"An honourable and devoted servant of the Gospel and of the cause of Christian unity" and "a pioneer of the ecumenical movement" is how World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia describes Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, who died on 2 August 2006, in a tribute issued today.
At its first meeting, the WCC's newly-appointed Standing Commission on Faith and Order named six officers to oversee its work until the next WCC Assembly in 2013. Following an address by WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia, the Standing Commission also outlined major areas of study for the period.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee today said that the new UN Human Rights Council needs to avoid "policies and practices of double standards, en-bloc voting and politicization of the human rights agenda that were so prevalent at the UN Commission on Human Rights" that they "virtually paralyzed" it before its "ignominious end".
