wfn.org | [ENS] Listening: Liberia hosts ecumenical consultation on

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Episcopal News Service
Listening, Learning & Epiphany

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Liberia hosts ecumenical consultation on consolidating peace

[ENS] Representatives from ecumenical and interfaith organizations in
the
Mano River Union countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone joined
with
ecumenical partners from the United States January 23-24, at a
consultation
in Monrovia, Liberia, titled "Consolidating Peace in West Africa: A Mano
River Case Study."

Rita Redfield, a former Executive Council and Episcopal Relief and
Development board member from the Diocese of Maine, is representing the
Episcopal Church at the consultation.

"It is important for the Episcopal Church to have a presence at this
consultation as part of our solidarity with churches and ecumenical
partners
in the region," Margaret Larom, director of Anglican and Global
Relations,
said. "The main thing is to go and listen and to bring back a deeper
understanding of the situation they face in this region where the
destabilizing forces of violence and hatred have brought so much pain."

The consultation is sponsored by the Continuing Committee on Common
Witness
(CCCW) -- an ecumenical partnership of Church World Service (CWS) and
the
U.S. Catholic Mission Association (USCMA) -- in collaboration with the
Liberian Council of Churches and other partners in West Africa.

Although the CCCW periodically sponsors ecumenical consultations "on a
theme
of topical interest to persons involved in Christian mission, ministry
and
witness," a letter of invitation from CWS explained that this is the
first
such meeting to be held abroad "in partnership with and in support of
...
international ecumenical partners."

The Episcopal Church of Liberia (ECL) and the U.S.-based Episcopal
Church
have a long history of mutual involvement, which formally began in 1836
with
the sending of missionaries. Prior to 1980, ECL was one of the Episcopal
Church's overseas dioceses. Both churches have since remained in
Covenant
because of their historic 170-year relationship.

In May 2005, a delegation that included Kurt Barnes, Episcopal Church
treasurer and chief financial officer, Dennis Sullivan, president of the
Church Pension Group, and colleagues, visited Liberia to help the church
establish a pension plan to secure the future of its clergy and
employees.

Liberia's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was sworn into
office January 16 with a promise to confront and fight corruption "which
has
become a canker worm in Liberia." Johnson-Sirleaf succeeds Gyude Bryant,
who
led the interim government of Liberia for two years.

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