Worldwide Faith News (press release)
Sept 16 2004
World Council of Churches – News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 [email protected]
For immediate release – 16/09/2004
PROMINENT WORLD CHRISTIAN LEADERS AND PEACE-MAKERS
AFFIRM THE POWER AND PROMISE OF PEACE
Broadcast quality video messages available, see below.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Orthodox
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, and the head of
the Evangelical Church in Germany, Bishop Wolfgang Huber are among
those supporting an International Day of Prayer for Peace called for
by the World Council of Churches (WCC) within its Decade to Overcome
Violence. The date set for observance is 21 September.
More than a dozen well-known Christian leaders and peace-makers
from all over the world are affirming churches’ and faith
communities’ work for peace and justice in a series of inspiring
two-minute video messages that will be made available at
on Monday 20 September (12:00
a.m. Geneva time).
This year, the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence is focusing on the
United States, under the theme “The power and promise of peace”. The
video messages thus also recognize and encourage the struggle of
US churches to witness to peace and justice, both domestically and
internationally.
Personalities joining the International Day of Prayer for Peace
through video messages are:
– Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Anglican
archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa
– Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
– Wolfgang Huber, chairman of the council of the Evangelical Church
in Germany
– Aram I, catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church (See of Cilicia)
a and WCC Central Committee moderator
– Hanan Mikhail Ashwari, Sydney Peace Prize winner and advocate for
Palestinian rights
– Keith Clements, general secretary of the Conference of European
Churches
– Mvume Dandala, general secretary of the All Africa Conference
of Churches
– Karen Hamilton, general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches
– Israel Batista, general secretary of the Latin American Council
of Churches
– Hildegard Goss Mayr, honorary president of the International
Fellowship of Reconciliation
– Ahn Jae Woong, general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia
– Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC president from North America
– Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., president of the National Council of Churches
of Christ in the USA
Within the framework of its Decade to Overcome Violence, the WCC has
called on its member churches – which represent a membership estimated
at about 550 million Christians world-wide – to pray for peace on
21 September or on the Sundays preceding or following that day.
This WCC initiative links to the International Day of Peace declared
by the United Nations General Assembly, a world-wide effort intended
as a day of global cease-fire and non-violence, and as an opportunity
for education and raising public awareness.
The video messages in both webcast and broadcast quality
will be available as of Monday 20 (12:00 a.m. Geneva time) at
Liturgical resources for the International Day of Prayer for Peace
are already available at the same website.
See also our press release of 31 August, 2004 at
> press corner > International Day of Prayer for
Peace
Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
[email protected]
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