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World Council of Churches
Press Update Up-04-02
14 January 2004

Amid candid international assessments of US foreign policy
US Committee plans next steps for Decade to Overcome Violence

Cf. WCC Press Update PU-04-01 of 13 January 2004
Cf. WCC Press Release PR-04-01 of 7 January 2004

A committee of Christians in the United States has released a 2004 calendar
of events to promote the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Decade to Overcome
Violence (DOV), an international Christian movement launched in 2001 that
will focus particularly on confronting violence and promoting peace and
justice in the United States during 2004.

Describing it as "a work in progress," the US DOV Committee released the
calendar during its 13 January meeting at the Interchurch Center in New York
City (see below). The Committee is encouraging churches and other Christian
peace advocacy groups to share information and resources for promoting the
year-long focus on overcoming violence in the United States.

As the committee contemplated plans for 2004, it received some candid
assessments about the United States from international partners who are
members of the DOV Reference Group, a standing international committee that
is advising the WCC on the decade.

Europeans see hopeful and puzzling signs

"The concept of preemptive war in Iraq has shaken the relationship of Europe
to the United States," said the Rev. Dr Fernando Enns of the Ecumenical
Institute at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. "In Europe, the media
portrays the church in America as conservative, evangelical, and connected to
right-wing parties," he said. "This is puzzling to European Christians."

"Many Europeans perceive Americans as merely focused on individual, private
religious life," rather than being involved in public policy or corporate
dimensions of faith, Enns reported. "It is important for us to know that
there are different voices in the American church," he said. "We find it a
hopeful sign that many Christians in the United States are mobilized against
the death penalty, are supportive of international climate treaties, and
oppose the way prisoners are currently being treated in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba," he added.

"If the United States would only live up to its own values in its treatment
of Guantanamo prisoners, that would be a witness in itself," Enns concluded.

The "two faces" of America

"America seems to have two faces," said Tale Hunges, chair of Changemaker, an
ecumenical youth movement in Norway, who compared the United States to the
Greek mythological figure Janus, who had two faces - one focused on the past,
and one focused on the future.

"On the one hand, Norwegians see an American "face" that we admire - the
"city on a hill", a marvelous democracy, the saviour of Europe in World War
II," Hunges said. "The other face of America is one of an aggressive
superpower that has only magnified since September 11."

"In Norway, the opposition of the churches to the Iraq War was the main
reason that our government didn't participate in the occupation," Hunges
added. She expressed hope that the 2004 focus on overcoming violence in the
United States would "help activate and stimulate new grassroots initiatives
for peace" in the United States and abroad. "Then," she concluded, "maybe
President Bush will be the face of the past, and the Decade to Overcome
Violence will become the face of the future for the United States."

Relationship of violence and disabilities

"When we think of the vulnerabilities in the natural world, in violent
situations persons with disabilities are often the most vulnerable," said
Ralphine Manantenasoa Razaka, who represented the international Ecumenical
Disability Advocates Network (EDAN), initiated by the WCC and based in
Nairobi, Kenya.

"We must intensify our efforts to stop violence, particularly with regard to
landmines," Razaka said, noting that women and children are most often the
victims of landmines. She also pointed out that wartime casualty reports
tally the numbers of dead, but not the disabled. "This is an example of
further marginalization and discrimination against the disabled," she
contended. Razaka urged Christian communities to join her organization in
exploring the relationship of violence and disabilities.

In Africa: new enthusiasm, new concerns

"There is a new sense of hope and enthusiasm in Africa," said Professor
Tinyiko Samuele Maluleke of the University of South Africa in Pretoria.
Maluleke particularly noted the 10th anniversary of democracy in South Africa
and positive developments toward peace in the Sudan. However, he suggested
that there is a growing sense of concern throughout the African continent for
what he called "the cultural imperialism" of the United States.

"In this case, we don't have the former kind of imperialism, but rather a
more subtle form of imperialism characterized by the intrusion of MacDonalds,
and Coca-Cola into all parts of Africa," Maluleke said. "And the conservative
Christian televangelists have become the model for many church leaders on the
continent," he said. Maluleke also expressed concern that historic links
between Africans and African-Americans are weakening in recent years. 

"Deeper theological issues"

In a brief presentation at the meetings, the Rev. Bob Edgar, General
Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC),
said that member churches and staff have expressed "a lot of energy and
enthusiasm" for the US focus on the DOV. He noted that the NCC would soon be
filing an amicus brief on behalf of prisoners in Guantanamo, and that
strategies were developing for supporting the decade in state and local
councils of churches across the country.

As American Christians consider the specific events on the calendar in 2004,
they must remember, "to address the deeper theological issues that underlie
peace," said the Rev. Dr Emmanuel Clapsis of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox
Seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts, and a US member of the international
DOV Reference Group. "Activism without spiritual connections will lead to
fatigue," he added. "Our spirituality will give us power to act."

The calendar for 2004 events in the US is posted on the Decade to Overcome
Violence website:
www.overcomingviolence.org

Photos of a 12 January DOV worship service in New York 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 also available
on the DOV website:
www.overcomingviolence.org

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 61 53, mobile: (+41 79) 507 63
63; email: media@wcc-coe.org 

For more information contact:
Media Relations Office
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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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.