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World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
20 January 1997

WCC GENERAL SECRETARY ADDRESSES EPIPHANY
CROWDS IN ADDIS ABABA

"Be ambassadors for peace, God's agents of reconciliation", World
Council of Churches' (WCC) General Secretary, Rev. Dr Konrad
Raiser, told an exuberant congregation of more than 100,000
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians at an Epiphany service in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday 19 January.

Raiser is in Ethiopia for his first official visit to member
churches of the country since becoming WCC General Secretary.  In
addition to meeting with the Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Dr Raiser will participate in the
Mekane Yesus (Lutheran Protestant) Church's assembly later this
week.

At yesterday's service, Raiser recalled that the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church was a founder member of the WCC and reminded
worshippers that their Epiphany celebrations were taking place
during the worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

He referred to the terrible hardships of Ethiopians during the
past period of harsh military rule, during which the churches
were prime targets of official repression.  The WCC General
Secretary said the WCC had stood alongside the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church in those trying days and continued to do so now as the
people of the country sought to achieve peace.  "This requires
that Christians join together in a unified Christian witness, and
link arms with Muslims as well", Raiser told those gathered for a
national day on which Orthodox believers recall Jesus' baptism at
the river Jordan.

His Holiness Abune Paulos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church, echoed Raiser's remarks and called for reconciliation and
peace between the divided ethnic populations of the country.  "We
speak different languages and have different traditions", the
Patriarch told the huge congregation.  "We must show respect for
one another's cultures and particular needs, and create together
a common language of peace and reconciliation for the sake of
national unity... It is an obligation of the faith".

In addition to his visits to churches in Ethiopia, Dr Raiser will
also meet the President of Ethiopia, Negaso Gidada, and Salim
Ahmed Salim, General Secretary of the Organization of African
Unity whose headquarters are in the Ethiopian capital.

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now
330, in more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually
all Christian traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a
member church but works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest
governing body is the Assembly, which meets approximately every
seven years.  The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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