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Jerry Pillay

WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay addresses the participants of the reception in Bossey.

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The fund will support the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey with efforts related to narrative exegesis of the Bible through participatory forms of theater, music, and dance; as well as research work, publications, translations, and interpretations related to intercultural theology. 

The Hollenweger Legacy Fund—also known as the Foundation for Theological Theatre—was established in 2007 to honour and further the work of Walter Jacob Hollenweger (1927-2016) on dialogic and participatory didactics in theology, intercultural theology, and musical and dramatic interpretations of the Bible. 

A Swiss theologian, Hollenweger is recognised as an expert on worldwide Pentecostalism. As the first secretary for Evangelism in the Division of World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches from 1965 to 1971, his work helped lay the foundations for what became the Joint Consultative Group between the WCC and Pentecostals 30 years later. 

According to its guiding principles, the Hollenweger Foundation aims to promote alternatives to mainstream theological teachings, and therefore has a subversive character. It is not intended to support the existing system, but to help develop the theological work of the future so that theology once again becomes what it should be: guiding society towards critical reflection on our Christian heritage.”

WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay said said that the WCC is very pleased to launch the Hollenweger Legacy Fund. It is very pleasing to note that the Hollenweger Foundation has honoured the wish and intention of the late Prof. Hollenweger to support collaboration between the WCC and Pentecostals in encouraging students to embrace the ecumenical spirit,” said Pillay. His vision and inspiration for this came from his own Pentecostal and Reformed background. The WCC hopes that this Legacy Fund would help fulfil his vision.

Former WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca said he was very happy to see that the memory of Hollenweger will be engraved in the history and in the work of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey.

As professor at the University of Birmingham, he put into practice the visionary methodological approaches to research that he wrote about: to a strict intellectual inquiry he added narrative theology, intercultural and interreligious dimensions, experience and oral liturgy, art, music, and drama,” said Sauca. His vision on Christian unity and his holistic methodology on doing ecumenical formation and theological enquiry is alive in Bossey to this day.”

Rev. Dr Benjamin Simon, dean of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey and director of the WCCs Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation, said that Bossey is grateful to the Hollenweger Foundation as they open up the possibility to give Hollenweger the legacy he deserves. With the created Hollenweger Legacy Fund we will be able to cosponsor a scholarship of a Pentecostal student or co-finance an innovative project in Bossey,” said Simon. A task in the next years will be to enlarge this legacy fund, so that a full scholarship might be financed.”

A Joint Consultative Group between the World Council of Churches and the Pentecostal World Fellowship held a plenary meeting 17–23 October at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey.

Learn more about the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey