wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka brings Christians,

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Note #9056 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06003
Jan. 3, 2006

Tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka
brings Christians, Buddhists together  
 
by Anto Akkara
Ecumenical News International  

GALLE, Sri Lanka - One year after Sri Lanka was devastated by a tsunami that
flattened parts of south and southeast Asia, churches in the island nation
say their relief work has promoted better relations with the country's
Buddhist majority.   
  
	"It (the tsunami) has given us an opportunity to work closely with
the Buddhist people and win their confidence," said the Rev. Lesley
Weerasinghe, a Methodist pastor in the southern port city of Galle, where
more than 4,000 people were killed by the giant waves.	
  
	Initially, Weerasinghe recalled, local Buddhists staged
demonstrations when he tried to start building houses for Buddhist tsunami
victims on a plot bought by the church at Pujadigama village.  
  
	"They thought we were going to build a church in their village, but
when they realized that we were building houses for Buddhists, they started
supporting us," Weerasinghe said.  
  
	Buddhists were the major beneficiaries of the Methodist relief work,
he said.  
  
	"Before the tsunami, many Buddhists thought that Christians were
trying to convert the Buddhists by our social service," he added, "but our
tsunami relief work has started removing that fear."

	Buddhists account for almost 70 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million
people, Christians just over 6 percent. The Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami claimed
more than 35,000 lives and displaced nearly one million people.  
   
	The Rev. Kingsley Perera, chair of Sri Lanka's National Christian
Council and president of the Baptist Council of Sri Lanka, told Ecumenical
News International that the relief work has "certainly led to better harmony
and understanding" with Buddhists.  
   
	When local Buddhists opposed construction of houses for tsunami
victims by the Baptist church in Paraliya village, about 30 miles south of
the capital Colombo, church workers approached the chief Buddhist monk of the
area, Perera said, and "the monk went from house to house explaining our work
to the people and got their consent for our work."

	The venerable Hedigalle Wimalasara, a leader of the Jathika Hela
Urumaya, a political party formed by Buddhist monks, said, "The tsunami has
brought the people and the religious leaders together."
   
	Wimalasara noted that when the tsunami struck, more than 1,500
families, including Christians and Muslims, took shelter in his monastery.

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