wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Liberia & Sierra Leone: with wars over, it is peace-building time

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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 - 12/11/2008 13:46:33

WARS IN SIERRA LEONE AND LIBERIA ARE OVER, PEACE-BUILDING IS NOT

"Please remind the world that we are no longer at war," a high-ranking  government official from Sierra Leone told an international ecumenical  team visiting churches and ecumenical organizations in Liberia and Sierra  Leone from 2 to 8 November.

"The world still looks at us as if we were warlords", said Sierra Leone  Minister of Trade and Industry Alimamy Koroma to the delegation, which  visited the two West African countries in the context of the Living  Letters ( http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits.html  )initiative of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Both Liberia and Sierra Leone were devastated by civil wars in the 1990s.  Liberia returned to peace and stability after the president and former  warlord Charles Taylor was ousted in 2003. In neighbouring Sierra Leone,  civil war officially ended in 2002.

"Living Letters" are small international ecumenical teams traveling to  locations around the world where Christians strive to overcome violence.  The team members, who are themselves involved in ecumenical activities and  peace building in their home countries, express the solidarity of the WCC  fellowship, which comprises 349 churches worldwide.

According to Koroma, the world has forgotten that these countries ended  their wars some six years ago and after a shaky start now both have  democratically elected governments. Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirlea f, elected in late 2005, is the first woman president in Africa.

The war-ravaged economies of both countries are struggling to revive but  the current collapse of the world economy has created serious challenges  with rising prices of food, fuel and other commodities. Moreover, Koroma  said, they have been coerced into the world market and trading systems,  which are inherently unjust, favouring the strong over the weak.

Sierra Leone and Liberia count among the ten poorest countries in the  world, according to International Monetary Fund data on gross domestic  products per capita.

Both Liberia and Sierra Leone are working steadily to consolidate the  peace they have won, the Living Letters group was told. Governments,  churches and civil society organizations have set in place processes for  healing the memories of the war.

The wars have left behind a culture of violence that continues to have a  deleterious impact on women and children. The Liberia Council of Churches  and the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone work closely with UN agencies  and civil society groups focusing on rehabilitation of street children,  psychosocial support for sexually abused women and children, trauma  counselling, supporting persons living with HIV and AIDS and breaking the  stigma and teaching prevention.

Churches have been involved in inter-faith dialogue and are seeking to  strengthen the voice of the faith communities in peace-making and in  achieving truth and reconciliation. They have also been engaged in voter  education and in election monitoring, as well as in capacity building.

The delegation also met with Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma,  who affirmed the role played by the churches in difficult times and  challenged them not to give up, as the struggle is not yet over and the  issues to be dealt with are many. Referring to the WCC Decade to Overcome  Violence, Koroma promised that by 2011 Sierra Leone will be a "shining  example where peace and justice would be realized".

The delegation leader, Bishop Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah who is the  presiding bishop of the Methodist Church in Ghana and a WCC central  committee member, emphasized the enriching power of "the stories of faith,  hope and courage that spring from the experiences of the people coming out  of a war and rebuilding their lives". The Living Letters visit "brought  the WCC closer to the churches and the peoples of these countries in a  significant way," he added.

"In spite of the pain, suffering and horror of the recent civil wars in  these countries, our visit revealed the peace commitments of the churches,  governments and related partners to rebuild, restore and reconcile, in  their countries and region," said Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, from the  National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

Both the young people in the Living Letters team, Anam Gill, from the  Presbyterian Church in Pakistan and James Macharia from the Presbyterian  Church in East Africa, Kenya spoke of the signs of hope and faith they  were able to see during the visit. As Macharia described it, "Despite the  challenges, Liberia and Sierra Leone are on the move with a future of hope  and promise as they are blessed with potent faith."

Through 2010 Living Letters visits will take place each year around world  in the context of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence ( http://overcoming violence.org )and in preparation for the International Ecumenical Peace  Convocation ( http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc )which will take place  in Jamaica in May 2011.

More information on the visit:

http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits/liberia-and-sie rra-leone.html

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

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

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.