by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will pray for peace
Sept. 21, 2009, as part of the "International Day of Prayer for Peace."
The day is an opportunity for the 4.6-million-member denomination "to
pray and act together to nurture lasting peace in the hearts of people,
their families, communities and societies," according to the World
Council of Churches (WCC), based in Geneva. The ELCA is a member of the
WCC. The 2009 theme for the day is "One Love: Building a Peaceful
Caribbean."
"The International Day of Prayer for Peace is a global call for cease-
fire and nonviolence. The Caribbean is a place of extreme beauty, and it
is a place of extreme poverty, HIV and AIDS, poor housing and
environmental degradation. We join hands with our sisters and brothers in
the Caribbean region and around the world as we pray for peace and
justice for all," said Loretta E. Horton, co-chair, ELCA Task Force for a
Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. The task force offers
worship resources in addition to liturgical resources of the WCC, and a
series of videos introducing the International Day of Prayer for Peace.
The idea for the International Day of Prayer for Peace was proposed in a
2004 meeting between the Rev. Samuel Kobia, WCC general secretary, and
Kofi A. Annan, former general-secretary of the United Nations. The day is
an initiative of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence and coincides with
the United Nations'International Day of Peace.
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
