WCC antiviolence focus in 2004: U.S

Christian Century, Sept 20, 2003

In 2001 it was the Middle East, in 2003 it was Sudan. In 2004, the problems of violence in the United States will be the focus of ecumenical efforts to encourage peace and reconciliation, the World Council of Churches has decided.

The WCC's Central Committee, which met in Geneva through September 2, chose the U.S. as next year's focus in its self-proclaimed Decade to Overcome Violence--a campaign launched in 2001 that leaves it up to churches of the spotlighted nation or region to devise programs.

A couple of leading mainline church figures welcomed the attention.

Bishop Melvin Talbert, ecumenical officer of the United Methodist Church, said his denomination had "embraced" the tabbing of the U.S. for 2004. Talbert said a special effort would be made to relate the campaign to some "emerging" groups within the country, and he cited as an example the coalition of thousands of church and secular people--young and old-who came together in Washington on August 23 to mark the 40-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s landmark "I Have a Dream" speech.

Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) told a press briefing: "If there was ever a part of the world where work for peace is important, it's in the U.S." The country's use of the death penalty and persistent problems with domestic violence, in addition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, were already issues that many churches have addressed, he said. "We live in a nation in which the cause of peace needs to be a priority," said Kirkpatrick, who is also a member of the WCC's executive and central committees.

Coincidentally, the use of capital punishment in the U.S. suffered another setback on September 2 when a federal appeals court threw out more than 100 death sentences in Arizona, Montana and Idaho because the inmates were condemned to die by judges instead of juries. The case stemmed from a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year in which the justices said juries must render such decisions. The high court left it unclear whether their ruling should be applied retroactively, but the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided 8-3 that all condemned inmates, mostly in Arizona, should have their sentences commuted to life in prison.

WCC leaders have been convinced that throwing an international spotlight on nations deemed to have problems with violence has some benefits.

In the country targeted this year, the Sudanese civil war has raged since independence from Britain in 1956, except during the period i972 to 1982. African churches have been involved in a "people-to-people" program for peace among tribes in the nation's southern part where most of the country's 5 per cent Christian minority live. Traditional leaders and militias have met for weeklong airings of grievances followed by acts of reconciliation, said Bethuel Kiplagat, a former Kenyan diplomat involved in the talks. Though formal peace negotiations have been continuing since 1993, Kiplagat said, "We think it's in the last phase."--ENI