WCC NEWS: Philippines: ecumenical solidarity visit

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World Council of Churches - News

LIVING LETTERS TEAM TO VISIT THE PHILIPPINES

For immediate release: 25 November 2010

An international team of church representatives will pay a solidarity
visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society 
movements in
the Philippines from 1 to 5 December. It will be the last in a series 
of
"Living Letters" visits to various countries organized ahead of the
International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in May 2011, in order to
accompany people and churches who long for peace, security and
reconciliation in the midst of conflicts and violence.

The members of the team come from Africa, Asia, Europe and North 
America
and will be travelling on behalf of the World Council of Churches
(WCC).The group will be listening to the victims of human right 
violations
in the country and to others who lost family members in extrajudicial
killings. The Living Letters team will receive first-hand information
regarding the state of human rights in the Philippines, and learn 
what the
international ecumenical community can do to support the active 
defence of
human rights and civil liberties.

Over the past decades, the WCC has been closely following the state of
human rights in the Philippines. At various occasions, the WCC 
expressed
its concerns to national and international bodies and authorities 
about
the worsening of the human rights situation in the country.

Several WCC statements and letters have unequivocally condemned the
extra-judicial killings, illegal arrests, involuntary disappearances 
and
abductions. The WCC is deeply concerned about the country's increasing
militarization.

This visit is an expression of the ecumenical movement’s solidarity 
and
commitment to accompany the churches and Filipinos who are engaged in 
the
ministries of prophetic witness and struggle for the marginalized and 
the
poor.

The delegation will be composed of the following members:

International delegates:


* Ms Vijula Arulanantham, Christian      Conference of Asia, Sri Lanka
* Rev. Tara Curlewis, general secretary,      National Council of 
Churches
in Australia
* Ms Mardi Tindal, moderator, United      Church of Canada
Mr Tony Waworuntu, former member of the WCC Commission of the 
Churches on
International Affairs (CCIA) , Indonesia


WCC staff:


* Ms      Semegnish Asfaw, WCC research associate for the Decade to
Overcome      Violence
* Ms      Anastasia Dragan, WCC youth programme intern, Republic of 
Moldova
Ms      Aneth Phenias Lwakatare, WCC communication programme intern,
Tanzania


Local delegates:


* Fr Rex Reyes, general      secretary, National Council of Churches 
in the
Philippines
* Ms Carmencita      Karagdag-Peralta, WCC Central Committee member


WCC documents and statements on the Philippines (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=4405ef5e1c6f48b91a38
)

WCC member churches in the Philippines (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=27aa78f71085f0fc1e43 )


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.



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