News
Eight churches - from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean region - have been received into the fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC), but the total number of the Council membership increased only from 342 to 347, since other member churches have either merged or applied for joint membership.
At the beginning of its 15-22 February meeting, the WCC central committee welcomed the following five churches as new WCC members:
- Evangelical Baptist Church in Angola
- African Church (Nigeria)
- Protestant Evangelical Church of Guinea
- Methodist Church in Indonesia
- Baptist Convention of Haiti
In addition, three churches were received as new associate members:
- Association of Evangelical Reformed Churches of Burkina Faso
- Presbyterian Church of Colombia
- Methodist Church of Puerto Rico.
Two other membership applications were also accepted by the central committee:
- Protestant Church in the Netherlands
- Moravian Church British Province and European Continental Province of the Moravian Church (EFBU).
The first is the result of a merger between what were formerly the Netherlands Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, all three of them WCC members.
The second was an application for joint membership by the European Continental Province of the Moravian Church with the Moravian Church British Province, both individual members of the Council.
There are two pending cases of churches which have expressed a desire to leave the fellowship of the WCC: the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica (Costa Rica); and the International Evangelical Church (USA).
Six other churches have formally completed the membership process and are expected to be received into the WCC fellowship immediately after the ninth assembly, which their representatives will attend as observers.
Churches applying for membership in the WCC must fulfil a number of criteria. These include a minimum membership of 25,000 members, and the requirement that they be working ecumenically in the region in which they are situated. Churches with fewer members, or which express a desire to be in associate membership, may be accepted in this latter category by the central committee. At least one visit by an ecumenical delegation is made to the church before the application is accepted.
New membership rules are expected to be adopted by the central committee for presentation to the WCC's forthcoming 9th assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006.
Additional information on the churches received into the WCC fellowship is available at:
