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December 3, 2008

U.S. churches expected to voice concerns and hopes to Obama

by Ecumenical News International

NEW YORK — The United States Conference for the World Council of Churches (WCC) is gathering in Washington, DC, this week and representatives of 24 U.S. churches will deliver a message to President-elect Barack Obama outlining their hopes for his new administration.

The WCC said in a Nov. 26 statement that the message was expected to come from the yearly meeting of the Conference. The Dec. 2-4 meeting will have as its theme “Making Peace: Claiming God’s Promise.”

“Hope and change are at the heart of the Christian season of Advent, as we once again await the birth of the baby Jesus, the Prince of Peace,” said the Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, the WCC president from North America, who belongs to the United Church of Christ.

“In the context of war and want and waste, the WCC’s member churches in the U.S. are eager to share a special word with President-elect Obama, who campaigned on a promise of hope and change,” said Powell Jackson.

Representatives from WCC member churches in the Pacific, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Canada and Europe will join the meeting, at which they will share “stories of peacemaking from their home regions.”

The gathering will address, among other issues, the ethical dimensions of climate change, and the ecumenical involvement in Middle East peacemaking.

Featured speakers will include: Larry Rasmussen; professor emeritus of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York; the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the U.S. National Council of Churches; Rodney Sadler, associate professor of Bible at Union Theological Seminary; Elizabeth Ferris, co-director of the Brookings Institution; the Rev. Eric Fistler, former U.S. national coordinator of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel; and the Rev. Baranite Kirata, secretary for justice and development of the Kiribati Protestant Church in the South Pacific.