wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Angola & Mozambique: Ecumenical solidarity visit by Living Letters team

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 20/07/2009 09:20:23

LIVING LETTERS TEAM VISITS ANGOLA AND MOZAMBIQUE

A team of church representatives from Portugal, Switzerland and
Brazil is paying a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical
organizations and civil society organizations in Angola and
Mozambique from 18 to 28 July.

Travelling as a "Living Letters" team on behalf of the World
Council of Churches (WCC), the group will spend five days in each
of the two countries, which share some common historical traits
of colonial rule, liberation, civil war and reconstruction. In
both countries churches are engaged in reconciliation efforts and
overcoming violence.

In Angola the visit is being hosted by the Council of Christian
Churches in Angola (CICA). After gaining independence from
Portugal in 1975, the country suffered a 27-year civil war which
killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the economy
and infrastructure. Despite the current post-war reconstruction
boom the majority of the population still lives in poverty.

The Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) hosts the Living
Letters team in the second leg of the visit. Shortly after its
independence from Portugal in 1975, Mozambique was drawn into the
struggle against white rule taking place in neighbouring South
Africa and Rhodesia (today's Zimbabwe). Until a political
settlement was reached in 1992, war and famine killed up to a
million people. Between 2000 and 2002 successive floods and a
severe drought hit the country. Today economic growth is fast,
although poverty is widespread.

Living Letters are small ecumenical teams visiting a country to
listen, learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges
in order to overcome violence, promote and pray for peace. They
are organized in the context of the WCC's Decade to Overcome
Violence ( http://www.overcomingviolence.org )in order to prepare
for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (
http://www.overcomingviolence.org/?id=3267 )in 2011.

Members of the ecumenical delegation include:

Dr David Valente, general secretary, Evangelical Presbyterian
Church of Portugal 
Ms Anja Michel, Reformed Churches of Bern-Jura-Solothurn,
Switzerland 
Ms Marilia Schüller, Koinonia, Brazil

>Media contact in Angola and Mozambique: 
>Juan Michel+41-79-507-6363 juan@wcc-coe.org

Information and pictures of the Living Letters visit to Angola
and Mozambique will be made available at:
http://www.overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits/angola-and-mozambique.html

>WCC member churches in Angola:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4551

>WCC member churches in Mozambique:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4625

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.