ELCA members worshiped at Berlin's Memorial Church and walked in a candlelight procession from the Berlin House of World Cultures to the Brandenburg Gate. Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta admitted the goals of the Decade to Overcome Violence may be a dream but went on to say that some dreams have become reality. One dream was the unification of Germany through the peaceful takedown of the Berlin Wall, he said. Ramos-Horta, a Roman Catholic layman, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his efforts to bring about an end to the conflict between Indonesia and East Timor.
WCC staff is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Churches seeking Reconciliation and Peace, 2001-2010. There was no alternative to armed intervention by the international community in situations like Kosovo, Cambodia and Rwanda where human rights were being abused on a massive scale, he said. The Decade to Overcome Violence is intended to encourage churches and ecumenical partners to overcome all forms of violence and as a statement of the WCC's wish to work together with local communities, secular movements and people of other faiths to build a culture of peace. Its launch yesterday took place as part of a meeting in nearby Potsdam of the WCC's central committee. However, the launch of the decade has been partly overshadowed by debate over whether the use of violence can ever be justified.