LWF Council Meeting 2004
Geneva, Switzerland, 1-7 September 2004
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Council participants during the Sunday eucharistic service at the Ecumenical Centre chapel in Geneva. © LWF/H. Putsman |
Lutheran Leaders Urged to Respond to Cry for Peace in the World
Speaking against the backdrop of the massacre of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia, and recent slayings in Brazil, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Rev. Lusmarina Campos Garcia urged Lutheran leaders not to lose sight of peace.
"As long as peace is not a reality in the world, we cannot stop seeking it. How we respond to the outcry of peace shows how committed we are to it," she said during the Sunday eucharistic service for participants in the September 1-7 Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council meeting. The worship was held at the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, where the LWF offices are located.
Garcia said the pursuit of peace involves love, forgiveness and a counter-cultural approach. Preaching on the New Testament book of Philemon, Garcia told worshippers that like Philemon and his runaway slave Onesimus, "we are confronted with issues and situations that challenge our values and cultural structures, we are called to review our concepts and renew our positions [and] are invited to bring our hearts to our decision-making processes and to judge others on the basis of love." More...
Click here for the full text of the sermon of Rev. Lusmarina Campos Garcia in PDF format.
LWF Council Condemns Attacks on Civilians, Pleads for Peacekeeping Force for Sudan
The LWF Council has condemned attacks by militia against communities in the Darfur region of Sudan and expressed dismay at the refusal by the government of Sudan to accept an adequate force of international peacekeepers in the region.
Ms Diadem Depayso from the Philippines presenting the Program Committee report. |
As a mark of solidarity with the victims of the violence and with its ecumenical partners, the 2004 Council also endorsed the call by the Catholic bishops of Sudan for help from the international community to prevent the 'terror, rape, torture, murder and slavery' and 'annihilation of an entire ethnic group in Darfur.' The LWF governing body also urged the government of Sudan to enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of the region, and for all parties to the conflict to negotiate a just and peaceful settlement. More.
Russia: Beslan Massacre, Evokes 'Strong sense of Revulsion' as It Targets Children
In response to the massacre of over 300 hostages at a school in Beslan, Russia, the Council said it was "horrified by the news of the bloodshed". The Council described the incident as an "atrocity [that] evokes a particularly strong sense of revulsion, because the armed insurgents who planned it and carried it out deliberately targeted children. No cause can justify such inhumanity."
Plenary session at the Council meeting in Geneva. © LWF/D.Zimmermann |
Also named in the Council action were the violent attacks in recent days on civilians in Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Moscow. The people most directly affected by the escalating violence in the world today were non-combatants whose only 'crime' was to be associated in the minds of their attackers with a perceived enemy or to be seen as representative of 'the other', the statement said. The Council said that attacks on civilians are in violation of the fundamental religious and ethical principle that human life and dignity is to be valued and respected. "The LWF condemns all such atrocities regardless of the claimed justification." More.
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