News
Forging a common and consistent response by churches to the threat of military action in Iraq is the goal of an urgent one-day meeting by European church leaders scheduled for Wednesday, 5 February, in Berlin. The meeting is convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC), following an initiative by the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), and in consultation with the Conference of European Churches (CEC).
The church leaders will meet German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday after the meeting. A press conference is being organized at 14.00 hrs. in the building of the "Evangelischen Akademie" in the French Church Friedrichstadtkirche (French Dom) at the "Berliner Gendarmenmarkt".
Peter Weiderud, coordinator of the WCC International Affairs team, noted in the letter of invitation that " the crisis in Iraq is moving into a new, even more critical, phase" since the weapons' inspectors' first report to the UN Security Council on Monday, 27 January. Emphasizing that Europe has an "extremely significant role" in the present crisis, he stated that the meeting would be "valuable both for individual churches as well as for the ecumenical movement as a whole, in order to prevent an humanitarian catastrophe and the far-reaching implications a possible war would have on the region as well as internationally".
Participants will include WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, CEC general secretary Rev. Dr Keith Clements, and EKD chairman Präses Manfred Kock. Representatives from the Middle East Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA will also be present.
The full list of participants follows:
Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches
Rev. Dr Keith Clements, general secretary of the Council of European Churches (www.cec-kek.org)
Präses Manfred Kock, president of the Council of the Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) (www.ekd.de)
Bishop Dr. Walter Klaiber, head of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Deutschland (ACK) (www.oekumene-ack.de), and Evangelical-Methodist Church (Germany) (www.emk.de)
Rev. Dr Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the Protestant Federation of France (www.protestants.org)
Bishop Mag. Herwig Sturm, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions in Austria (www.evang.at)
Rev. Thomas Wipf, president of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches
Bishop Jonas Jonsson, Bishop of the Church of Sweden and Rev. Kjell Jonasson, Church of Sweden (www.svenskakyrkan.se)
Rev. Canon Dr Trond Bakkevig, Church of Norway (www.kirken.no)
Archbishop Jukka Parma, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (www.evl.fi)
Bischop Karsten Nissen, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (www.folkekirken.dk)
D. Alison Elliot, Church of Scotland and Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) (www.churchofscotland.org.uk )
Rev Arie W. van der Plas, Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands (www.unitingprotestantchurches.nl )
Archbishop Feofan, Russian Orthodox Church, archbishop of Berlin and Germany
Bishop Athanasius of Achaja, Church of Greece) (www.ecclesia.gr)
Rev. Dr. Nuhad Daoud Tomeh, representing the General Secretariat of the Middle East Council of Churches (www.mecchurches.org)
Dr Bob Edgar, general secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (www.ncccusa.org)
James Winkler, general secretary, General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, USA (www.umc.org)
Dr Rebecca Larson, executive director, Division for Church and Society, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, USA (www.elca.org)