wfn.org | WCC Launches "Peace to the City" Program

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

26-August-1997 
97330 
 
    WCC Launches "Peace to the City" Program 
 
    by John Newbury 
    World Council of Churches News and Information Office 
 
GENEVA, Switzerland--Seven cities struggling against violence. Seven cities 
where people are working to build peace with justice. Seven cities where 
such groups have agreed to share their experiences with people and 
organizations around the world, to create a global network for peace. 
 
    This is "Peace to the City," a global campaign of the World Council of 
Churches (WCC)'s Program to Overcome Violence (POV).  The campaign will be 
launched Aug. 31 in Johannesburg, South Africa. 
 
    "Peace to the City" is an effort to respond to the rise of violence in 
many forms around the world. The focus is on the city as a microcosm of 
some of the most destructive forces to contribute to and some of the most 
creative initiatives to overcome violence. 
 
    The campaign emphasizes not the violence but imaginative models of 
reconciliation and community rebuilding. The goals are to make them 
visible, highlight approaches and methodologies, stimulate sharing and 
networking and, most important, give others hope and the practical tools to 
attempt something similar in their own contexts. 
 
    Launching the global campaign, South African Council of Churches (SACC) 
general secretary Brigalia Bam will welcome church and government 
representatives to a ceremony in the Standard Bank Area of Johannesburg. 
Worship, music (including four huge massed choirs), speeches and symbolic 
acts will be interwoven in the two-and-a-half-hour ceremony. 
 
    South African deputy president Thabo Mbeki is expected to address the 
gathering, as is WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser.  Anti-apartheid 
veteran Beyers Naude will preach the sermon. 
 
    The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, pastor of Union 
Baptist Church, Cambridge, Mass., who is involved in the National Ten-Point 
Coalition to prevent youth and family violence.  Brown will introduce the 
"Peace to the City" campaign and bring a message of hope and alternatives 
to violence. 
 
    WCC Central Committee member Janice Love will introduce the Program to 
Overcome Violence (POV) and the seven cities campaign. 
 
    Each of the seven "Peace to the City" coordinators will then report 
briefly from his or her city, where the work for peace, justice, 
reconciliation and community-building focuses on a particular facet of 
violence: political violence in Durban (South Africa), communal or 
sectarian violence in Belfast (Northern Ireland), ethnic violence in 
Colombo (Sri Lanka), youth violence and violence against women in Boston 
(U.S.A.), street violence in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), ethnic violence and 
defense of indigenous rights in Suva (Fiji) and urban violence in Kingston 
(Jamaica). 
 
    Beyond the symbolic seven cities, churches, religious communities, 
peace and justice organizations, and individuals engaged in peace-building 
all over the world are invited to participate in the campaign to create a 
dynamic global network for peace. 
 
    To that end, a Peace to the City WWW home page 
(http://www.wcc-coe.org/pov) links the seven cities' projects and offers 
campaign news, "chats" and information on studies and research to 
interested churches and peace organizations. They can also subscribe to a 
free list server or mail newsletter for information, resources, special 
news and announcements. The WCC will produce a video and a popular-style 
book about each city's experiences of violence and peace-with-justice 
projects, to be ready for its 1998 Assembly in Harare. 

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