The World Council of Church (WCC) executive committee held meetings at the WCC’s Bossey Ecunemical Institute near Geneva on 13-16 September 2005. In the last full meeting leading up to the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006, the executives discussed various issues and urged churches to take responsibility to nurture healing in broken societies and to promote peace.
The WCC executive committee released a statement on small arms and light weapons, urging churches to exercise their "unique potential" to curb demand for guns and "to affirm God's vision of life in peace and fullness" by "changing public attitudes, shaping community values and becoming a public voice against gun violence."
The WCC will lead an ecumenical delegation at the United Nations Small Arms Review Conference in 2006. A great majority of approximately 350,000 violence-related deaths around the world every year includes small arms.
The committee asked member churches to convey solidarity and to support churches in Haiti to develop a monitoring team during forthcoming elections, referring to the critical situation there.
The committee acknowledged the "enormous challenges faced by the people and the witness of the churches in the country". It also emphasised its "concern for the current unstable political situation", as well as the extreme poverty, violence and human suffering experienced by the population.
The statement calls on churches to "support processes towards genuine popular participation and a new social contract" for the benefit of all.
Churches in Haiti were also called to "intensify ecumenical initiatives" for justice, peace and reconciliation.
Over recent years, the WCC has followed developments in Haiti closely and has led ecumenical efforts to mediate and heal the divided society. In August, the WCC secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia met with church and political leaders in Haiti.
