Czech Republic
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) supports Christian witness and service in the Czech Republic through partner churches and organizations and through our mission personnel, who work closely with these partners. The Czech Working Group is strengthening partnership relations through dialogue.
Moving beyond a long period in which religion has been a source of controversy and enmity, our Czech partners feel a need to move toward grace and healing. They face subtle, challenging circumstances. As a formerly Communist country seeking membership in the European Union, the Czech Republic is moving toward a market economy and western European structures. The members of our partner churches are recovering from the effect of 50 years of Communism on their sense of mission, leadership and lay involvement and on their search to foster and renew international and ecumenical cooperation. They also need our assistance and solidarity in dealing with rapid changes in education, health care, environmental issues and social equality. They must find new places in society in their relationships to government and politics.
There is a numerically significant minority of Roma (Gypsies) in the Czech Republic. The PC(USA) urges our partners to serve as a bridge between the Roma and the majority population. We encourage the Czechs to share the lessons of faith they have learned as they persevered through five decades of Communism. |
