First meeting: Joint Consultative Group between Pentecostal churches and the WCC
Baar, Switzerland
A worship at the Igreja Pentecostal para Cristo, Porto Alegre, during the 9th WCC Assembly, 2006.
Photo: Igor Sperotto / WCC.
The Joint Consultative Group between Pentecostal churches and the World Council of Churches (WCC) is meeting in its new configuration for the first time since the 9th WCC Assembly in 2006 renewed its mandate. Fifteen members of both Pentecostal churches and WCC member churches are convening at the Focolare Centre in Baar near Zurich in October to set the agenda for the next seven years.
The Joint Consultative Group is an instrument for establishing closer ties with churches from the Pentecostal tradition, which have not traditionally been involved with the ecumenical movement nor the WCC. Stage goals include an expansion of the dialogue between Pentecostals and the WCC constituency to the level of regional, sub-regional and national councils of churches; an inclusion of studies on ecumenism and Pentecostalism in the curricula of academic institutions of both traditions; and cooperation in diaconal and practical work.
The meeting in Baar will also provide opportunities to pray together, to share personal testimonies of faith, to study the differences in church histories and ways of praising God and to consider the common bond in Christ.