wfn.org | Title: WCC speaks on Africa

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release 03-29.17e
For Immediate Use
2 September 2003

CENTRAL COMMITTEE				    17	

WCC speaks on Africa  

In a statement on Liberia, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central
Committee meeting in Geneva 26 August-2 September 2003 expressed its
appreciation for the work of the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS), its armed monitoring group ECOMOG, and the country's religious
leaders in promoting a peace agreement and a transitional government.	

Condemning the violence both of Charles Taylor's government and the rebel
groups LURD and MODEL, the statement noted the great suffering of the
Liberian people, and urged member churches to support the work for peace of
the Liberian Council of Churches. It also called on churches and
church-related agencies around the world, particularly those in the US -
because of its historical links with Liberia - to provide humanitarian
assistance and support to Liberian churches as they work for peace and the
restoration of an harmonious community life.   

In a separate minute, the Central Committee also acknowledged the
socio-economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe as a serious challenge to the
country's churches and to the wider ecumenical family. According to the
Committee, the government's land resettlement programme has led to serious
human rights violations, and has brought the country to the verge of ruin.
The Committee expressed solidarity with Zimbabwe's churches, and urged WCC
member churches to condemn acts of violence there. It also expressed support
for the initiatives of Zimbabwe's churches to redress the inequities of land
distribution.	 

Discussing the continuing unrest in Africa's Great Lakes region, the
Committee asked the WCC and the All Africa Conference of Churches to  help
channel resources to local churches, and to help identify an enabler to
promote peace between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.	 

The Committee also noted the continuing need for peace and reconciliation in
Sudan. The conflict in Sudan is the 2003 focus of the WCC's Decade to
Overcome Violence.   

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office, tel: +41
(0)22 791 64 21 /61 53	
**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, 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, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
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