After travelling to Washington, Philadelphia, New York and New Orleans, as well as towns along the way, the Living Letters team members from South Africa, Lebanon, Pakistan and Brazil said they gained much more than they had given along the way. They also left behind messages of support and encouragement to those who work tirelessly to promote peaceful alternatives to violence.
They offered encouragement to Philadelphia's mayor battling the highest homicide rate of any city in the nation, and listened to how an Amish community in rural Pennsylvania recovered from tragedy, forgave and helped support the widow and children of a gunman who killed five school girls and injured another five one year ago.
In New Orleans, they experienced the struggle of a black congregation that is determined to overcome street violence and joined in the United Nations community in New York as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon rang the peace bell to commemorate this year's International Day of Peace and declared that “Peace is the United Nations’ highest calling”.
Standing with the Secretary General were several of the UN’s Messengers of Peace, distinguished individuals selected from the fields of art, literature, music and sports, who have agreed to help focus worldwide attention on the work of the United Nations. They included actor Michael Douglas, environmentalist Jane Goodall and Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Elie Wiesel.
The WCC had its own “messengers of peace” present. The Living Letters delegation included the Rev Edwin Makue, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches; Lina Moukheiber, a public health specialist from Lebanon; Aneeqa Maria Akhtar, a human rights lawyer from Pakistan; and Dr Marcelo Schneider, an ecumenist from Brazil.
Witnesses for peace
Following a meeting with denominational leaders at the Church Center for the United Nations and an ecumenical service at the centre's Tillman Chapel, the delegation held a press conference and met with student activists who were at the UN to witness for peace.
The Decade to Overcome Violence aims to build awareness among the churches, to encourage churches to link up with civil society activists and to bring the concern for just peace from the periphery of the churches’ life into its center,” said the Rev Hansulrich Gerber, coordinator of the WCC’s Decade to Overcome Violence, who accompanied the delegation.
Each member of the delegation testified that violence is a daily occurrence in his or her own country. “Today is a national day of mourning in Lebanon,” said Moukheiber, referring to the killing of one of her country’s political leaders that day. “I have had to struggle with [the concept of] peace and forgiveness. As we come together, we are affirming our solidarity and support.”
“There was a time less than 13 years ago when South Africa was a very violent country, a nation turned on itself to destroy itself,” said Makue. “Because of people like you, who would believe in peace, we have peace in South Africa today.”
