In a continuation of stubborn, hard-fought efforts to bring peace to their war-torn country, Liberian church representatives on Sunday used their stature as moral leaders to bring together members of Liberian civil society, political factions and religious groups and find ways to move forward in the work of nation-building.
The watchwords at the Aug. 3 consultation of Liberians in exile in Ghana were national unity - putting the interests of Liberia ahead of factional, political and ethnic loyalties.
"Liberia should be in the forefront of our thinking," said John G. Innis, the Resident Bishop of the United Methodist Church in Liberia and the acting president of the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC). "We've lost the values of love, accountability and togetherness."
Kwesi A. Dickson, president of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), added: "The country must come first." Disunity, he warned, would lead to a situation of "total dehumanization."
The consultation, co-sponsored by the LCC, the AACC, Church World Service (CWS) and the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa, was held at the offices of the Christian Council of Ghana. It brought together more than 50 participants, representing a range of groups that have been working for peace in Liberia.
The meeting provided a rare opportunity for leaders of the Liberian exile community in Ghana to come together and try to find common ground in what remains a fluid situation: as of Aug. 4, there was still no peace agreement among warring factions in Liberia, West African peacekeepers had just arrived in the country and, perhaps most importantly, Liberian President Charles Taylor had announced he would resign within a week but had not promised he would actually leave the country.
In the midst of such continued uncertainty, the Liberians at the consultation agreed that achieving political stability and eventual peace in Liberia would not be easy. While some wanted the eventual political process within Liberia to accelerate as quickly as possible - there are at least 24 Liberians said to be considering running for president once elections can be held -- others underlined the initial need for a stabilized humanitarian environment.
"Peace cannot be established when they are still fighting," said the Rev. Priscilla Jaiah of the United Methodist Church and a member of one of several women-led peace groups at the consultation. Willie Belleh, an opposition political leader who teaches business management at the University of Liberia, said there was understandable "impatience" about the current crisis, particularly by Liberians, like himself, who are eager to return home.
But, he said, "the implicit suggestion" that the selection of a new president would somehow guarantee peace was wrong-headed. "You can't talk about electing a president when there's still a war," he said. "The search for peace is a slow, tedious process."
The consultation followed two days of meetings in which LCC members and CWS staff met separately with representatives of the Liberian government and the rebel factions to advocate for peace and call for a swift resolution of the Liberian conflict. The warring parties have been meeting in the Accra, the capital of Ghana, for ongoing peace talks.
Bishop Innis pressed each of the groups to quickly sign a peace accord and end fighting. "God is holding us responsible," Innis told members of the rebel faction Liberians United for Reconcilation and Democracy (LURD) at an Aug 1 meeting. "Liberia is bleeding."
Ivan DeKam, the leader of a CWS assessment team working with LCC representatives to coordinate the next phase of humanitarian assistance, told LURD members that "what happens from now on is more important than what happened yesterday," he said. "Remembering the past is important but to be guided by past injustices is a hard road."