Plans for a major worldwide mobilisation of churches for peace have taken a solid step forward with the announcement from the World Council of Churches (WCC) that it will cap the global peace efforts with an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace and an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation to be held in early May 2011.
The WCC executive committee gave the green light in early March to plans to mobilise churches around the world for peace.
Under the plans, some 50 ecumenical "living letters" teams will visit churches facing situations of violence between 2007 and 2011 as a concrete expression of solidarity, as well as an attempt to share insights and learn from each other. At least three visits will take place in 2007 and some 15 visits a year are envisaged between 2008 and 2010.
The plan includes a series of expert consultations in partnership with research institutes and NGOs, while theological faculties and seminaries will be invited to join in the drafting of the peace declaration. The church mobilisation will hinge on the involvement of the action groups and church-based peace organisations which are already at work and can significantly contribute to the process, given their experience and commitment.
"The aim is to reach out to as many interested church groups as possible and to invite their contributions to the declaration in the form of texts, prayers, songs, pictures," says Geiko Mueller-Fahrenholz, a German theologian who is coordinating the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) expected to adopt the declaration.
The WCC has set 4-11 May 2011 as the preliminary dates for the event and will decide the venue of the event in September 2007. Some 2000 participants from churches, organisations and networks will attend, as well as representatives from other faiths, under the "Glory to God and peace on earth".
