wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Living Letters team to visit India

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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 - 17/09/2009 12:25:11

>LIVING LETTERS TEAM TO VISIT INDIA

A team of church representatives from Europe, Latin America,
Africa and Asia will pay a solidarity visit to churches,
ecumenical organizations and civil society movements in India
from 21 to 27 September. 

The focus of the seven-day long visit will be on the Indian
churches' witness to peace with justice in a context of mass
poverty, social exclusion and violence against women, Dalits and
Christians. There will also be encounters with church leaders,
peace activists, and representatives of interfaith peace
initiatives and of Dalit movements. 

The visit will bring the team of Living Letters to the country's
capital city,New Delhi, and to the South Eastern states of Orissa
and Andhra Pradesh. 

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

Violence against Christians and caste-based discrimination

In August 2008, the state of Orissa saw a wave of organized
violence against Christians. Some 20 people were killed, 50,000
displaced and 4,000 homes destroyed by radical Hindu militants
who blamed Christians for the killing of a prominent radical
Hindu leader. About 200 villages were affected, with hundreds of
churches burnt down. 

At that time, the WCC executive committee stated its concern
"about the alarming trend of growing communal violence and
religious intolerance in India". On 2 September 2009 the WCC
central committee adopted a minute noting "a decline of religious
freedom in many parts of the world and an increase of religious
intolerance". 

In another statement passed on 2 September, the WCC central
committee said caste-based discrimination contradicts the
Christian teaching that all are created equal in the image of
God. At least 160 million people in India – known as Dalit, or
"oppressed", "crushed" – and up to 260 million globally are
considered by their own societies as "untouchable". 

Information and pictures of the Living Letters visit to India
will be made available at:
http://www.overcomingviolence.org/?id=7172

WCC member churches in India:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/asia/india.html

Full text of the WCC central committee "Minute on the
responsibility of churches for communities enduring
anti-Christian violence":
http://www.oikoumene.org/gr/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2009/reports-and-documents/report-on-public-issues/minute-on-the-responsibility-of-churches-for-communities-enduring-anti-christian-violence.html

Full text of the WCC central committee "Statement on caste-based
discrimination":
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/geneva-2009/reports-and-documents/report-on-public-issues/statement-on-caste-based-discrimination.html

WCC work in solidarity with Dalits:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/unity-mission-evangelism-and-spirituality/just-and-inclusive-communities/dalits.html

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.