Asia is focus of global churches day of prayer for peace
-17/08/05
Churches representing over 560 million Christians world-wide are being invited to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace, 21 September 2005, as an International Day of Prayer for Peace ñ for a second year running.
Launched in 2004 by the World Council of Churches in the context of its Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (2001-2010), the initiative calls on Christian churches all over the world to arrange for services or vigils on 21 September, as well as to include prayers for peace in their services on the Sunday before or after that day.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Prayer for Peace is ìBuilding communities of peace for allî. Churches from Asia, the region chosen as the special focus of the Decade to Overcome Violence during 2005, have proposed this topic.
The theme conveys a ìspirit of celebrating diversity,î says Hope S. Antone, executive secretary for Faith, Mission and Unity of the ecumenical Christian Conference of Asia.
In that spirit, she adds, ìwe Asian Christians would no longer see the other as the mortal enemy… We would instead look at them as brothers, sisters, partners whom God also loves, to whom God has also revealed truths, from whom we can learn about life, living and relating, and in whom we can also find the image of God.î
Resources and prayer materials to prepare for 21 September are available from the WCC’s ‘overcoming violence’ website.
Last year messages were collected from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other leading figures, including UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
The Roman Catholic Church has long maintained its own peace Sunday. In 2005 it was marked on 16 January. The two events are seen as complementary, though churches in Britain and Ireland (through the ecumenical body CTBI) expressed a wish last year for them to be brought together.
The WCC is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with the World Council.
Asia is focus of global churches day of prayer for peace
-17/08/05
Churches representing over 560 million Christians world-wide are being invited to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace, 21 September 2005, as an International Day of Prayer for Peace – for a second year running.
Launched in 2004 by the World Council of Churches in the context of its Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (2001-2010), the initiative calls on Christian churches all over the world to arrange for services or vigils on 21 September, as well as to include prayers for peace in their services on the Sunday before or after that day.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Prayer for Peace is ‘Building communities of peace for all’. Churches from Asia, the region chosen as the special focus of the Decade to Overcome Violence during 2005, have proposed this topic.
The theme conveys a ‘spirit of celebrating diversity,’ says Hope S. Antone, executive secretary for Faith, Mission and Unity of the ecumenical Christian Conference of Asia.
In that spirit, she adds, ‘we Asian Christians would no longer see the other as the mortal enemy… We would instead look at them as brothers, sisters, partners whom God also loves, to whom God has also revealed truths, from whom we can learn about life, living and relating, and in whom we can also find the image of God.’
Resources and prayer materials to prepare for 21 September are available from the WCC’s ‘overcoming violence’ website.
Last year messages were collected from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other leading figures, including UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
The Roman Catholic Church has long maintained its own peace Sunday. In 2005 it was marked on 16 January. The two events are seen as complementary, though churches in Britain and Ireland (through the ecumenical body CTBI) expressed a wish last year for them to be brought together.
The WCC is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with the World Council.