Download high resolution photos
These photos may be used free of charge. Please credit as follows:
© WCC archives
(or as indicated)
 | Chakko (247.1 kb)When a Methodist bishop asked Sarah Chakko, principal of Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow, India, to the Amsterdam assembly, she told him she was Syrian Orthodox, not Methodist. When he replied that she would represent “younger churches”, she reminded him that her church was more than 1600 years old. After the assembly she worked for the WCC women’s department; later she was appointed a WCC president. |
 | Jiagge (543.49 kb)The first woman to be a lawyer, a judge, an appeals court judge and a supreme court judge in her native Ghana, Annie Jiagge was also the first African woman president of the WCC, elected by the 5th assembly. |
 | Mott (288.15 kb)US Methodist layman John R. Mott travelled around the world to win students to the Christian faith and to the service of ecumenical student movements. He presided at most of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh 1910. Thereafter he devoted more and more time to organizations bringing Christians together in mission and service. |
 | Visserthooft (1.14 mb)Like many early leaders of the movement, Willem Visser 't Hooft had his formative ecumenical experience in the Student Christian Movement. He was named WCC general secretary at the 1938 meeting where the WCC was first formed. © WCC/John Taylor |
 | 1983 Potter (878.81 kb)WCC general secretary Philip Potter addressing the 6th assembly in Vancouver. © WCC/Peter Williams |
 | 1991 Castro (971.38 kb)Emilio Castro, WCC general secretary from 1985-1992, at a central committee meeting in Geneva 1991. © WCC/Peter Williams |
 | 1994 Tutu (511.32 kb)The Anglican archbishop of cape Town, Desmond Tutu, at the WCC central committee's first meeting in South Africa in 1994. © WCC/Peter Williams |
 | 1998 Mandela (621.7 kb)When the WCC celebrated its 50th anniversary at its 1998 assembly in Harare, Nelson Mandela called the WCC Programme to Combat Racism an expression of "true solidarity" that was "not merely the charitable support of distant benefactors, but a joint struggle for shared aspirations." "To us in South and Southern Africa, and indeed the entire continent," he said, "the WCC has always been known as a champion of the oppressed and the exploited." © WCC/Chris Black |
 | Barot (759.16 kb)Trained as an archaeologist, Madeleine Barot was one of the moving spirits behind the formation of the French agency CIMADE. |
 | 1967 King (515.68 kb)US Baptist pastor and civil rights leader Martin Luther King on a visit to the World Council of Churches in June 1967. © WCC/John Taylor |
 | Soederblom (529.78 kb)Nathan Söderblom (centre) at the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm 1925 |
 | 1970s Freire (582.72 kb)Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator who popularized the term “conscientization”. © WCC/John Taylor |
 | Blake (516.77 kb)WCC general secretary from 1966-1972, Eugene Carson Blake had already demonstrated his leadership qualities with the United Presbyterian Church and the National Council of Churches in the USA. |
 | Niemoeller (540.31 kb)A submarine commander in the first world war, Martin Niemöller spent much of the second world war in concentration camps for opposing the Nazis. A member of the central committee from 1948, he was elected a WCC president in 1961. |
 | 1960s Athenagoras (1.26 mb)Athenagoras I of Constantinople the first ecumenical patriarch to visit WCC headquarters. © WCC/John Taylor |
 | 1948 Bliss (1.04 mb)The famous phrase “we intend to stay together” was coined by Kathleen Bliss, who also authored one of the earliest books commissioned by the WCC - on The Service and Status of Women in the Churches. Speaking at the Amsterdam assembly, she linked the issues of women’s ministry and the ministry of the laity. In 1949 she became secretary of the commission on the Life and Work of Women in the Church. |
 | Raiser (309.56 kb)The Lutheran theologian Konrad Raiser, WCC general secretary from 1993-2003, addressing the WCC Central Committee in Potsdam, Germany, 2001. © WCC/Peter Williams |