wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Haiti visit by WCC general secretary starts on Monday

[WCC media <noreply@wcc-coe.org>]

>World Council of Churches - News

>WCC GENERAL SECRETARY TO VISIT HAITI

>For immediate release: 11 June 2010

An ecumenical delegation led by the World Council of Churches (WCC)
general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, will visit Haiti from  14-16
June. The purpose of the visit is to express solidarity with the  victims
of the 12 January earthquake, offer pastoral accompaniment and reflect  on
the current challenges the churches are facing as they try to serve  the
Haitian people.

The delegation will learn first-hand about church projects that  are
providing support and relief to the victims of the earthquake, and  will
visit church buildings of different denominations that were destroyed  in
the quake.

They will pray with leaders of churches in Haiti – including  mainline
Protestant churches, Evangelical and Pentecostal, Roman Catholic,
Orthodox, Episcopal – and discuss with them what it means  to be church
together in Haiti today. A meeting with government officials is  also on
the agenda.

The visit will be hosted by the Protestant Federation of Haiti
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=13bdea9727d65927f825  ). It is
hoped that it will help the ecumenical family to continue advocating  and
working together towards a new beginning for the reconstruction  of the
country, based on justice and self-determination of the Haitian  people.

Members of the delegation:

* Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary
* Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC president from North America
* Mr Gerard Granado, Caribbean Conference of Churches general secretary
* Rev. Nilton Giese, Latin American Council of Churches general  secretary
* Mr Lorenzo Mota King, executive director of Social Services of  the
Dominican Churches, ACT Alliance
* Dr Victoria Kamondji, vice-president of the French Protestant  Federation
* Rev. Dr Carlos E. Ham, WCC programme executive for Latin America  and the
Caribbean

Media contact in Haiti: Maria Halava, +509.39.00.52.37

WCC member churches in Haiti (Link:

http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=bfd10083a75bc13a4a63 )

Relief and development work by churches in Haiti (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=82773f41a0a1f8fffdf5 )

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 Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.