wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] WCC 'living letters' team to visit Israel and Palestine

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This story available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09183<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09183

WCC 'living letters' team to visit Israel and Palestine

PC(USA)'s Pat Cole to serve as English reporter for
delegation

>by Juan Michel
>WCC News and Information
>and Jerry L. Van Marter
>Presbyterian News Service

GENEVA/LOUISVILLE ― Peace-building initiatives and housing
and education issues will be highlighted when a team of
ecumenical representatives from around the world visits
churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society
movements in Israel and Palestine from March 14-21.

Organized by the World Council of Churches

[http://overcomingviolence.org/iepc/living-letters-visits.html]
(WCC) as part of its Living Letters initiative, the visit reflects the
WCC's focus on the troubled region, where it sees the ongoing
presence and witness of churches as crucial in the struggle for a
just peace.

The Presbyterian News Service, at the request of the WCC
and in cooperation with the General Assembly Council's
World Mission and Mission Communications ministries, has
commissioned communications associate Pat Cole to accompany
the delegation as English-language reporter. His reports on
the trip will appear on the PNS Web site
[www.pcusa.org/pcnews] and numerous other news outlets
around the world.

The members of the ecumenical delegation are Metropolitan
of Transylvania Laurentiu Streza, Romanian Orthodox Church;
the Rev. Emanuel Clapsis, Ecumenical Patriarchate of the
Russian Orthodox Church, USA; Nancy Cardoso, Igreja
Metodista do Brazil (Methodist Church of Brazil); Margareta
Brosnan, CARITAS, Australia; and Nancy Adams, Scottish
Episcopal Church.

In addition to Cole, the group will be accompanied by WCC
staff members Aruna Gnanadason, executive director for
planning and integration; Emma Halgren, an intern in the
WCC's Office of Communication; and Interpreter Ciprian Ioan
Streza, Romanian Orthodox Church.

Although they are a minority in Israel and Palestine,
Christians are active and visible in public life. The
delegation will learn about the role of the churches in the
area, including the work of the Ecumenical Accompaniment
Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

The EAPPI aims to work alongside Palestinians and Israelis
in their nonviolent actions for peace and to carry out
concerted advocacy efforts to end the Israeli military
occupation of Palestinian territories.

The visit will include meetings with Christian, Jewish and
Muslim leaders, human rights groups (both Palestinian and
Israeli) and ecumenical organizations, as well as an
exposure to the conditions of life under occupation and
successful community projects in the area.

The international team will be hosted by the Jerusalem
Inter-Church Center, an initiative of the Jerusalem
churches in association with the Middle East Council of
Churches ― the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s partner in
the region ― and the WCC. The Center is a coordination
point for ecumenical action in and for Jerusalem and its
churches.

The international ecumenical solidarity visit to
Palestine/Israel is part of the WCC Living Letters

[http://overcomingviolence.org/iepc/living-letters-visits.html] initiative.
Living Letters are small ecumenical teams which visit countries to listen,
learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges in order to overcom e
violence, promote and pray for peace.

Living Letters visits take place each year until 2010 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/peace-convocation/about-iepc/objectives-a nd-concepts.html]
to be held in Jamaica in 2011.

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