wfn.org | WCC UPDATE: US churches receive support, challenges

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World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 

For immediate release - 07/10/2004

 "LIVING LETTERS" AT US CHURCHES' GATHERING: SOLIDARITY AND CHALLENGES

			      Photos from Atlanta are available (see below)

Solidarity and challenges were brought by a group of "living letters" -
Christians coming from different countries of the world - to the annual
meeting of the US member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC),
which took place in Atlanta, Georgia, 5-6 October 2004.

"We give thanks to God for the courage of you who have struggled to witness
to truth, justice and peace in a time when fear, insecurity and manipulated
patriotism have paralyzed so many," Dr Marion Best told the gathering of US
church representatives.  From the United Church of Canada, Best is one of
the two vice moderators of the WCC central committee.

Recognizing "the cost born by church leaders, religious organizations and
individuals in the US who have challenged the abuse of power and
unilateralism" and speaking in the name of the Canadian churches,  Best
also affirmed that "we together have a task to tell the truth in love and
refuse to have domination, injustice and hatred justified in God's name".

In that context, and having been told "by US brothers and sisters that the
struggles for global justice and peace go far beyond partisan politics or
the policies of any specific administration," Best said that what is at
stake "is the very self-identity of the US".

On the same track, Dr Maake Masango, WCC executive committee member from
the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, reminded the gathering
of the advice his father gave him every morning for 18 years as he left
home to go to school: "Don't let them take Jesus out of you". Masango urged
the US citizens not to neglect their right to vote in the upcoming
presidential elections, and "to elect well".

Mr Zoughbi Zoughbi, director of the WI'AM Palestinian Conflict Resolution
Centre in Bethlehem, West Bank, thanked the Presbyterian Church USA for its
recent decision to divest from companies operating in Israel, and expressed
his hope that other churches within the WCC fellowship will take the same
stance. "Choosing neutrality in a situation of injustice and oppression is
to choose the side of the oppressor," he affirmed, quoting Archbishop
Desmond Tutu.

Dr Judo Poerwowidagdo, director of the Centre for Empowering Reconciliation
and Peace in Jakarta, Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim
population in the world, affirmed that "terrorism cannot be fought with
another terrorism". Reflecting on the theme of the gathering, he added that
achieving the promise of peace requires "the ability to accept others as
children of God".

Ms Tale Hugnes, member of the Norwegian youth movement Changemaker,
declared that she would leave the US with "more hope and enthusiasm" than
when she arrived, because she had met "Americans working for peace". She
also assured the meeting of the solidarity of Christians worldwide: "You
are not alone, lots of people around the world are working for the same
goals".

Ms Renemsongla Ozkum, from the Baptist Church of India, stated that
"violence is the fruit of insecurity," and reminded the gathering of the
need of committed action to overcome it: "Simply talking abut peace is not
enough," she said.

Other participants in the living letters group were Ms Rosalyn Laylo from
the United Methodist Church of the Philippines, and Ms Hermina Damons, a
South African participating in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). They were all welcomed by Rev. Elizabeth
Clement, director of the Faith and the City Leadership Institute in
Atlanta.

The gathering was also welcomed by former US president and chairman of the
Atlanta-based Carter Center, James Carter, in a letter in which he affirmed
the "paramount necessity for an inclusive vision of peace" and for building
"bridges to those whose beliefs, views or stations differ," in order to
achieve "the power and promise of peace".

High-resolution photos from the Atlanta meeting are available at:
http://www.wcc-usa.org/wcc-usa.nsf/atlanta2004photos 

The text of a letter sent by the Canadian churches to churches and
Christians in the US in the context of the Living Letters visit is
available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/who/atlantaletter.html 

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153  +41 79 507 6363
	 media@wcc-coe.org 

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 The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
 more than 120 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 Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.