9 May: WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser is to visit Haiti later this month to meet representatives of the Haitian churches and learn about the life of the churches there. The visit - the first by a WCC general secretary - comes at a time of mounting social and political tension.

16 May: Raiser says he is impressed by the courageous joint message issued by the Catholic and Protestant churches of Haiti reminding the authorities of their duty to organize elections on 21 May.

19 May: The main aim of his visit is to restore contact with the country’s churches at the request of the Haitian Protestant Federation, Raiser says. Beyond that, he is glad to be able to express WCC solidarity at this time of great insecurity. In conversations with Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis and leaders of the opposition, he reiterates the Haitian churches’ growing concern about the country’s economic, social and political crisis and calls on the politicians to put their partisan struggles behind them and give more thought to the interests of the Haitian people.

6 July: An ecumenical team jointly sponsored by the WCC and the Lutheran World Federation announces that it will not continue to observe Haiti’s second round of elections, scheduled for 9 July, having noted irregularities and tension in the voting process during local and legislative elections on 21 May 2000.

Asia

9 March: Issues of social and economic justice in the context of globalization, as well as reconciliation and conflict resolution, will be among the topics addressed by Konrad Raiser during a visit to the Philippines from 11 to 17 March, his first as WCC general secretary.

17 March: During his visit, Raiser meets with leaders of WCC member churches, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, public officials, and women and peace groups in Manila. He also visits a Muslim community and leaders of a Muslim separatist movement in the southern part of the country. Raiser reports being impressed by rising militarism, the extent of interchurch cooperation, and ongoing attempts to redefine the role of churches in communities.

Overcoming violence

March: Meeting WCC International Relations staff in New York during a preparatory meeting for a UN conference onIllicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects in 2001, the UN secretary general’s special representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara A. Otunnu, welcomes WCC support for advocacy work on behalf of war-affected children. Ahead of the conference the WCC is planning a series of regional and sub-regional meetings. The churches are well placed to address the relevant social, economic and political measures needed to reduce individuals’ and communities’ demand for, and reliance on, small arms.

19 March: “The mood is festive in San Salvador’s cathedral plaza,” says Charles Harper, the former secretary of the WCC’s Human Rights Resources Office for Latin America.“People stroll about examining the portraits of Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the city’s beloved archbishop, cut down by an assassin’s bullet on 24 March 1980.” Harper attended Romero’s funeral in 1980 but was unable to deliver a WCC message because the service was interrupted by gunfire that left 40 people dead. This March he has returned to El Salvador for a week commemorating the martyrdom of “San Romero de América”. The week begins with an exhibition which, says Harper, “is striking not only for its message but because... violence is still omnipresent in El Salvador”.

Mid-April: On a visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, East Timorese leader José Ramos Horta thanks the ecumenical movement for its support to his country’s independence. Calling for perpetrators of atrocities in his country to be brought to justice, Ramos Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with the Roman Catholic Bishop of East Timor Carlos Belo, insists that only an end to impunity “can prevent crimes against humanity from occurring time and time again”.

21 July: An unexpected combination, the WCC and a dance theatre troupe, will get together on 2 September at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany, to present an aspect of the Council’s work in dance and music. Sponsoring the troupe is a WCC network called “Peace to the City”. It was formed in 1997 when peace initiatives in seven cities got together to highlight creative, community-based models for reducing conflict and violence, and building bridges of reconciliation.

28 July: In Brazil, an ecumenical consultation on small arms in Latin America calls on churches to address urgently the problems of violence in Latin American society and of the diffusion and misuse of small arms in particular. The meeting, organized by the WCC with the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) and Viva Rio, a local NGO, says that a first step towards an effective response must involve, firstly, acknowledgment that the crisis must be addressed at the local level and, secondly, that effective attention at the local level is aided by international initiatives to address the small arms problem at a global level.

21 August: “What is the Peace to the City dance drama’s message?” asks WCC media relations officer Karin Achtelstetter. She is talking to dance drama producer Lusmarina Campos Garcia from Brazil. “That there are alternative ways to rebuild people’s broken relationships and lives… People who are sensitive to peace and to art... who might not be reachable by books, conferences, speeches… Almost everything is special about creating a music and dance production for the WCC. This is the first time the WCC has commissioned something like this. Everyone is learning what it means to set up a professional artistic production.”

30 August: Speaking at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at UN headquarters in New York, WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser says that religious leaders cannot pretend to assume the responsibilities of government but should have “something to say about dialogue in the sphere of global governance”. Conscious that “wars are being fought in many parts of the world appealing to the name of religion”, Raiser regrets that religion continues to suffer misuse by powerful people “whose interests have little to do with religion, faith or the spirituality of believers”.

16 October: Konrad Raiser sends a letter to Kim Dae-jung, president of the Republic of Korea, expressing his “deep satisfaction and joy” on the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award Dr Kim the Nobel Peace Prize. Raiser underscores Kim Dae-jung’s long struggle for peace and democracy and recalls how the ecumenical community has accompanied efforts towards reconciliation and the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.

13 November: Clergy and police officers from nine tense cities are sharing ideas for overcoming violence at a workshop in Boston, USA, on urban violence and human security, sponsored by the WCC. The nine cities – Belfast, Bogota, Braunschweig, Durban, Freetown, Kingston, Rio de Janeiro, Tuzla and Boston – have all been designated by the WCC’s Peace to the City programme as centres of creative response to urban and domestic violence. The 25 participants include clergy, government leaders and law-enforcement officials. Workshop host Jeffrey Brown is introducing them to Boston clergy and police, who are making great strides in reducing domestic and gang violence in the city. 17 November: “As we celebrate Christmas this year,” says Konrad Raiser in his Christmas message 2000, “let us consider that we can contribute to overcoming violence and building a culture of peace. Living in a situation where violence has become omnipresent, those who have heard and accepted the gospel of the peace of Christ are entrusted with the message of reconciliation. They are made ambassadors for Christ and called into a ministry of reconciliation.”