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The World Council of Churches (WCC) congratulated the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) on its 40th anniversary.
From 14 to 16 October in The Hague, ECRE is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the consultation that led to the Brussels-based refugee council.
Rev. Karin van den Broeke, a member of WCC Central Committee as well as the moderator of the General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, is representing WCC at the meeting in The Hague.
“Taking responsibility for human beings in desperate need is a shared responsibility of all people,” said van den Broeke.
The ECRE meeting is taking take place at The Hague’s Mauritshuis museum, home to a world-renowned collection of highly-regarded Dutch paintings from the Golden Age.
“As people of good will, we need to journey together on a pilgrimage of justice and peace in an international community struggling to cope with population displacement caused by conflict and crimes against humanity,” said van den Broeke.
The WCC gives thanks to ECRE, she said, for its significant role in protecting and advancing the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons.
“The WCC encourages churches to welcome the stranger and to model a compassionate response to people in desperate need,” said the WCC representative.
Among ECRE’s members is the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME-CEC) which joined in ECRE in 1994 and, along with the Conference of European Churches, shares member churches with the WCC.
“Let us move together on a pilgrimage of justice and peace, to promote an open and welcoming approach to the ‘stranger’ in need and distress, to help receive and care for refugees in full respect for their God-given human dignity,” said van den Broke.
WCC’s work on migration and social justice
