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Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia: Celebrating Life - a festa da vida

The Eighth Report of the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches outlines the activities of the JWG between 1999-2005, and includes three completed study documents as well as some themes pursued and issues addressed.

"From Harare to Porto Alegre" is the report of the activities and dialogue undertaken between the WCC's eighth assembly in December 1998 in Zimbabwe and the final stages of preparation for the Ninth Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil in February 2006. In telling the story of the Council, it also reflects the life and faith of member churches, partner agencies and individual believers.

This text is the outcome of more than eight years of study and consultation on the "common understanding and vision of the World Council of Churches", mandated by the WCC Central Committee at its meeting in 1989. Between the Seventh Assembly of the WCC in 1991 and the Eighth Assembly in 1998, this subject was continuously on the agenda of the WCC central committee; in addition, it was extensively discussed in meetings of WCC commissions, advisory bodies and staff. Insights were sought and received from WCC member churches, other churches and a broad range of ecumenical partners, as well as many individual participants in and students of the ecumenical movement.

"Final report of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC" : The 60-member Special Commission was created by the WCC's eighth assembly in 1998 in response to mainly Orthodox concerns about participation in the Council. Composed of an equal number of representatives from Orthodox churches and from the other churches belonging to the WCC, the Commission submitted its final report to the central committee in September 2002.

The WCC's eighth Assembly in 1998 discussed a proposal for a forum of Christian churches and ecumenical organizations that would bring together churches participating in the ecumenical movement, e.g. WCC member churches, the Catholic church, other churches, and Evangelical, Pentecostal and Independent churches, as well as ecumenical and para-church organizations.

These guidelines - covering the roles of moderators, delegates and participants; setting the agenda; making decisions by consensus and by formal vote; election process; language and other elements - apply to the Assembly and to meetings of all bodies of the WCC.

A joint consultative group between the WCC and Pentecostal churches was created in response to the mandate of the 1998 WCC Assembly in Zimbabwe. Excerpts from a report on their work from 2000-2005.

At the mid-point of the 2001-2010 Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence, this background document raises questions that may allow an interim assessment and points to the course that might be followed during the remaining five years of the Decade.

"Call to recommitment at the midterm of the ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence 2001-2010 - Churches seeking reconciliation and peace" : Five years have passed since the WCC launched the Decade to Overcome Violence 2001-2010. The Assembly will celebrate the achievements to date, make an interim assessment, and refocus the course to be followed during the second half of the Decade. A call to recommitment is part of this process.

"Religious plurality and Christian self-understanding" : The question of the theological approach to religious plurality had been on the agenda of the WCC many times, reaching a certain consensus in 1989 and 1990.1 In recent years, it was felt that this difficult and controversial issue needed to be revisited. The present document is the result of a study process in response to suggestions made in 2002 at the WCC central committee to the three staff teams on Faith and Order, Inter-religious Relations, and Mission and Evangelism, and their respective commissions or advisory bodies.