World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org For immediate release - 03/08/2006 03:54:22 PM
WCC APPEALS TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO "DO WHATEVER IS POSSIBLE" FOR A CEASE-FIRE IN LEBANON
An appeal to "do whatever is possible to stop the bombings, negotiate a cease-fire and a comprehensive peace settlement" has been addressed today by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia to "the leaders of the international community, especially to those from the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom".
The WCC appeal also calls on the Israeli government to "give guarantees that humanitarian organisations will be allowed unhindered access to those in need of assistance".
"Our hearts cry out to the leaders of the international community", says Kobia, who describes the current fighting as "a war of ominous dimension and of far-reaching consequences" that is causing "unimaginable and untold suffering to the people in Lebanon".
While "a major tragedy continues to unfold in the troubled region of the Middle East", the world sees the "shocking and disgraceful" spectacle of world leaders announcing "in a most callous manner that fighting will continue till strategic military objectives are met".
What they are really saying, Kobia alleges, is that "more people can continue to be killed while they take their time to settle their political differences". And affirms that "blind faith in military violence to resolve disputes and disagreements is totally unwarranted, illegal and immoral".
Judging that the present "disproportionate acts of violence of immense magnitude can have no justification," he notes that the United Nations Security Council "has been paralysed by the power and politics of the dominant nations and its charter undermined".
The WCC general secretary offers prayers for "all the people of Lebanon, Muslims and Christians alike" and "the people of Israel who have fallen victims to the missiles that continue to be fired indiscriminately into their towns and villages".
The WCC is working on putting together a pastoral delegation to Lebanon, an initiative that is on hold for the time being given security concerns and logistical difficulties.
The full text of the appeal is available at http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2365
Additional information available at the WCC on-line press room http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/index-e.html
Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.