wfn.org | WCC NEWS: US: churches address message to Obama

["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 - 11/26/2008 10:36:10 AM

>US CHURCHES WILL VOICE CONCERNS AND HOPES 
>TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA

Leaders and representatives of 24 US churches gathering in
Washington, D.C. next week will deliver a message to
President-elect Barack Obama, outlining hopes for the new
administration in leading the nation forward and working for
peace with justice. 

The message will come out of the annual meeting of the United
States Conference for the World Council of Churches (WCC), which
gathers 24 WCC-member churches in the country. With the theme
"Making Peace: Claiming God's Promise," the meeting will take
place in Washington, D.C. from 2-4 December. 

"Hope and change are at the heart of the Christian season of
Advent as we once again await the birth of the baby Jesus, the
Prince of Peace. In the context of war and want and waste, the
WCC's member churches in the US are eager to share a special word
with President-elect Obama, who campaigned on a promise of hope
and change," says the Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC
president from North America. 

Representatives from WCC member churches in the Pacific, Middle
East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Canada and Europe will join
the meeting to express solidarity for the message of the US
churches, bringing their own messages of hope to the newly
elected president of the United States and sharing stories of
peacemaking from their home regions. 

The gathering will address, among other issues, the ethical
dimensions of climate change and the ecumenical involvement in
Middle East peace-making. The "Blessed are the Peacemakers
Awards" will be presented to local, national and global
peacemaking initiatives and personalities. 

Featured speakers include: Dr Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr
Professor of Social Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary
(emeritus); the Rev. Dr Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of
the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA; Dr Rodney
Sadler, associate professor of Bible at the Union Theological
Seminary; Dr Elizabeth Ferris, co-director, the Brookings
Institution; the Rev. Eric Fistler, former US national
coordinator of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel; and the Rev. Baranite Kirata, Secretary for
Justice and Development of the Kiribati Protestant Church, South
Pacific. 

US Conference Young Adult Task Force members will bring a
spirited and creative reflection of their ecumenical engagements
over the course of the past twelve months. 

A public ecumenical service will be co-hosted by the National
City Christian Church and the Council of Churches of Greater
Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, 3 December. 

The meeting will be an opportunity for the US member churches of
the WCC to get acquainted with the International Ecumenical Peace
Convocation to be held in Jamaica in May 2011, which will
culminate the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence. 

Media contact in the US: 

Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, NCCnews@ncccusa.org

Annual Meeting website

http://www.wcc-usa.org/events/annual-meeting-2008.html

Annual Meeting Schedule

http://www.wcc-usa.org/events/annual-meeting-2008/schedule.html

Featured Speakers

http://www.wcc-usa.org/events/annual-meeting-2008/featured-speakers.html

WCC member churches in the United States of America
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/north-america/united-states-of-america.html

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.