News
An exploration of changes in church and society since 1966 will be a central feature of the forthcoming meeting of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) central committee - the WCC's main governing body between assemblies.
During the 30 August-6 September meeting, a public event on 4 September and a consultation on 5-6 September on the theme "Acting together for transformation" will commemorate the 40th anniversary of a landmark 1966 WCC World Conference on Church and Society.
Scheduled to speak at the public event are former WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, Geneva 1966 participant Dr Antonios Papantoniou and Dr Puleng Lenka Bula. Among those slated to speak during the two-day consultation are Prof. Mercy Oduyoye, Dr Lukas Vischer, Dr Pamela Brubaker, Dr Peter Pavlovic, Dr Ninan Koshy, Dr Andrea Fröchtling and Dr Nancy Cardoso.
The 1966 conference focused on the social and technical revolutions of the time, anticipated later debates on disarmament, racism and a New International Economic Order, and broke new ground in that Southern voices were clearly heard for the first time, thus breaking Northern dominance in setting the discourse.
The special event and consultation will consider the 1966 conference's relevance today in relation to the WCC's AGAPE (Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth) process, look at new and urgent challenges not perceived in 1966, and clarify how tensions between Northern and Southern perspectives at that time may have evolved, or even sharpened, since then.
In addition, a three-day workshop on the AGAPE process is scheduled immediately after the central committee meeting. It will discuss how to deepen AGAPE's theological, economic, social, political, cultural and ecological components, and will attempt to outline the way forward.
Tasks, identity of new central committee
The WCC central committee meets for the first time since it was elected last February by the 9th Assembly of the WCC in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Its main tasks will be to decide on programme plans and a renewed organizational structure for the Council, as well as to appoint a series of advisory bodies.
The committee is expected to consider a number of issues, including just trade, the plight of children in conflict situations in Africa (with particular focus on Northern Uganda), HIV/AIDS and the current crisis in the Middle East.
At the meeting, Rev. Dr Walter Altmann of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) will play the role of moderator for the first time since his election by the committee immediately after the Assembly.
Elected from a pool of names put forward by the WCC's 348 member churches, the committee counts 63 women (42%), 22 youth (15%), and six indigenous persons (4%). 97 members of the committee are ordained (65%).
In the early part of the meeting and again towards its close, testimonies on what it means to live within a Christian community in pluralistic societies will enable committee members to gain insights into each others' contexts and concerns.
The meeting will take place under the leadership of the new moderator, and that of new vice moderators Metropolitan Dr Gennadios of Sassima (Limouris) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and Rev. Dr Margaretha Hendriks-Ririmasse of the Protestant Church in the Moluccas.
RELATED WCC LINKS:
- Provisional central committee meeting agenda
- List of central committee members
- Biodata and photos of WCC officers