WCC News met with the Very Reverend Archimandrite Dr Alexi Chehadeh, who leads the Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East in Damascus, Syria. He is an impressive role model and peacemaker in Syria.
Work for the unity of the church is inseparable from work for the unity of the human community and the whole of creation, according to the director of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
An ecumenical delegation organized by the WCC was received by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government, on 28 September 2015 in Erbil. The ecumenical delegation had spent six days visiting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – including the Duhok area, part of the Nineveh Plain, and Erbil – and represented the WCC at the 27 September enthronement of the new Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Gewargis III, in Erbil.
At the Central Committee meeting of the WCC, leadership of the Council’s consultative bodies was announced. These bodies will steer through the work of the WCC in accomplishing the call from its 10th Assembly to engage in a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”. The WCC assembly was held in the Republic of Korea in 2013.
An international group representing diverse mission organizations recently got together in India to develop tools that can ensure effective implementation of the new mission statement issued last year by the World Council of Churches (WCC).