wfn.org | WCC: US focus DOV launch

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release PR-04-01
For Immediate Use
7 January 2004

Worship service launches DOV focus on USA in 2004
Calendar to be announced

"The power and promise of peace" is the compelling theme for activities to be
carried out this year within the framework of the World Council of Churches'
(WCC) Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) 2004 focus on the USA. A Monday 12
January worship service will mark the opening of a year dedicated to
strengthening and resourcing churches and movements working for peace in the
USA.

A calendar of events for 2004 is to be drawn up by the US DOV committee,
comprised of US denominational representatives, at a 12-13 January meeting in
New York, where a DOV reference group and an international advisory group
will also be looking at the mid-term and future of the Decade in general. 

Taking place at midday at the Interchurch Center at 475 Riverside Drive, the
Monday service will lift up the legacy of Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr as a
source of inspiration to the US churches. Scheduled as guest preacher is Rev.
Dr Otis Moss Jr, who was a friend and associate of King, and serves on the
national board of the Martin Luther King Jr Center for Non-Violent Social
Change. The service will also honour a special guest, the former chief of
staff to Dr King, Rev. Dr Wyatt Tee Walker, for his lifetime commitment to
seeking reconciliation and peace.

This is the third year in a row that the DOV is targeting a particular
region; in 2003, the focus was on Sudan while in 2002, it was on Israel and
Palestine.

The choice of the US focus was made by the WCC Central Committee in August
2003 on the basis of the courageous opposition of US churches to war in Iraq,
and their efforts to alleviate suffering at home and abroad. The Committee
also highlighted work by US churches on domestic violence, gun control and
restorative justice. 

At the same time, it evoked what it saw as the unchallenged power of the US.
"The US administration" seems to believe that "it can afford to disregard the
international order ... and ignore the concerns of the world's populations,"
the Committee said, also noting problems of "poverty, violence, racism in all
its diverse forms, inter-faith relations, migration and inequality in
education and employment".

DOV US focus spokespersons
Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, United Church of Christ (USA), WCC Central
Committee
Ms Jean Martensen, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, co-chairwoman, US
DOV Committee
Mr Tom Paxson, Friends General Conference, co-chairman, US DOV Committee

Media contacts for the New York meeting are: 
WCC-US: Jocelyne Bakkemo, tel.: (+1 212) 870 2470, email: usdov@wcc-coe.org 
WCC-Geneva: Juan Michel, tel.: (+41 22) 791 61 53, mobile: (+41 79) 507 63
63; email: media@wcc-coe.org 

A DOV-US focus poster on "The power and promise of peace" will be available
as of next Monday on the DOV website: http://www2.wcc-coe.org/dov.nsf 

For further information, please contact Juan Michel, WCC  media relations
officer,  tel: +41 22 791 6153, mobile +41 79 507 6363, media@wcc-coe.org  

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which
meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in
1948 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary
Samuel Kobia from the Methodist Church in Kenya.

World Council of Churches
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