Rev. Dr Kuzipa Nalwamba, WCC Programme Director for Unity, Mission and Ecumenical Formation
Ordained in the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), Nalwamba joined the WCC in August 2019 as faculty member of the Ecumenical Institute and as Programme Executive for Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) in August 2019. In November 2022 she was appointed WCC Programme Director for Unity, Mission and Ecumenical Formation (UMEF).
She holds PhD and MA (Dogmatics and Christian Ethics) degrees from the University of Pretoria; MTh (History of Christianity and Mission) and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Theological College, Singapore. She also holds a BA Ed. (English single major) from the University of Zambia. She has worked at the Council for World Mission and as lecturer and academic dean at the United Church of Zambia Theological College and a staff of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in various capacities. She began her career as high school teacher of English language and literature. Her research interests include education, eco-theology, history of Christianity, mission and literature, among others.
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Rev. Dr Benjamin Simon, Director for Ecumenical Formation and Professor for Ecumenical Social Ethics
Simon is the director of the Commission for Education and Ecumenical Formation. This includes the responsibility for the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey and the WCC-programme for Ecumenical Formation. He is serving as Academic Dean and teaches Ecumenical Social Ethics. He is an ordained pastor of the Church of Baden (EKD, Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland). Simon was the WCC-Program Executive for Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE). Before, this appointment he was in charge of Church Relations at the World Council of Churches and was the chair for Ecumenical Missiology at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey. Between 2017 and 2022 he served as managing editor of the International Review of Mission.
He completed his Dr. theol. in Missiology and Intercultural Theology at the University of Heidelberg and his “habilitation” (Post-Doc) at the University of Mainz with the venia legendiin Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology. He has a Master in Social Sciences and in Theology. Simon published extensively in the areas of Migration, Diaspora and Christianity in Africa. Before joining WCC he was working as parish pastor, Ecumenical Officer of his church and as lecturer at the Makumira University College, Tanzania and the University of Heidelberg, Germany
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Rev. Fr. Dr Lawrence Iwuamadi, Professor of Ecumenical Biblical Hermeneutics
A Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Owerri, Nigeria. Iwuamadi obtained his licentiate degree in Sacred Scriptures (SSL) from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and his Ph.D. in biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University also in Rome. Before being appointed to the Ecumenical Institute in 2012 by the Vatican, he taught Fundamental Scriptures, Greek and New Testament Theology at the Seat of Wisdom Seminary in Owerri. The chair of Ecumenical Biblical Hermeneutics is supported by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU).
Rev. Dr Joo Mee Hur, Professor of Ecumenical Missiology
A pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK), she holds a PhD in Theology and Religion from Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz, Germany, a ThM from Protestant Theological University (PThU), the Netherlands. From 2012 to 2018, she was a lecturer (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the chair for Comparative Religion and Missiology, the Protestant Theology Faculty, JGU Mainz, Germany. She joined the Ecumenical Institute Bossey in August 2021. The chair of Ecumenical Missiology is supported by United Evangelical Mission (UEM), Council for World Mission (CWM), and Community of Churches in Mission (CEVAA).
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Dr Ani Ghazaryan Drissi, Professor of Ecumenical Theology
Armenian and Swiss, Prof. Dr Ani Ghazaryan Drissi is a lay theologian, belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church (Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin). She obtained her PhD degree in 2014 from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). She is professor of Ecumenical Theology at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey and a program executive for Ecumenical Theological Education. From 2014 to 2023, she coordinated the Faith and Order Commission’s work on ecclesiology. She has several publications related to her work. Dr Ani Ghazaryan Drissi’s vision allows her to build a programmatic and transversal approaches through which she contributes via biblical and theological reflections to the WCC different programs and projects.
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Dr Vasile-Octavian Mihoc, Adjunct Professor
With educational background that is ecumenical, focusing on Systematic Theology and intercultural and interreligious issues, Mihoc holds a BA and MA from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Sibiu (Romania), and a PhD from the Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Göttingen. Between 2013-2019, he was a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology, University of Münster designing and teaching courses on topics like comparative Missiology, Ecumenics and the Study of Christian theology beyond Europe; religious identity and conversion; interreligious theology; methods and projects in comparative theology, and theological aesthetics. He joined the Ecumenical Institute in 2019 and also serves as the Programme Executive in charge of ecumenical relations of the World Council of Churches.
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Dr Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, Adjunct Professor
A Programme Executive coordinating work on overcoming racism, xenophobia and related discriminations since July 2021. He is an Anglican and Zimbabwean Old Testament scholar, holding a PhD in Intercultural Applied Biblical Studies from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Gunda did his Bachelors and Masters Degrees at the University of Zimbabwe. He started his academic career as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the same University before becoming a Lecturer. He also taught at several Theological Institutions and Seminaries in Harare, which was foundational in his ecumenical thought and appreciation of ecumenism. He also taught at the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University. In Germany, he taught Biblical Hebrew at the Roman Catholic Seminary in Bamberg while serving as a Research Assistant (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter). Gunda is a recipient of the Georg Forster Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and was also Philip Schwartz Initiative Fellow.
Besides teaching, Gunda has served as a consultant for international organisations including the WHO, UNICEF, HIVOS and the WCC on issues ranging from human sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV and AIDS especially focusing on strategies for engaging faith leaders in Africa around these subject matters, as well as equipping faith leaders on how to engage these subject matters within their faith communities.
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Dr Andrej Jeftić, Adjunct Professor
Dr. Andrej Jeftić currently holds the position of Director at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission. Prior to his appointment at the WCC in 2023, he accrued a wealth of experience in academia. From 2010 to 2016, he was a Teaching Assistant, and later promoted to Assistant Professor from 2016 to 2022 at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Belgrade. He also worked as a Research Fellow from 2022 to 2023 at the University of Belgrade's Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory. During this period, he extended his expertise as a Theological Consultant for the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe.
Dr. Jeftić holds a MA and PhD degree in Theology from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Reception of the Holy Fathers in the Writings of Thomas F. Torrance: Patristic Theology and Contemporary Science." For years active within ecumenical networks, Dr. Jeftić has represented the Serbian Orthodox Church as a WCC Central Committee member from 2013 to 2022 and as a member of the WCC Assembly Planning Committee from 2018 to 2022. In 2022, he served as a facilitator in the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) program.
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
Rev. Dr Martin Illert, Adjunct Professor
Ordained in the Lutheran Church in Northern Germany Martin Illert joined the WCC in August 2024 as Programme Executive for Faith and Oder. He wrote his dissertation on John Chrysostom and Syrian Monasticism, and his Habilitation on the bilateral Dialogues of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) with Orthodox Churches. After his pastoral training he worked as a minister for German speaking congregations in London and Sofia (Bulgaria) and at St Michaels Lutheran Church in Hamburg. Before joining the WCC he headed the Eastern Europe desk at the Church office of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) in Hannover. His research interests include the history and theology of ecumenical encounters, Christian iconography and hermeneutics of dialogue.
View CV and a list of publications (pdf)
