WCC urges united action for peace in Syria

(Vatican Radio) With the threat of immediate military action in Syria receding, Churches around the world must continue to raise their voices together in support of a peace conference and a lasting negotiated solution among all parties to the conflict.
That’s the message contained in a communiqué issued on Thursday by the World Council of Churches, following a high level meeting with former UN leader Kofi Annan, the current UN representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and church leaders from Syria, Russia, the US and Europe.

The consultation held on Wednesday in Geneva urged church leaders to continue to “strengthen the public outcry so that those in power will protect the common interest of humanity.” Resolute action is now necessary to save lives, the communiqué states, calling on the UN Security Council to adopt without delay a resolution based on the agreement by Russian and American foreign ministers. It also urges the Council to set a date for a second Syria peace conference, as well as the implementation of immediate steps to de-escalate the conflict and support humanitarian aid to war victims and refugees.

The Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit told Philippa Hitchen that church leaders must seize the momentum created by recent peace initiatives – including Pope Francis’ calls for peace in the region…


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We've seen in the last weeks that many initiatives, for example from Pope Francis and many other Church leaders in different parts of the world to stop a military attack on Syria, now really became a united voice......that we don't believe in a military solution and that we are also committing ourselves to do whatever we can to support a peace process in Syria. So I think it is now time to continue the strong involvement of the last weeks and now speak up for a Geneva 2 conference to be set to to be given the authority and the possibility to really negotiate a solution......

We see Churches have a very important role in building public opinion but also in giving advice and urging governments to find a way forward to peace

We were challenged by these gentlemen (Annan and Brahimi) and responded immediately that we will organise a parallel conference in our ecumenical centre in Geneva, calling Church and other religious leaders to come and both discuss what our contribution can be and also to manifest the will of our constituents....

This is also what I tried to convey in my first greeting (to Pope Francis) when I thanked him for choosing the name Francis as a sign of his commitment to work for justice and peace for all but especially the most marginalised.....this is exactly our strategy and agenda of the WCC as we prepare ourselves for our 10th Assembly we have the theme 'God of life, lead us to justice and peace' - I think that's also a sign of how much we have a common strategy and programme on this"