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The role of
the Church in the building and consolidation of peace in
Burundi
A
workshop organized by the Province brought together 125 lay
people from all the dioceses between the 9 - 11th July 2007 to
consider various aspects of the role of the Church in
peace-building. %20a.jpg) Funded
by Trinity Church, New York, it was the first part of a larger
project to increase the capacity of 250 pastors and 250 lay
people over a period of 2 years and initiate development
projects in order to assist poor rural areas, address the issues
of violence against women and HIV and AIDS, reduce poverty, and
encourage good governance.
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The
workshop was opened by the first Vice-President of
Burundi, His Excellency, Dr. Martin Nduwimana, who
commended the Anglican Church for its efforts to support
the Government and country in peace-building and
development. Consideration was given to the key concepts
of traditional culture, key Christian values, good
governance, the importance of truth and justice for
reconciliation, and the role of women, the media, and
civil society in peace-building. Following the expositions
participants had opportunity to ask questions and engage
in group discussion followed by plenary sessions to report
their deliberations. Commenting on the workshop,
participants said that they now realized that issues of
peace-building and good governance were for everyone not
just politicians and Church leaders.
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were aware that everyone working together and playing
their part could achieve a lot in re-building and
developing the country againIt was also important for
people to understand and value their roots and the
traditional values of their culture in the process of
arriving at truth, justice and reconciliation in society.
The workshop concluded with a number of recommendations
that will be analysed by the House of Bishops in order to
arrive at some strategies for their implementation. . |
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