WCC to encourage churches’ role in the Middle East
-28/08/06
The governing body of th
WCC to encourage churches’ role in the Middle East
-28/08/06
The governing body of the World Council of Churches wil discuss the situation in the Middle East at its 30 August – 6 September meeting in Geneva – including the positive role churches and civil society organisations can play in building a just peace.
“We are convinced in the WCC [that] the time has come when we should broaden the coordination of the ecumenical response to the Middle East,” the global ecumenical body’s general secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, told journalists last week.
He was speaking in the aftermath of the August 2006 World Council of Churches coordinated delegation to Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
This will be the first meeting of the WCC’s new central committee, elected last February at the 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The committee serves as the main decision-making body of the Council between assemblies. Meeting every 12 to 18 months, it is responsible for carrying out policies adopted by the Assembly, reviewing and supervising WCC programmes and adopting the Council’s budget.
The churches’ approach to the situation in the Middle East, needed to be “as broad as possible including what we can do with the Roman Catholic Church”, Dr Kobia told journalists. The WCC links the historic Protestant, Anglican and Orthox churches throughout the world.
In the early part of the meeting and again towards its close, testimonies on what it means to live within a Christian community in pluralistic societies will enable committee members to gain insights into each others’ contexts and concerns.
A public event on 4 September 2006 will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the WCC’s 1966 World Conference on Church and Society. It will also look at new and urgent challenges, and clarify how the diverging contextual perspectives of that time may have evolved since then. The 1966 conference focused on the social and technical revolutions of the time, and anticipated later debates on disarmament, racism and a New International Economic Order.
The new committee, elected from a pool of names put forward by the WCC’s 348 member churches, counts 63 women (42%), 22 youth (15%), and six indigenous persons (4%). 97 members of the committee are ordained (65%).
[Also on Ekklesia: World Council of Churches and Vatican to agree code on religious conversion;End this blind faith in violence, says WCC leader; Churches call on Indonesian Government to address Malukus violence; Churches urge Sudan government to end hostilities; WCC calls for freeing of Christian peace workers; WCC urges churches to support Middle East appeals; World church leaders strongly condemn Middle East violence; Ecumenists seek to recover evangelistic emphasis; World Mission Conference makes history; WCC has Good News to share, say mission leaders]
WCC to encourage churches’ role in the Middle East
-28/08/06
The governing body of the World Council of Churches wil discuss the situation in the Middle East at its 30 August – 6 September meeting in Geneva – including the positive role churches and civil society organisations can play in building a just peace.
“We are convinced in the WCC [that] the time has come when we should broaden the coordination of the ecumenical response to the Middle East,” the global ecumenical body’s general secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, told journalists last week.
He was speaking in the aftermath of the August 2006 World Council of Churches coordinated delegation to Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
This will be the first meeting of the WCC’s new central committee, elected last February at the 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The committee serves as the main decision-making body of the Council between assemblies. Meeting every 12 to 18 months, it is responsible for carrying out policies adopted by the Assembly, reviewing and supervising WCC programmes and adopting the Council’s budget.
The churches’ approach to the situation in the Middle East, needed to be “as broad as possible including what we can do with the Roman Catholic Church”, Dr Kobia told journalists. The WCC links the historic Protestant, Anglican and Orthox churches throughout the world.
In the early part of the meeting and again towards its close, testimonies on what it means to live within a Christian community in pluralistic societies will enable committee members to gain insights into each others’ contexts and concerns.
A public event on 4 September 2006 will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the WCC’s 1966 World Conference on Church and Society. It will also look at new and urgent challenges, and clarify how the diverging contextual perspectives of that time may have evolved since then. The 1966 conference focused on the social and technical revolutions of the time, and anticipated later debates on disarmament, racism and a New International Economic Order.
The new committee, elected from a pool of names put forward by the WCC’s 348 member churches, counts 63 women (42%), 22 youth (15%), and six indigenous persons (4%). 97 members of the committee are ordained (65%).
[Also on Ekklesia: World Council of Churches and Vatican to agree code on religious conversion;End this blind faith in violence, says WCC leader; Churches call on Indonesian Government to address Malukus violence; Churches urge Sudan government to end hostilities; WCC calls for freeing of Christian peace workers; WCC urges churches to support Middle East appeals; World church leaders strongly condemn Middle East violence; Ecumenists seek to recover evangelistic emphasis; World Mission Conference makes history; WCC has Good News to share, say mission leaders]