wfn.org | ELCA Members Help Monitor Elections in Liberia Oct. 11

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 10, 2005

ELCA Members Help Monitor Elections in Liberia Oct. 11
05-191-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Five members of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) are in Liberia to monitor elections Oct.
11 that the West African nation hopes will bring closure to 14
years of civil war.  They are part of an international,
ecumenical delegation assembled by the Liberian Council of
Churches (LCC) and the Lutheran Church in Liberia.
     Liberians are to vote for a new president and legislature to
replace an interim government.	Former president Charles Taylor
was forced into exile when a 2003 peace accord ended years of
fighting.  Liberia's civil war killed as many as 200,000 of the
nation's 3 million citizens.
     Working with Liberia's National Elections Commission (NEC),
the LCC educated Liberian citizens on voting rights and helped
monitor the voter registration process.  The overall goal of the
observers is to ensure that every stage of the electoral process
is free, fair and transparent, and is guided by principles of
morality, honesty and credibility.
     LCC is coordinating ecumenical teams of international and
local observers and deploying them throughout Liberia.	The
Carter Center, the Economic Community of West African States, the
European Union, the National Democratic Institute and a number of
embassies are also providing election monitors.
     The five ELCA participants are volunteers, paying their own
airfare to Liberia.  They are officially registered with the NEC
as election observers.
 + James J. Bowman, retired associate in ministry, Albuquerque,
N.M.  He is former director of Lutheran World Relief's Office of
Public Policy in Washington, D.C., and former Peace Corp
volunteer in Liberia and election observer in Liberia's 1997
election.
 + Nancy J. Haberstich, registered nurse and international
consultant on hospital infection control, Lincoln, Neb.  She is a
trustee of the ELCA Board of Pensions and a former ELCA global
mission volunteer in Liberia at Phebe Hospital and School of
Nursing.
 + The Rev. Hans P. Lee, Our Saviour's Lutheran Church,
Minneapolis.  Many members of the congregation are from Liberia.
 + The Rev. Ronald E. Shellhamer, Grace Lutheran Church, Shamokin,
Pa.  The congregation is part of the ELCA Upper Susquehanna
Synod, which is in a "companion synod" relationship with the
Lutheran Church in Liberia.
 + Tom Witt, Minneapolis, coordinator, ELCA Liberia Support
Network.
     The five observers were in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, Oct.
5 for a training workshop before being deployed across Liberia.
The LCC is focusing its efforts on monitoring seven counties,
including Monteserrado, Bong and Lofa counties where there are
larger numbers of Lutherans.  Bowman, Haberstich and Shellhamer
were based in Gbanga, Bong County.  Lee and Witt were based in
Voinjama, Lofa County.
     Bishop Sumoward E. Harris of the Lutheran Church in Liberia
and leaders of a half dozen other Liberian churches participated
in the training.  They will serve as local election monitors.
The Lutheran Church in Liberia secured about 15 international
observers and more than 100 local monitors.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news