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The WCC Executive Committee Statement: Commemorating The 2019 Quad-Centennial of the Forced Transatlantic Voyage of Enslaved African Peoples from Angola to Jamestown, Virginia (USA)

The WCC has acknowledged that racism is a church-dividing issue and has underlined the importance of continuing the discussion on restorative justice to people of African descent and Indigenous Peoples. Racism and racial justice is the global theme for the year of 2019 in the common journey of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace (PJP).

Executive committee

Dr Agnes Abuom’s Welcome Remarks WCC Executive Committee, Geneva, 22-28 May 2019

Brothers and sisters, welcome to the Executive Committee meeting. It is a joy to see each one of you. A lot has happened both positive and not so good, since we last met at the stop in our pilgrimage together in Uppsala, Sweden; this stop for was a moment to learn and be exposed to the Swedish ecclesial landscape and we are grateful to the Church of Sweden for their support and solidarity.

Executive committee

Address of Dr Fernard de Varennes-UN special rapporteur on Minority Issues to the Ecumenical Strategic Forum on Racism

At an Ecumenical Strategic Forum, convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 9-10 May, religious leaders examined the painful history of racism and also asked difficult questions about how churches may be accountable for racism today. Dr Fernard de Varennes, United Nations special rapporteur on Minority Issues, reflected that, just in the last few weeks, horrific massacres have occurred in a mosque in New Zealand, in churches and other targets in Sri Lanka, and in a synagogue in the United States. “There are many, too many more examples in recent years,” said de Varennes. “It saddens and disturbs me to say that intolerance of the other has almost become a new normal in some societies, often linked perhaps to insecurity, unease, the zeitgeist of our times being one perhaps of fear for the future – and as history unfortunately has shown much too often religious and other minorities are often used as scapegoats.”

WCC Programmes

"Remembering the legacy" - Baldwin Sjollema

At an Ecumenical Strategic Forum, convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 9-10 May, religious leaders examined the painful history of racism and also asked difficult questions about how churches may be accountable for racism today. Baldwin Sjollema, first director of the WCC Programme to Combat Racism, said that, today, many do not know or have forgotten about the past. “We seek to forget rather than to remember,” said Sjollema. “There is no doubt that the issue of refugees and asylum, of hospitality to and solidarity with people of different races, religions, cultures and sexual identities are part and parcel of the racism and discrimination today.”

WCC Programmes

Ecumenical Strategic Forum on Racism - Welcoming Remarks from the General Secretary

At an Ecumenical Strategic Forum, convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 9-10 May, religious leaders examined the painful history of racism and also asked difficult questions about how churches may be accountable for racism today. In welcoming remarks, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that racism is an ongoing concern of the ecumenical movement. “So often racist behaviour stems from inherited hatred reinforced by self-interest and group identification,” he said. “Invariably it results in diminished prospects for its victims and even in generations of discrimination, gender violence, and poverty; and so race is a constant factor in all the other work you do.”

General Secretary