World Council of Churches chief visits Haiti quake zone

An ecumenical delegation led by the head of the World Council of Churches (WCC) begins a three-day visit to Haiti today to meet with church leaders, government officials, and victims of the catastrophic January12 earthquake.

The delegation includes WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit and WCC heads from North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, France and the Dominican Republic.

According to a spokesperson for the ecumenical organisation, the seven-man delegation will learn first-hand about church projects in Haiti that are providing support and relief to the victims of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake, and will visit church buildings of different denominations that were destroyed in the quake.

The January 12 quake left a quarter million people dead and at least 1.3 million homeless, as well as damaging more than 250,000 homes and 30,000 commercial buildings.

Since the temblor struck, the WCC has been collaborating with the Caribbean Conference of Churches and the ACT Alliance to bring about “real and lasting development of this impoverished nation, beyond the current emergency efforts”.

The WCC has also called for the immediate and unconditional cancellation of Haiti’s foreign debt and called for prompt support in the relief efforts.

"The people of Haiti should now experience the prompt support and help from others," Tveit said on the morning after the quake.

"Let us keep our member churches in Haiti and all affected by the earthquake in our prayers and thoughts," he added.

This week’s WCC visit is being hosted by the Protestant Federation of Haiti. The delegation 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.

“It is hoped that it (the visit) 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,” reported Maria Halava, WCC’s media representative in Haiti.

WCC member churches present in Haiti include the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church in the USA, and the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.