September 15, 2009
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will pray for peace Sept. 21, 2009, as part of the "International Day of Prayer for Peace." The day is an opportunity for the 4.6-million-member denomination "to pray and act together to nurture lasting peace in the hearts of people, their families, communities and societies," according to the World Council of Churches (WCC), based in Geneva. The ELCA is a member of the WCC. The 2009 theme for the day is "One Love: Building a Peaceful Caribbean."

"The International Day of Prayer for Peace is a global call for cease- fire and nonviolence. The Caribbean is a place of extreme beauty, and it is a place of extreme poverty, HIV and AIDS, poor housing and environmental degradation. We join hands with our sisters and brothers in the Caribbean region and around the world as we pray for peace and justice for all," said Loretta E. Horton, co-chair, ELCA Task Force for a Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. The task force offers worship resources in addition to liturgical resources of the WCC, and a series of videos introducing the International Day of Prayer for Peace.

The idea for the International Day of Prayer for Peace was proposed in a 2004 meeting between the Rev. Samuel Kobia, WCC general secretary, and Kofi A. Annan, former general-secretary of the United Nations. The day is an initiative of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence and coincides with the United Nations'International Day of Peace.

ELCA News Service