WCC’s Kobia focuses on human rights in Philippines
By United Methodist News Service
Nov. 19, 2007
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The Rev. Samuel Kobia
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Concern about human rights violations in the Philippines is a major
focus as the chief executive of the World Council of Churches visits the
country Nov. 18-21.
The Rev. Samuel Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya, is expected to meet with
victims of human rights violations and families of victims of abductions
and extrajudicial executions. He also will visit with representatives
of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, the Catholic
Bishops Conference and various churches.
Kobia delivered the commemorative sermon Nov. 18 at the Iglesia Filipina
Independiente for the late Most Rev. Alberto Ramento, who was brutally
slain in October 2006. On Nov. 20, he will deliver the Gumersindo Garcia
Memorial Lecture, which is organized by the national council in honor
of a late ecumenical leader in the Philippines.
He will be the keynote speaker at the Nov. 21 opening ceremony of the
22nd general convention of the National Council of Churches in the
Philippines, which takes place every four years.
Kobia is accompanied by Justice Sophia Adinyira of the Supreme Court of
Ghana and a member of the (Anglican) Church of the Province of West
Africa; the Rev. Sandy Yule, national secretary for Christian unity,
Uniting Church in Australia; and the Rev. Mathews George Chunakara, the
WCC program executive for Asia.
The WCC has a longstanding commitment to support advocacy against human
rights violations in the Philippines, according to its press office, and
has joined other organizations in highlighting those violations during
the last two sessions of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.
A report documenting more than 800 victims of extrajudicial executions
in the last six years in the Philippines was presented in Geneva last
March by a Philippine ecumenical delegation sponsored by the council and
the Lutheran World Federation.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
World Council of Churches
Philippines Episcopal Areas
Global Connections: The Philippines
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