WCC team visits Angola, Mozambique for peace building

A team of church representatives is paying a solidarity visit to churches, ecumenical organizations and civil society organizations in Angola and Mozambique from July 18 to 28 in an effort towards reconciliation and overcoming violence.

The "Living Letters" team, traveling on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC), includes Dr. David Valente, general secretary of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Portugal; Anja Michel of Reformed Churches of Bern-Jura-Solothurn, Switzerland; and Marilia Schuller from Koinonia, Brazil.

The team will spend five days in each of the two countries, which share some common historical traits of colonial rule, liberation, civil war and reconstruction. In both countries, churches are engaged in reconciliation efforts and overcoming violence.

In Angola, the visit is being hosted by the Council of Christian Churches in Angola. After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, the country suffered a 27-year civil war which killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the economy and infrastructure. Despite the current post-war reconstruction boom, the majority of the population still lives in poverty.

The Christian Council of Mozambique is hosting the Living Letters team during the second leg of the visit.

Shortly after its independence from Portugal in 1975, Mozambique was drawn into the struggle against white rule taking place in neighboring South Africa and Rhodesia – today's Zimbabwe. Until a political settlement was reached in 1992, war and famine killed up to a million people. Between 2000 and 2002, successive floods and a severe drought hit the country. Today, economic growth is fast, although poverty is widespread.

According to a WCC statement, Living Letters consists of small ecumenical teams that visit a country to listen, learn, share approaches and help confront challenges in order to overcome violence and promote and pray for peace.

Living Letters teams are organized in the context of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence and ahead of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011.