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"Promoting church and ecumenical leadership is an essential part of reconstructing Africa... African leaders themselves recognize that the unity of the churches is an essential part of the search for African unity," says World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser.

cf WCC Press Release, PR-02-22, of 22 August 2002-09-04

"2002"

Questions on the future shape of the ecumenical movement and of the World Council of Churches (WCC) dominated this year's WCC Central Committee meeting in Geneva. The meeting adjourned on Tuesday, 3 September. Â

It took some arguing, some assurances and some wise words, but in the end the final report of the Special Commission on Orthodox Relations in the World Council of Churches (WCC) was accepted by a consensus of the Central Committee.Â

Amid a series of comments on world trouble spots, the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed "concern and alarm" Monday (2 September) about United States aims to overthrow the government of Iraq.

The Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will be in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006, the Central Committee decided Monday (2 September).

Thirty-seven church leaders from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have called upon the US and British governments to use restraint in “the apparent drift towards military confrontation in Iraq”.

All four sites being proposed for the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2005 look good to most Central Committee members. So good that the proponent of one site suggests wryly that the Council choose all four of them.

The rhetoric was impassioned at times, but the 32-page final report of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) invoked few new questions from Central Committee members.

An 18-person search committee for the next World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary was named by the WCC Central Committee Thursday (29 August).

Globalization has been cited by the World Council of Churches (WCC) as a prime cause of economic inequality, poverty and political injustice, and the moderator of the WCC Central Committee said Monday (26 August) that the churches must work together to redirect its impact.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has begun a review of programme plans for 2003 to 2005 in order to strengthen the organization and chart a course for the future. At its meeting in Geneva, 26 August to 3 September, the WCC Central Committee heard a call from its Finance Committee for a review of programme plans that would allow for a budgeted operating surplus in 2003.

"In a century of surprises which we have already begun," the churches of Christ will have to move closer to unity to give the 75-year-old Faith and Order movement renewed meaning, a church leader told an anniversary celebration Sunday (25 August).

"We must have the courage to admit that the market and globalization have failed more than two-thirds of the world population who live in poverty," says Dr Molefe Tsele, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC). "The evidence, which is impossible to hide any longer, is that we are now living with the legacy of unparalleled inequality between North and South, impoverishment, and deprivation of the barest necessities of life and dignity."

Bob Scott

Issued jointly with the Conference of European Churches