprehensible."

A statement said that "the visit to Hezbollah and the comments on that occasion by members of this Presbyterian group do not reflect the official position of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on peace in the Middle East."

National Jewish leaders and organizations, already upset with the 2.4-million-member church for its recent decision to initiate divestment from some companies with ties to the Palestinian territories, decried not only Stone's comments but church leaders' response.

Leaders of the Reform Jewish movement wrote Kirkpatrick that there could be "no religious justification whatsoever" for encouraging terror or justifying terrorism.

"We are also very troubled by your statement in response," continued the letter, written by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

"You fail to condemn the fact that an official delegation from your church met with a known terrorist entity whose stated enemies are the United States and the state of Israel," the letter said.

The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee also released statements denouncing Stone's comments.

Stone, an elder at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, said the meeting with Hezbollah was arranged through Presbyterian churches in southern Lebanon and the Middle East Council of Churches.

He had not been asked to speak, Stone said, but after Qauq's comments "somebody had to respond," he said.

"Our policy is we are seeking out lots of different voices," on the mission, Stone said. "I did not agree with the sheik's social and political analysis. I condemn terrorism and the [Presbyterian] Church condemns terrorism.

"When you meet Hezbollah on a Sunday afternoon, they're not running around with guns. There are things that Hezbollah does that are a social service, such as health, education and social welfare."