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>World Council of Churches - News

OPEN LETTER FROM WCC GENERAL SECRETARY ABOUT HAITI

>For immediate release: 18 June 2010

In an open letter to world government leaders and churches around  the
globe, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC),  the
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has called for Haiti not to be forgotten  and for
the earthquake reconstruction process to be accountable to the people  of
Haiti, not only to international donors. That accountability must  include
those who need the reconstruction most desperately. The churches  should
reflect unity and be involved in the reconstruction in the broader  sense.

Flush from a 3-day visit to Haiti, 14-16 June, Tveit said he leaves  Haiti
with “great respect for the resilience and the faith of  the Haitian
people and churches.”

 From 14-16 June Tveit led a 7-person ecumenical delegation of church
leaders from around the world to express solidarity and offer pastoral
support to Haitian churches as they participate in the rebuilding  of their
country.
The delegation included representatives of the WCC, churches, church
councils and conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean, France  and
the international ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together).

They met with Haitian politicians, church officials and congregational
members during their visit.  The delegation visited several churches  that
were damaged by the 12 January earthquake, including the Holy Trinity
Cathedral in Port au Prince, the Russian Orthodox School of the  Haitian
Orthodox Mission and the Church of God.

In the letter Tveit calls on churches around the world to continue  to be
one in their “solidarity and prayer” for Haiti.   “For churches, it
is essential to reflect, in times like these, what it means to be  one in
Christ, locally, regionally and globally,” he wrote.

Full text of Tveit’s letter (Link:

http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=a6de7f6d8966dfc0d6ac )

WCC    member churches in Haiti (Link:

http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=f114d76876a6927e041f )

Relief and development work    by churches  in Haiti (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=f648985dcee1e96e69f8 )

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 Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.