In a press release, the World Council of Churches announced an event titled “Lenten Fast Against Violence.” The US committee of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) group openly urged Christians worldwide to abstain from any forms of violence during the Lenten season.
In accordance with this plan, the US Committee for DOV prepared guides for the event. The event will correspond to the weeks in Lent, staring from Sunday, February 13, to Sunday, March 20. Each of the guides will be released weekly. The guides contain biblical reflections, prayers, educational resources, advocacy tools, and non-violent responses to address the topics discussed.
In the new release, the WCC expressed hopes that the guides will allow those in faith to find ways to avoid violence. Each guide consists of a topic including violence in video games, violence in Creation, violence against women, rise in militarism, and issue in Iraq.
The final week’s guide will cover violence associate with poverty-stricken neighborhoods, or “structural-violence.”
The season of Lent is the forty-day period leading to Easter. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on the anniversary of Christ’s miraculous resurrection three-days after the cross.
Edwin C. Tsuei
