WCC NEWS: CORRECTION: Australia: Living Letters team to visit Indigenous Peoples

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World Council of Churches - News

WCC LIVING LETTERS TEAM TO VISIT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF AUSTRALIA

For immediate release: 26 August 2010

[Resending with correction concerning the name and organization of 
local
delegate Rev. Shayne Blackman in the list at the end of the article.]


The World Council of Churches (WCC) is sending an international 
ecumenical
Living Letters delegation to visit the Indigenous Peoples in the 
Northern
Territory of Australia from 12 -17 September 2010.

The visit is in response to an invitation extended by the National 
Council
of Churches in Australia (NCCA) to shed light on the human rights
situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to show
solidarity with the Indigenous people who feel their voices are not
heard.

Living Letters are small ecumenical teams which visit a country to 
listen,
learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges in order to
overcome violence, promote and pray for peace.  Living Letters visits 
are
part of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=742ced3836de8e160233 ).

The invitation to the WCC was extended following a forum held in 2009 
by
the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical 
Commission
(NATSIEC) of the NCCA.

The visit will focus on concerns that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Indigenous Peoples have with regard to the 2007 “Northern
Territory Emergency Response” –locally known as the
“Intervention”.

A similar WCC delegation visited the region in 1981. At that time, the
delegation listened to the cries of Aboriginal and Torres Strait 
Islander
peoples due to poverty, powerlessness and injustice with regard to
questions of land rights, mining, the legal system, housing, 
education,
health and unemployment.

The 1990 WCC consultation in Darwin (Australia) on “Land is our life”,
as well as the subsequent statement on “Land and Indigenous Peoples:
Move Beyond Words” by the WCC Assembly in Canberra, 1991, are 
important
milestones of the ecumenical journey of Indigenous Peoples.

The Living Letters team travelling to Australia in September will be
composed of:

International delegates:
* Rev. Luis Alberto Bautista, Indigenous Peoples Pastoral Service of
the Latin American Council of      Churches (CLAI), Ecuador, Methodist
* Ms Hera Rere Clarke, WCC Central Committee member, New Zealand, 
Anglican
* Ms Renée Grounds, United Methodist Commission on Religion and
Race, United States
* Dr Hanna Grace, Egypt, Coptic Orthodox
* Rev. Dr Mindawati Perangin-Angin, WCC Central Committee member,
Indonesia, Karo Batak Protestant Church
* Fr Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of
Churches in the Philippines, Episcopal
* Rev. Dr Anthony Dancer, Social Justice Commission of the Anglican 
Church
in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia (accompanying member)

Local delegates:
* Rev. Shayne Blackman, coordinator of the Uniting Aboriginal Islander
Christian Congress
* Rev. Sealin Garlett, deputy chair of the NATSIEC Commission,
Uniting Church in Australia

WCC and NATSIEC-NCCA staff:
* Mr Graeme Mundine, NATSIEC-NCCA (local coordinator)
* Ms Maria Chavez Quispe, WCC (team leader)


Media contact: Ms Gabrielle Russell-Mundine, NATSIEC-NCCA,
grussell[at]ncca.org.au (Link: grussell@ncca.org.au )

More information on WCC work with Indigenous Peoples  (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=8d120ced48587c6160ab )

More information on the visit to Australia (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=d7a77168ec6b37ca8e3e )

Daily updates will be posted on the NATSIEC blog (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=eebc315476deaa6984f0 )


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.



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