Contact: World Council of Churches, +41-22-791-6153 +41-79-507-6363, media@wcc-coe.org  

MEDIA ADVISORY, June 11 /Standard Newswire/ -- An ecumenical delegation led by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, will visit Haiti from 14-16 June. The purpose of the visit is to express solidarity with the victims of the 12 January earthquake, offer pastoral accompaniment and reflect on the current challenges the churches are facing as they try to serve the Haitian people.

Photo: Maria Havala/ACT -- The 12 January earthquake destroyed many schools in Haiti. In May, the school Saint-Esprit in Léogâne started running classes in tents with the support of the international ecumenical aid group ACT Alliance.  

The delegation will learn first-hand about church projects that are providing support and relief to the victims of the earthquake, and will visit church buildings of different denominations that were destroyed in the quake.

They will pray with leaders of churches in Haiti -- including mainline Protestant churches, Evangelical and Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopal -- and discuss with them what it means to be church together in Haiti today. A meeting with government officials is also on the agenda.

The visit will be hosted by the Protestant Federation of Haiti. It is hoped that it will help the ecumenical family to continue advocating and working together towards a new beginning for the reconstruction of the country, based on justice and self-determination of the Haitian people.

Members of the delegation:

• Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary 
   
• Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC president from North America
   
• Mr. Gerard Granado, Caribbean Conference of Churches general secretary
   
• Rev. Nilton Giese, Latin American Council of Churches general secretary
   
• Mr. Lorenzo Mota King, executive director of Social Services of the Dominican Churches, ACT Alliance
   
• Dr. Victoria Kamondji, vice-president of the French Protestant Federation
   
• Rev. Dr Carlos E. Ham, WCC programme executive for Latin America and the Caribbean

Media contact in Haiti: Maria Halava, +509.39.00.52.37

WCC member churches in Haiti

Relief and development work by churches in Haiti

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.