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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

Bob Scott

cf. WCC Press Release, PR-02-21, of 31 July 2002

The US-declared war on terrorism, still widely popular in the United States but subject to increasing scepticism elsewhere in the world, will be the focus of an international ecumenical meeting in Washington, D.C., 5-6 August.

The world’s religions aspire to peace. However it is a sad fact that they are often involved in conflict and violence. This paradox was the subject of intense discussion at a multi-faith consultation on violence, peace and religions held in June. Forty participants – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North and South America – gathered for eight days at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, near Geneva. The elimination of violence, they declared, is a challenge to all religions. The consultation was the first in a series on the topic of religions and violence to be organized by the Ecumenical Institute.

The Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) will shortly hold its final plenary meeting. The Commission will meet 27 May - 2 June in Järvenpää, Finland, not far from Helsinki. The results of three years of work will be presented by the Special Commission in a final report to the WCC Central Committee, which meets this year 26 August - 3 September in Geneva, Switzerland.

The evolution and the work of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) as well as current social, political and ecumenical challenges - such as inter-church relations, the question of bioethics and the role of Greece as the only Orthodox country in the European Union - will be amongst the issues addressed during WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser's visit to the Church of Greece, 20 - 24 March.