wfn.org | Programme to Overcome Violence

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
1 September 1997

DON'T BACK VIOLENCE WCC GENERAL SECRETARY TELLS
CHURCHES

"Churches which sanction the use of violence render a counter-witness
to the gospel of Jesus Christ".   That was the message given in
Johannesburg yesterday (Sunday) afternoon by Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser,
General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Dr Raiser was speaking to a 2000-strong gathering in the Standard Bank
Arena to launch  the WCC's Peace to the City campaign.  Organised by
the South African Council of Churches, the event included local massed
choirs plus traditional South African symbols of cleansing, reconciliation
and celebration using incense, fire and oil.

The campaign will focus on seven cities worldwide and aims to
strengthen existing work for peace being done by churches and other
organisations. It will also spread news of these initiatives to encourage
others around the world to help build a culture of peace in place of the
current culture of violence.

The Peace to the City campaign is part of the WCC's Programme to
Overcome Violence which Dr Raiser described as "one of the most
ambitious undertakings of the WCC".  Dr Raiser said its strength lay in the
fact that it had risen from the grass roots.  The Programme began
following an appeal by Methodist Bishop Stanley Mogoba of South Africa
in 1994, and initiatives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, had provided the "spark"
for the Peace to the City campaign.

Dr Raiser believed this was crucial because recent experience strongly
suggests violent conflicts and wars are best resolved by those within
the situation, and that peace agreements and conflict resolutions do not
last unless supported by local communities.

In his speech, Dr Raiser issued a strong call to the churches not to
sanction the use of violence.  He believed if  churches refused to give
religious legitimation to policies which support the use of violence, it
would strengthen the will and courage of people to resist the culture of
violence.

The seven places taking part in the Peace to the City campaign are
Belfast (Northern Ireland), Boston (USA), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban
(South Africa), Kingston (Jamaica), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Suva
(Fiji).

Over the next year, a series of team visits will focus attention on the
seven cities and people elsewhere are invited to join in the campaign. 
The WCC has created a special Peace to the City site on the World Wide
Web (http://www.wcc-coe.org/pov) to enable peacemakers to share
information and ideas.

Keynote speaker at the Johannesburg launch was Baptist minister, Rev.
Geoffrey Brown from Chicago.  The audience responded enthusiastically
when he declared, "the Church can, will and must work for peace".    

Representatives from the seven cities also spoke at the ceremony.  Tyrol
Ferdinands from Colombo said people needed God's help "to love even
those who destroy".   Doug Baker from Belfast said the Church was
challenged "to live out a gospel of reconciliation in the midst of a culture
of violence".

Bishop Mvume Dandala, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of
Southern Africa, preached in place of senior church leader and veteran
anti-apartheid campaigner, Rev. Beyers Naud‚, who was taken ill earlier
in the week.

**********
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.

World Council of Churches
Press and Information Office
Tel:  (41.22) 791.61.52/51
Fax:  (41.22) 798 13 46
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