wfn.org | [WCC NEWS] Mission meeting echoes "voice of the victims"

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

World Council of Churches 7 Press Update
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 13/05/2004 - pu-04-28

 Mission meeting raises prophetic voice
 against consequences of globalization

 Cf. WCC Upcoming Events May 2004

"Mission begins with raising our prophetic voice to expose and condemn the
capitalist-led, globalized context and its new geo-political realities that
intentionally destroy human community," affirmed participants of a 1-7 May
2004 World Council of Churches (WCC) Urban Rural Mission (URM) conference
in Accra, Ghana.

In a situation in which humanity is faced with "institutionalized
oppression, systematic violence, occupation and militarization,
marginalization, and socio-economic deprivation and exclusion,"
participants affirmed the need to strive for a "sustainable and lasting
interpersonal and inter-communal healing * that respects the voice of the
victims".

Understanding mission from the perspective of people in struggle as "the
proclamation of the fullness of life", the conference stressed that URM
networks are called to provide an open space in which the voices of pain
and suffering are made audible to the church and the community.

In Accra, participants from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North
America, Central America and the Caribbean reaffirmed URMs "commitment to
working with the poorest of the poor and the most marginalized". At the
same time, the Accra meeting served as preparation for the 2005 Conference
on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) in Athens.

The full text of the URM conference communiqui is available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/mission/accra-urm2004.html 

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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.