Search results

The WCC has welcomed four new programme executives.

Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from VID Specialized University, one of Norway’s largest private universities.

It’s 70 years since the World Council of Churches was founded in Amsterdam on 23 August. In addition to a commemoration service in Amsterdam on 23 August, the WCC, its member churches and partners are planning a variety of events to move forward on our ongoing Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, and at the same time honour and learn from these 70 years of ecumenical endeavour. Dr Abuom, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, is the moderator of the WCC Central Committee. She is the first woman and the first African in the position in WCC’s history. In an interview, she reflects on the evolution of the WCC in the past 70 years.

Renowned for his friendly attitude and his inspiring speeches, nothing seems impossible for this man. He has faced a multitude of difficulties including severe illness and persecution. At age 62, he committed to rebuild the church in the only officially declared atheist state.

Shortly after the 14th General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia, held recently in Indonesia´s capital Jakarta, WCC News had a brief chat with the newly elected general secretary of CCA, Dr Mathews George Chunakara.

Father Ioan Sauca of the Romanian Orthodox Church and Peter Prove, a Lutheran lawyer and international affairs expert from Australia, have been named to key staff positions in the WCC.

Recounting stories such as the alleged forced poisoning of a young couple, speakers at the Global Ecumenical Conference on Justice for Dalits which opened in Bangkok, Thailand, on 21 March gave a face to the 3,500-year-old system of caste-based discrimination, detailing practices many would consider unthinkable in the 21st century.

On 10 May, when 500 delegates from all over the world meet in Athens for the opening session of the first world mission conference in the 21st century, many more participants world-wide will be able to join them online.

By George Martinson *