WCC delegation to meet with Chinese churches
-14/11/06
Following the high-profile visi
WCC delegation to meet with Chinese churches
-14/11/06
Following the high-profile visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury last month (October), World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, will be leading an ecumenical delegation to visit the People’s Republic of China (15-22 November 2006). It will be Dr Kobia’s first visit as WCC general secretary to China.
In China, Kobia and delegates will visit Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Xi’an. The reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement and its role in the 21st century in the midst of the changing landscape of Christianity will be among the issues to be discussed with leadership of the China Christian Council (Protestant) and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Meetings with state officials, staff of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, and social scientists at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are also scheduled.
The WCC member church in China, the China Christian Council, is a post-denominational church linked with the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China. It is recognised by the state, which requires official registration of religious bodies. There are also many unregistered churches.
The ecumenical delegation accompanying the WCC general secretary is composed of the Rev Dr Tyrone Pitts (WCC central committee member, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, USA); the Rev Dr Seong-Won Park (WCC central committee member, from the Presbyterian Church of Korea, South Korea); the Rev Fr Gabriel Papanicolaou (ecumenical officer of the Church of Greece), Dr Mathews George Chunakara, (WCC Asia secretary) and, as consultants to the delegation, Dr Monika Gaenssbauer (on China issues) and the Rev Deborah DeWinter (on communications).
Dr Kobia’s predecessor, German church leader and theologian the Rev Dr Konrad Raiser, paid an official visit to China in 1994.
WCC delegation to meet with Chinese churches
-14/11/06
Following the high-profile visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury last month (October), World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, will be leading an ecumenical delegation to visit the People’s Republic of China (15-22 November 2006). It will be Dr Kobia’s first visit as WCC general secretary to China.
In China, Kobia and delegates will visit Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Xi’an. The reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement and its role in the 21st century in the midst of the changing landscape of Christianity will be among the issues to be discussed with leadership of the China Christian Council (Protestant) and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Meetings with state officials, staff of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, and social scientists at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are also scheduled.
The WCC member church in China, the China Christian Council, is a post-denominational church linked with the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China. It is recognised by the state, which requires official registration of religious bodies. There are also many unregistered churches.
The ecumenical delegation accompanying the WCC general secretary is composed of the Rev Dr Tyrone Pitts (WCC central committee member, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, USA); the Rev Dr Seong-Won Park (WCC central committee member, from the Presbyterian Church of Korea, South Korea); the Rev Fr Gabriel Papanicolaou (ecumenical officer of the Church of Greece), Dr Mathews George Chunakara, (WCC Asia secretary) and, as consultants to the delegation, Dr Monika Gaenssbauer (on China issues) and the Rev Deborah DeWinter (on communications).
Dr Kobia’s predecessor, German church leader and theologian the Rev Dr Konrad Raiser, paid an official visit to China in 1994.