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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 31/10/2008 10:32:15

LIVING LETTERS TEAMS TO WITNESS RECONCILIATION WORK OF CHURCHES
IN LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE AND SOUTH AFRICA

In Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa, churches have played
a major role in reconciliation between groups who had been in
violent conflict with each other for decades. Two international
ecumenical teams sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC) will
visit the three countries during the next two weeks. The church
representatives (see lists below)from different African
countries, North America, Asia, the Caribbean and the Middle East
are being sent as "living letters" to express the solidarity of
the WCC fellowship, which comprises 349 churches worldwide. Until
2010, several Living Letters visits take place each year
throughout the world in the context of the WCC's Decade to
Overcome Violence ( http://overcomingviolence.org )in order to
prepare for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (
http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc )in 2011.

>Liberia and Sierra Leone, 2-8 November

Both Liberia and Sierra Leone were devastated by civil war in
the 1990s. Liberia returned to peace and stability after the
president and former warlord Charles Taylor was ousted in 2003
and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected head of state in late 2005.
In neighbouring Sierra Leone, civil war officially ended in
2002.

As the WCC closely followed Sierra Leone and Liberia during the
years of civil conflict, it learned first hand about the
suffering of the people. After the cessation of the violence, the
WCC supported the churches and other ecumenical partners in
providing relief and rehabilitation.

The Living Letters visit to the two West African countries will
focus on learning how these nations cope with the memories of
war. The ecumenical delegation will learn about the initiatives
for peace in which the National Councils of Churches of both
countries have engaged in coordination with other faith
communities, especially Sierra Leone's Muslim majority.

Meetings with the president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma,
as well as other government representatives figure on the visit's
agenda. So do encounters with people engaged in peace work on the
ground, for example at a facility in Kenema in the eastern part
of the country, where children who had lived in the streets after
the war are now supported by the Council of Churches in Sierra
Leone.

>Members of the ecumenical delegation:

· Bishop Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah(delegation leader), presiding
bishop of the Methodist Church in Ghana
· Rev. Dr Angélique Walker-Smith, National Baptist Convention,

USA

· Ms Anam Gill, Presbyterian Church in Pakistan
· Mr James Macharia, African Instituted Churches, Kenya

Dr Aruna Gnanadason, WCC executive director for Planning and
Integration, will join the delegation in Sierra Leone.

>South Africa, 5-12 November

The Living Letters visit to South Africa is significant because
of the role the country's churches and their national council
have played in overcoming the violence of the apartheid ideology
and system. Since the first free and democratic elections in
1994, the churches have continued to work for peace, justice and
reconciliation.

It was South Africa that inspired the WCC programme which gave
birth to the Decade to Overcome Violence. The names of the places
in the provinces of Gauteng (Soweto, Alexandra Township) and
Kwazulu Natal (Durban and Pretoria) which the Living Letters team
will visit bring to mind this historic struggle for a just and
peaceful society.

The ecumenical visitors will meet with church leaders and
communities working on justice and peace, such as the
organization "Love in Action" in Mabopane, Pretoria - a centre
that reaches out to people "discarded" by society, and provides
education to street kids and prisoners. 

>Members of the ecumenical delegation:

· Canon Dr John Gibaut (delegation leader), director of the
WCC's Commission on Faith and Order
· Rev. Suzanne Matale, African Methodist Episcopal Church,
Zambia
· Rev. Carol Hancock, United Church of Canada
· Rev. Norbert Stephens, United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman
Islands
· Mr Andraous Jahsan, Greek Orthodox Church, Palestine
· Rev. Michael Wallace, general secretary of the World Student
Christian Federation

The visits are hosted and organized by the Liberian Council of
Churches, the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone and the South
African Council of Churches.

More information on Living Letters visits to churches:
http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits.html

>WCC member churches in Liberia:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4618

>WCC member churches in Sierra Leone:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4635

>WCC member churches in South Africa:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4638

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

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 349 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.