Call from India to pray for Orissa

The National Council of Churches in India has released this:
As a symbolic expression of solidarity with the suffering people, NCCI is inviting all its constituents, including Churches to dedicate 7th September 2008 Sunday Service to the people of Orissa. The WCC has encouraged the global ecumenical community to join in this prayer. The General Secretary of LWF and the General Secretary of WCC have appealed to the Prime Minister of India for effective intervention to address this serious concern.

You can find the prayer service here (scroll down). This is an extract from the confession of faith:

We experience and witness the Call of Christ amidst the pluralistic tradition and situation of our country. We are called out to be a People, who will be instrumental for the creation of a new world order. A world order, where Justice and Peace will be the corner stones.
We are drawn from innumerable diverse situations of caste, class, gender and race - into the liberative vision for a new Humanity - as shown by Christ. In this journey of ours, adversity has crossed our path. Each encounter with such adversity, is a test for the resilience of our Faith. A test for our love and commitment to Christ’s teaching.

Earlier in the week ENI also reported:

The Global Council of Indian Christians in an appeal to India's National Human Rights Commission on 2 September urged it "to take steps to see that the Christian institutions [in Karnataka] are not penalised for this action of solidarity and peaceful prayer for the victims of violence in Orissa [state]".

More than 30 000 Christian schools and colleges across the country had remained shut on 29 August to protest at what they said was orchestrated violence against Christians in Orissa that has claimed more than 20 lives and left more than 50 000 Christians refugees fleeing their homes to escape attacks by Hindu extremists.