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The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed support to the churches in India amidst increasing acts of violence and vandalism affecting Christian communities in the country.
“I was deeply disturbed to hear of one more act of vandalism on a church in Hisar district of Haryana state on Sunday, 15 March 2015, and of the gang rape of a septuagenarian nun in the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School in Ranaghat town of West Bengal state a few days earlier,” said Tveit in a letter to Rev. Dr Roger Gaikwad, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI). The letter was issued on 19 March.
Tveit went on to say that these attacks are a cause of concern as they are perceived to be part of a wider pattern of repression against minority communities and their fundamental right to practise and profess a religion of their choice.
“In this regard, the recent rise in attacks on Christians and Christian institutions poses a deep threat to the secular and pluralistic social fabric of India where various religious communities have thrived and lived harmoniously through the ages,” he added.
“The World Council of Churches condemns any act of violence or violation which targets people and places on the basis of their religious identity, and upholds the sanctity and dignity of all life and the universal right to religious freedom,” Tveit stressed.
Affirming the stance taken by the NCCI in its 2 December 2014 letter to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the government to “bring in suitable measures to cultivate a culture of democratic secularism”, Tveit encouraged the government to “take appropriate and urgent measures to prevent further violation of human dignity or violence against the Christian community in India”.
Read full text of the WCC general secretary’s letter
