News
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland is inviting applications for the academic programmes in ecumenical studies, 2015-2016. The application deadline is 30 November 2014.
The Ecumenical Institute, related to the theology faculty of the University of Geneva, is the international centre for ecumenical formation, encounter and dialogue of the WCC. Founded in 1946, the Institute brings together people from different church traditions, cultures and backgrounds for ecumenical learning, academic study and personal exchange.
The current annual academic programme offers a Complementary Certificate in Ecumenical Studies; a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Ecumenical Studies; a Master of Advanced Studies in Ecumenical Studies. There is also the possibility to do a Doctorate in Theology (specializing in Ecumenical Studies).
Students interested in ecumenical studies fulfilling the programme conditions are invited to apply. Churches in need of a younger generation of ecumenically trained theologians are encouraged to support applications. Applicants may apply for a scholarship if they fulfil the conditions for financial support.
Considered part of the avant-garde laboratories of the ecumenical movement, the Institute offers an academic platform of rigorous study guided by a faculty from different churches and cultural backgrounds. It is a place where complex challenges confronting the churches are debated and analyzed.
What constitutes ecumenical learning at the Ecumenical Institute is a close combination of academic study with experimental learning through life in an intercultural and inter-confessional student community.
“The tremendous social fractures we are witnessing worldwide, and the accelerated transformation in the Christian world, show that a uniquely diverse centre of encounter and learning is necessary. The churches and the world need Bossey,” said Father Ioan Sauca, WCC associate general secretary for ecumenical formation and education.
“Bossey is a place where the students encounter the whole world with its cultural diversities, conflicts, struggles and sufferings,” said Rev. Dr Dagmar Heller, academic dean at the Institute.
“The students encounter the church world with its confessional diversities and conflicts, but also its common effort to bring God’s healing gospel to the world. This is challenging but also a fascinating experience which changes not only perspectives, but whole lives,” Heller added.
Thousands of women and men from all over the world and every Christian tradition have come to the Ecumenical Institute for academic studies. “Many have testified to life-changing experiences in this pioneering centre, or "ecumenical laboratory", said Heller.
Courses at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey
Website of the Ecumenical Institute
Video: The Bossey Experience (11 min)
