Ecumenical delegation in solidarity visit to Africa

|PIC1|Ecumenical delegations from the World Council of Churches will tour Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Africa in an expression of solidarity as the countries continue to recover from decades of violent conflict.

The 'Living Letters' teams are being sent in the context of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence, in the run-up to the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011.

Over the course of the next two weeks, the teams will witness the reconciliation work being carried out by churches in the three countries and visit a number of government representatives.

In Sierra Leone and Liberia, both devastated by civil war in the 1990s, the WCC supported the churches and other ecumenical partners in providing relief and rehabilitation in the years immediately following the cessation of violence.

The National Council of Churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia have played major roles in the reconciliation process and engaged in coordination with other faith communities, particularly Sierra Leone's Muslim majority.

The Living Letters teams will witness how Sierra Leone and Liberia are coping with the memories of war and learn about the National Council of Churches' peace initiatives.

They will also visit the President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, and people involved in ground level peace work in the country, including a facility in Kenema run by the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone that cares for children who were living on the streets after the war.

South Africa, meanwhile, is the country credited as the inspiration behind the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence. The Living Letters teams will visit church leaders and communities working on justice and peace, like the Love in Action organisation in Mabopane, Pretoria, a centre that reaches out to people on the margins of society and provides education for street kids and prisoners.

The Living Letters teams will tour the three countries from 2 to 12 November.