Pastors for Peace Founder Lucius Walker Dies at 80

And the Reverend Lucius Walker has died at the age of eighty. Walker was the executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization and the founder of Pastors for Peace. A longtime advocate for ending the US embargo of Cuba, Reverend Walker took part in a number of annual US-Cuba Friendship Caravans to Cuba. Speaking to caravan participants in 2009, Walker called for a radical shift in US policy.

Rev. Lucius Walker: "We don’t consider Cuba our enemy, but rather our neighbor. And as people who are motivated by the great teachers of faith, we believe that we are to love our neighbors. That means we have to act contrary to US policy, which is an imposition of a blockade against Cuba to try to force it to do the will of the US rather than to pursue its own path towards a better world."

from Democracy NOW


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IFCO Executive Director Reverend Lucius Walker Passed Away.

Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs

CUBA, September 8, 2010.- Reverend Lucius Walker, Executive Director of the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), and Pastors for Peace´s founder passed away on Tuesday in New York.

Lucius Walker, beloved friend and comrade of the Cuban people, was the founder of Pastors for Peace which led 21 US-Cuba Friendship Caravans to Cuba. The recent caravan was carried out last July which brought humanitarian aid to the people on the island.

Lucius had celebrated his 80th birthday with his friends in Cuba which he characterized as his second home.

Pastors for Peace traveled to the island in defiance to Washington´s economic blockade against Cuba.

Pastors for Peace is an ecumenical agency whose mission is to help forward the struggles of oppressed peoples for justice and self-determination.

from Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Dear Friends in South Carolina,

We have lost a valiantly courageous, outspoken, warrior for literacy, justice, peace and universal human rights with the death of Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr.

Through his efforts as Director of Pastors for Peace and the wise
generosity of the Cuban Ministry of Health, there are, currently, two young men from South Carolina enrolled in the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba, on full, six year scholarships. One is a second year Medical Student and the other is in his first year. Our goal is to increase this scholarship enrollment from South Carolina, both, in number and diversity.

In the near future, we will convene a memorial tribute for Rev. Walker in Charleston, SC, part honoring the annual Cuban Caravan visit, part as redoubling and rededicating of our outreach to young people in South Carolina to apply for the Medical School Scholarship Program, all with the central, underlying purpose of honoring the courageous life and continuing the purposeful work of Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr.

Presente!
Jim Campbell
Charleston, South Carolina

from the New Liberator