News
The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, made his first formal visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams on Friday 14 January 2011. Tveit led a delegation from the WCC to a meeting with the archbishop and other senior leaders of the Church of England at Church House, Westminster, London, the administrative headquarters of the Church of England.
Accompanying the general secretary were Dame Mary Tanner, the WCC president for Europe, the Rev. Dr John Gibaut, director of Faith and Order, and the Rev. Garland Pierce, incoming executive assistant to Tveit.
The archbishop and the general secretary focussed their discussion on four areas: the role of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion within the fellowship of churches of the WCC; the work of the commission on Faith and Order and its significance for the Anglican Communion; the Middle East and issues of inter-religious dialogue arising from the region; the response of the WCC and the Church of England to the economic crisis.
Tveit is a minister of the Church of Norway which is part of the Porvoo communion of churches of the Nordic region with the Anglican churches in Britain and Ireland. Accordingly, Tveit is the first general secretary of the WCC whose church is in full communion with the Church of England. “I feel at home in the Church of England and the wider Anglican family,” Tveit said in his opening remarks to the archbishop.
An area that was highlighted by both delegations is migration. Questions around migration and diaspora were signalled as some of the greatest challenges to ecclesiology, pastoral practice and the changing face of Christianity as well as the ecumenical movement.
Mutual concern was expressed for the present situation of Christians in Egypt, Israel-Palestine and Iraq.
On these and other issues, there was a clear desire for renewed cooperation between the Church of England and the WCC.
Later in the day, Tveit was the guest of the archbishop at a dinner hosted by the Nikean Club, an association of Anglican ecumenists, to honour the work and ecumenical contribution of Cardinal Dr Walter Kasper, former president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.