WCC NEWS: WCC Afro-descendent conference calls for churches to use education against racism

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World Council of Churches - News

WCC AFRO-DESCENDENT CONFERENCE CALLS FOR CHURCHES TO USE EDUCATION
AGAINST RACISM

For immediate release: 30 June 2011

A call to churches worldwide to educate people about racism was made by
church leaders from across the Americas and the Caribbean at the end of a
conference held last week in Managua, Nicaragua.

The conference, which was organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC)
and the Latin America Council of Churches (CLAI), focused on the violence
of racism against people of African descent in the region.

It was the first ever conference to bring together church leaders of
Afro-descendent communities in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Across the region, churches run educational institutions including
universities, colleges, schools and Sunday schools, and they are
encouraged by the conference declaration to review their curricula to make
sure they include education on the racism and racist discrimination that
is so common in Latin America.

“Part of the prophetic role of the churches is to speak out against
injustice in all its forms, and in Latin America racism is a huge, and
largely unattended, area of injustice” said Dr Jorge Ramirez Reyna, a
conference participant from Peru. “In Latin America and the Caribbean,
according to CEPAL [the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean] around 150 million Afro-descendents live in situations of
exclusion, marginalization and poverty.”

“We know that right across Latin America discrimination is practiced on
the basis of skin colour,” he said. “Black people are more likely to
suffer violence, more likely to be poor, and less likely to reach
positions of responsibility or power. Education can help with this
problem”.

In their declaration the conference participants urge churches associated
with the WCC and CLAI to use the resources and facilities at their
disposal to educate people, and to create opportunities for dialogue to
strengthen the struggles against racism across the region.

Full text of the declaration (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=7e17a0d2d57be5aa3098 )

WCC activities to promote just and inclusive communities (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=5c16afa9be25a145db04 )

Latin America Council of Churches (CLAI) (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=2f286dd80d2242517819 )


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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