Members of the Christian Council of Nigeria have adopted “Out of the Shadows,” a resource designed to end all forms of sexual violence against children.
As children and women in Nigeria become targets of rising insecurity and violence, churches are moving to offer support to the victims, while amplifying their voice against the challenge, according to senior Christian women leaders in the West African nation.
Religious leaders condemned the kidnapping of 140 schoolchildren from the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna, Nigeria, and called for their full release. The attack on 5 July was the fourth mass school kidnapping in Kaduna state since December. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.
Two workshops in Nigeria and Tanzania organized by local church councils in collaboration with the World Council of Churches (WCC), All Africa Conference of Churches, and UNICEF consolidated the partnership on ending sexual violence against children.
In many ways, the World Council of Churches (WCC) pilgrimage of justice and peace hinges on protecting, advocating, and educating people about human rights. In Nigeria, a series of workshops in November promoted human rights across a number of WCC programme areas, including the Churches’ Commitments to Children, preventing gender-based violence, and engaging with the United Nations human rights system.
“Children need to know their place in the church. And that is at the front, not the back”, said Bishop Raphael Opoko from the Methodist Church of Nigeria, speaking at a round table discussion on promoting the rights of children held on 19 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva.
The kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014 is sadly symbolic of the suffering of children in Nigeria, says the pastor who heads the Council of Churches of Nigeria.
The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.
The abduction of more than 250 young women by the Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria has prompted “profound concern” from the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. In his letter to Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, Tveit encouraged “swift and peaceful” action to restore these students back to their homes.
