Geneva, 2 July 2009

Dear Prince,

It was with great joy that I heard you have recently taken up the position of Moderator for the Council for World Mission. I am confident that you will provide CWM with the vibrant, dynamic and visionary leadership that will help it to become a vanguard of the global ecumenical missionary movement, a role that it has thus far faithfully fulfilled alongside many like-minded partners around the world. 

The World Council of Churches has been privileged to have CWM as an invaluable partner in the ecumenical movement. I trust that our strong partnership will be even further developed during your leadership at the CWM as well as in our own central committee. The theological insights, theoretical developments and practical programmes that CWM has initiated throughout the years have not only informed the missiological thinking and perspectives of churches around the world but has also led the transformation of mission practice in the four corners of the world. 

The work of CWM in furthering the missiological thinking and practice of the global Christian communities is all the more important as we enter into an era in which the churches in the global South take up the greater burden of carrying forth the work of spreading the life-giving good news of God's kingdom on earth. I am confident that your leadership will provide the vision and passion that CWM needs to carry on its work in the 21st century. 

I wish to express my warm congratulations to the Council for World Mission as they embark on a new era of proclamation, witness and service in the world. 

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia

WCC general secretary