wfn.org | WCC: US focus of Decade vs Violence

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World Council of Churches 
Press Update Up-04-01
13 January 2004

WCC launches year to focus on overcoming violence in the US during service
honouring Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

Cf. WCC Press Release PR-04-01 of 7 January 2004
Free high resolution photos available (see below)

Representatives from Christian faith communities around the globe launched a
year-long effort to confront and overcome violence in the United States
during a stirring worship service commemorating the life and ministry of the
Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr at the Interchurch Center in New York City on
12 January. The focus on the US in 2004 is part of the World Council of
Churches' (WCC) Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV).

"We are gathered as peacemakers from various regions of the world to launch
this year-long focus in the United States by lifting up the legacy of Martin
Luther King Jr, whose work and ministry has inspired peacemakers around the
globe," said Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, archpriest, Orthodox Church in America,
and moderator, US Conference of the WCC, in opening remarks at the service.

In a multimedia presentation, members of the congregation watched graphic
images of violence, destruction, and war on a large screen as DOV coordinator
Rev. Hansulrich Gerber presented the goals of the Decade to Overcome
Violence, which is to be one of "Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace"
(see box below).

No justice, no peace

"It is a contradiction of life to put peace ahead of justice," said the Rev.
Dr Otis Moss, the pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in
Cleveland, Ohio, in introductory remarks in his sermon. "There will be no
international peace until there is international justice," he said, quoting
Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

Moss, a friend and associate of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr, urged
members of the congregation never to forget the lessons of history as they
pursue both peace and justice. "To forget is exile," he said, "to remember is
redemption." Moss warned the congregation to never forget "the moans and
groans of countless millions of human beings" who were imprisoned on slave
ships and "who were fed to sharks if they died on passage, or served up to
slave masters if they survived."

Yet Moss also cited some redemptive historical developments during the past
half-century, including the passage of the GI Bill in 1944, that opened
educational and career opportunities to millions of disadvantaged veterans.
In addition, he said that the establishment of the United Nations and the
World Council of Churches were important international milestones on the way
to universal peace and justice.

Moss also pointed to national and international liberation movements -
beginning with the independence of India in 1947 - as redemptive signs. "When
India gained independence, the British Empire had a nervous breakdown and the
rest of western colonialism had a heart attack," Moss said.

All of these significant historic developments, Moss said, were the context
in which King found his prophetic vocation. 

Following Dr King's footsteps

"What can we do to follow in Dr King's footsteps?" Moss asked. "We must be
about the business of building a new generation of prophets of justice," he
said. "We must be disciples of love, apostles of liberation, teachers of
nonviolence, and ambassadors of reconciliation."

Such endeavours, Moss said, "will not come automatically, nor without
institutional and individual risks." And, he added, efforts to make peace
would require leaders who "have the courage to lead, to mould consensus, and
to act despite the risk of being persecuted." Quoting Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel, Moss described King's life and ministry as "a vision, a voice, and a
way". He urged his listeners to "share his vision, hearken to his voice, and
follow in his way". 

"War is obsolete" 

Citing the anti-war sentiments of several former generals in the US military,
Moss asked: "If generals of the army had that kind of insight, then what is
the excuse at the White House, or your house, or my house if the occupants of
those homes do not oppose war?" 

"We must join with those former generals and declare that 'War is obsolete,'"
Moss added. And in a reference to the war in Iraq, Moss chided the Bush
administration for its search for weapons of mass destruction there, when
there are such weapons in the US. 

"Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" Moss asked. "Look around: AIDS
is a weapon of mass destruction," he said, "so is hunger, the denial of
health care to the poor, illiterate and uneducated minds, tobacco and
tobacco-related illnesses, uncared-for children". All these and many other
weapons destroy the fabric of the nation, Moss contended.

Efforts to pursue peace must originate "in our commitment to break the bonds
of injustice, and to bring justice and peace into our homes, and into our
collective house - the White House," Moss concluded. "When we break the bonds
of injustice and oppression, then we become God's peacemakers."

More information on the DOV

After launching the Decade to Overcome Violence in 2001, the WCC focused its
efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2002, and on Sudan and Africa
in 2003. 

Information on the Decade to Overcome Violence is available at: 
http://www.wcc-coe.org/dov

Photos of the service are available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/us-focus.html

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

/--------------------------------------------------

DOV goals

7 Addressing holistically the wide varieties of violence, both direct and
structural, in homes, communities, and in international arenas and learning
from the local and regional analyses of violence and ways to overcome
violence.

7 Challenging the churches to overcome the spirit, logic and practice of
violence; to relinquish any theological justification of violence; and to
affirm anew the spirituality of reconciliation and active nonviolence.

7 Creating a new understanding of security in terms of cooperation and
community, instead of in terms of domination and competition.

7 Learning from the spirituality and resources for peace-building of other
faiths to work with communities of other faiths in the pursuit of peace and
to challenge the churches to reflect on the misuse of religious and ethnic
identities in pluralistic societies.

7 Challenging the growing militarization of our world, especially the
proliferation of small arms and light weapons. 

/-----------------------------------------------

Media contacts for the New York meeting are:
WCC-US: Jocelyn Bakkemo, tel.: (+1 212) 870 2470, email: usdov@wcc-coe.org
WCC-Geneva: Juan Michel, tel.: (+41 22) 791 64 21 / (+41 22) 791 61 53
e-mail:media@wcc-coe.org
http://www.wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more
than 120 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, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary Samuel Kobia
from the Methodist church in Kenya.