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

MEDIA ADVISORY, July 16 /Standard Newswire/ -- Churches working for peace in Indonesia - a country which over the last decades had to cope with repeated outbreaks of ethnic and religious conflicts, the integration of internally displaced people as well as refugees from outside its borders - will receive a solidarity visit of an international ecumenical delegation sent by the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 17 to 24 July.

The delegation members (see list below) will learn about peace-building projects by Indonesian Christians and share experiences made in their own churches in Australia, USA, Germany, Korea and Sudan.

After a general introduction in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the delegation will split into two groups in order to visit different regions.

While Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, has a tradition of tolerance, the regions of Central Sulawesi and the Moluccas have been the scene of Muslim-Christian fighting after 1998. Meetings on 18-20 July in Poso (Central Sulawesi) and Ambon (Moluccas), including an encounter with Muslim leaders, will be an opportunity to learn about initiatives to tackle radicalism.

From Sulawesi, the first group will travel on to Kupang in the western part of the Timor island, capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The province has seen a considerable influx of refugees and deportees following the independence referendum in East Timor in 1999.

Meanwhile, the second group will pay a visit to West Papua, where tensions between the traditional Christian majority and Muslim migrants arriving from other Indonesian islands have led to "the emergence of new, exclusivist groups in both religious communities", according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group. Over the past years the WCC has also repeatedly expressed its concern over human rights violations against the indigenous people of Papua.

On 24 July, both groups will be back in Jakarta for an evaluation session with the executive board of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), who hosts the visit.

The ecumenical delegation is sent to Indonesia as "living letters" to express the solidarity of the WCC fellowship, which comprises 349 churches worldwide. Until 2010, several Living Letters visits take place each year throughout the world in the context of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence in order to prepare for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011.

Indonesia, the world's 4th most populous nation, is also the country with the biggest number of WCC member churches, 27 in total.

Group visiting Poso and Kupang:

Rev. Vanessa D. Sharp, theologian; executive board member of the Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) representing the Presbyterian AIDS Network; co-chair of SisterLove Inc. Board of Directors (Atlanta, USA/South Africa); Presbyterian Church (USA)
Mr Yoonsuk Sol, theologian; general secretary of the national federation of PCK youth; Presbyterian Church of Korea, South Korea
Staff:
Rev. Gomar Gultom, executive secretary of Diaconia Cluster, Communion of Churches in Indonesia
Ms Maria Baile Rubio , Ecumenical Solidarity and Regional Relations project assistant, WCC

Group visiting Ambon and West Papua:

Rev. Prof. James Haire , professor of theology; executive committee member of the Christian Conference of Asia; director of the Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre and the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (Canberra, Australia); Uniting Church in Australia
Dr Monika Lude, sociologist; executive secretary for ecumenical learning, Association of Churches and Missions in South Western Germany (EMS); co-ordinator of a 2004-2006 international EMS peace campaign, former ecumenical staff in Salatiga, Indonesia (adult education and gender trainings); Germany
Ms Beatrice Mukhtar-Mamuzi, teacher; volunteer in Christian education, youth and music ministries; Episcopal Church of the Sudan
Staff:
Ms Norita Yudiet Tompah, executive secretary of Koinonia Cluster, Communion of Churches in Indonesia
Dr Mathews George Chunakara, WCC programme executive for Asia
Mr Peter Williams, WCC visual arts coordinator

More information on the Decade to Overcome Violence:
http://www.overcomingviolence.org

More information on the Living Letters visits:
http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits.html

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

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 Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.