The director of the Ecumenical Institute is Fr Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, a theologian and priest from the Orthodox Church of Romania and himself a former Bossey student.
Ioan Sauca's main field of research is systematic theology with a particular focus on issues of mission and spirituality in the context of our time. His special interests include areas of inter-faith dialogue, ecumenical formation and inter-confessional encounters that nurture the visible unity of the church. Sauca has published several books, studies and articles, organized international seminars and research on these themes, and continues to teach and direct students in the elaboration of their Master and Ph.D. theses.
Sauca holds a Ph.D. in missiology from the University of Birmingham, Great Britain, where he presented a thesis on "The missionary implications of Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology". In Romania, he has taught mission and ecumenism at the Theological Faculty of Sibiu. In 1990, he went on to work as chancellor of the Romanian Orthodox patriarchate, with particular responsibility for ecumenical and church relations, press and communication and theological education.
From 1994, Sauca worked at the World Council of Churches (WCC) as executive secretary for Orthodox studies and relationships in mission. In 1998, he was appointed as professor of missiology at the Ecumenical Institute. In 2001, he became the director of the Ecumenical Institute, a position that was combined with responsibility for the other areas of education and ecumenical formation in the WCC in late 2006.
Sauca was born in 1956 in Valea Mare, Romania. He was ordained priest in 1988. He is married and has two children.
The directors of the Ecumenical Institute:
2001- Ioan Sauca (Orthodox, Romania)
1997-2001 Heidi Hadsell (Presbyterian, USA)
1989-97 Jacques Nicole (Reformed, Switzerland)
1989-90 Samuel Amirtham (Anglican, India)
1983-89 Adriaan Geense (Reformed, Netherlands)
1978-83 Karl Hertz (Lutheran, USA)
1974-80 John Mbiti (Anglican, Kenya)
1966-74 Nikos Nissiotis (Orthodox, Greece)
1955-66 Hans-Heinrich Wolf (Lutheran, Germany)
1946-55 Hendrik Kraemer (Reformed, Netherlands)
