AMERICA/JAMAICA - More than a thousand people expected from around the world for Peace Sunday, 22 May

Thursday, 17 March 2011

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Kingston (Agenzia Fides) – During a recent ceremony in Kingston, Jamaica, organised by the Councils of Churches of Jamaica and of the Caribbean, the Antilles was chosen as the host of the imminent International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC), the ecumenical peace meeting to be held on the Mona campus of the University of West Indies in Kingston, from 17 to 25 May.
From the sound of a new song written specifically for the upcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC), to a proclamation that Jamaica is the proper place for this peace event, the IEPC was officially launched at a ceremony in Kingston, Jamaica on 15 March organized by the Jamaican Council of Churches and the Caribbean Conference of Churches, hosts of the IEPC.
Fides received a statement released by the World Council of Churches in which Archbishop Donald Reece, president of the Caribbean Conference of Churches, said he believes that “Jamaica is the proper place to have this convocation.”
“We do have a setting where we can analyze the march from violence to that march toward peace,” he said, referring to a history of violence in Jamaica and the region that includes the sins of slavery and indentured servitude. “We are not called to experience war and hatred, but we are called to experience oneness and peace,” he said.
In delivering the official launching address, Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director of the public witness programme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its Commission of the Churches in International Affairs, gave an overview of the WCC’s peace work over the decades and how the IEPC is rooted in the context of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) which ended last year.
While the IEPC will recognize the work done during the decade to overcome violence, it is also going to be an occasion for churches to “renew their commitment to nonviolence, peace and just peace,” he said.
On Sunday, 22 May 2011, in a worldwide event, churches in every corner of the world are invited to celebrate God’s gift of peace. Those who take part will be together in spirit, song and prayer with the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in Jamaica, united in the hope of peace, said the IEPC website. More than 1,000 people from around the world are expected to attend the week-long event. (AP) (17/3/2011 Agenzia Fides)