WCC General Secretary to visit India amid attacks on Christians

A delegation of the World Council of Churches (WCC) headed by General Secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia is scheduled to visit India, which is witnessing large–scale attacks on minority Christians in recent months.

At the invitation of the Church of North India, Kobia will arrive New Delhi on 16 Oct and on Friday, 17, a keynote address will be made at the CNI General Assembly meeting taking place in Pathankot, state of Punjab.

The agenda also includes meetings in Delhi with the leadership of the Methodist Church in India, the Catholic Bishops' Conference and state officials.

Following the violence on Christians in India, the executive committee of the WCC recently issued a statement expressing concern over the attacks by Hindu fanatics. The wave of violence has so far killed 61 people, injured 18,000, destroyed 4,500 homes, and burned and razed 181 churches.

It further urged the government of India to meet its constitutional obligations and said the violence is “an assault on the Constitution of India.”

"The govt. should take steps to prevent violence, and harassments against the Christian minorities in Orissa and other parts of the country," its statement said.

With the conclusion of the CNI meeting on 21 October, Kobia and a three member delegation will head to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo where ethnic conflicts and civil war between governments dominated by the Singhalese majority and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been taking place. (Read more–Sri Lanka in Danger: Needs Church’s intervention)

The neighboring island nation with a population of 19 million has been suffering for more than 25 years, in spite of the interference of the UNO and the International communities.

An ecumenical "Living Letters" team, who visited Sri Lanka on behalf of the WCC in August 2007, had called on churches worldwide to "bring Sri Lanka back to the forefront of the international efforts for peace making."

The World Council of Churches is an ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, uniting together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries.