wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Nicaragua: Reconciliation means transforming society

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

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 10/11/2008 11:25:36

RECONCILIATION MEANS TRANSFORMING SOCIETY, SAYS KOBIA IN

>NICARAGUA

>Photos available, see
>below

To achieve reconciliation takes nothing less than the
transformation of society, the World Council of Churches (WCC)
general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said in Managua, during a
2-5 November visit to Nicaragua. 

Kobia and a small ecumenical delegation combined a visit by the
WCC general secretary to the Council's member churches in
Nicaragua with an ecumenical solidarity visit within the
framework of the Living Letters initiative of the Decade to
Overcome Violence. 

The visit took place in midst of growing tensions and sporadic
violence as municipal elections were coming closer and, in an
atmosphere of high political polarization, were seen as a virtual
referendum about the ruling Sandinista party. The ecumenical
delegation heard concerns from Nicaraguan church leaders and
representatives of ecumenical organizations about the need for
peace and reconciliation. 

Preaching at ecumenical services in the capital city Managua and
in Puerto Cabezas, on the Caribbean Sea coast, Kobia stressed the
Nicaraguan churches' ministry of reconciliation in the face of a
history marked by centuries of "violence and wounds" – from the
Spanish colonial rule to the "so called 'low-intensity conflict'
during the 1980's" through the Somoza dictatorship and the
struggle for liberation from it. 

"Costly reconciliation will be achieved if and when
psychological, social and political transformation of a society
materializes," Kobia said. As opposite to "cheap reconciliation",
costly reconciliation "encompasses constructive relationships,
forgiveness and justice," he added. 

While forgiveness entails "unburdening the past in order to
inaugurate less painful relationships in the future," justice
needs to go beyond the punitive form provided by the legal
system, to include "restorative justice," the only way to "deal
satisfactorily with guilt and victimization". 

The programme of the ecumenical visit included a Theological
Forum on ecumenism and overcoming violence in Central America,
ecumenical celebrations and meetings with church leaders,
ecumenical organizations and representatives of civil society and
government. 

In Managua, Kobia was presented with the Martin Luther King
Order of Peace awarded by the Martin Luther King Institute of the
Polytechnic University of Nicaragua. 

"Religion and faith can be powerful forces of healing and
reconciliation in this world," said Kobia in a lecture at the
university on that occasion. "If religious intolerance has
initiated conflict throughout history, interfaith dialogue is
today serving as a foundation on which to ease tensions and
promote peaceful co-existence, even in areas plagued by
conflict."

The Martin Luther King Institute, which this year celebrates its
15th anniversary, played an instrumental role in the process that
led to the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming 2009 the
International Year of Reconciliation. 

The WCC general secretary was declared guest of honor and
presented with the keys of the city by Managua's mayor Dionisio
Marenco. 

The Living Letters delegation was formed by Noemí Espinoza from
the Christian Reformed Church of Honduras, who is the vice
moderator of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on
International Affairs, and Ashley Hodgson from the Moravian
Church in Nicaragua. He is a member of the international
reference group for the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence. 

Until 2010, several Living Letters visits take place each year
throughout the world in the context of the WCC's Decade to
Overcome Violence in order to prepare for the International
Ecumenical Peace Convocation which will take place in Jamaica in
May 2011. 

Photo-gallery:

http://overcomingviolence.org/en/news-and-events/photos/visit-to-nicaragua.html

WCC member churches in Nicaragua:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/latin-america/nicaragua.html

More information on the visit:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/wcc-general-secretary-to-13.html

Additional information: 

Juan Michel +41.22.791.6153 +41.79.507.6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.