World Council of Churches -
News Release
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release:
4 June 2009
Churches reaffirm 40-year struggle against racism
The Dutch queen will be the guest of honour at a conference seeking to take on the legacy of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) historic anti-racism efforts.
The 14-17 June conference "Churches Against Racism" in Doorn near Utrecht in the Netherlands marks the 40th anniversary of the Notting Hill conference which laid the ground for the WCC Programme to Combat Racism (PCR).
The PCR contributed to the struggles to end apartheid in South Africa and has inspired and supported indigenous people in different parts of the world, oppressed groups in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, as well as the Dalit communities in India.
"In the Netherlands, where many people have family ties with South Africa, most of the churches strongly supported the PCR efforts against apartheid as they realized that the call for justice corresponded with the call of the gospel," says Rev. Klaas van der Kamp, general secretary of the Council of Churches in the Netherlands.
40 years later, the Council of Churches in the Netherlands decided to host another anti-racism conference, because, as van der Kamp puts it, "we realize that the struggle for inclusion still continues".
Even in a liberal and tolerant country like the Netherlands, "there were 4,247 official complaints in 2007 of people suffering racism and exclusion. In other countries with a less democratic background such injustice is even accepted as normal."
The conference participants, some fifty church leaders, activists and theologians from different parts of the world, are united by their commitment to building inclusive churches and communities, resisting racist discrimination within their societies and empowering the excluded.
"The conference must find strategies which will be more powerful than military weapons in order to change the situation of minorities in different countries", says van der Kamp. "Think of Dalits in India, people of African descent in Latin-America, Aboriginals in Australia and Roma in Europe."
The opening of the conference will be marked by a Thanksgiving Service for the witness through the PCR at 4 pm Sunday, 14 June at the Maartenskerk (Saint Martin's Church) in Doorn. WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will preach the sermon.
A message of commitment will be read out during a worship service at the end of the conference on 17 June. The service will be preceded by a
press conference
at Doorn's Hydepark conference centre at 12:30 pm.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will attend the closing service and speak at a reception afterwards.
Analysis, theological reflection and building networks for common action will be the tools by which the conference seeks to promote inclusivity as a theological and ethical response to racism.
The conference is organized by the WCC in cooperation with the
Council of Churches in the Netherlands
, the association of migrant churches in the Netherlands
SKIN
, the missionary and diaconal agency
KerkinActie
, the interchurch organization for development cooperation
ICCO
and the ecumenical advocacy group
Oikos
.
Media contact in the Netherlands:
Henk van IJken +31 (0)30 880 1791
H.van.IJken@kerkinactie.nl
WCC work on just and inclusive communities:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3105
Additional information:
Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
