World Council of Churches -
News Release
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release:
8 July 2004
Faith and Order: The world's most representative theological forum to meet in Kuala Lumpur
Daily coverage (news, features, photos)
will be available. See below.
The world's most representative theological forum for Christian unity - the World Council of Churches' (WCC) commission on Faith and Order - will meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 28 July to 6 August, 2004. As the commission's first meeting in the 21st century, this will also be the first time it will gather in a Muslim-majority country.
With 120 members representing the WCC member churches and several non-member churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, the commission's work aims to promote the goal of the visible unity of the Christian church.
The commission pursues its mandate by undertaking studies on both doctrinal and non-doctrinal questions that have given rise to church division.
The Kuala Lumpur meeting agenda includes examination and appraisal of the commission's work over the last eight years. Commissioners will also propose guidelines for further work, and are responsible for communicating the results of current studies to the churches.
The meeting will be addressed by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, as well as by the general secretaries of the Christian Conference of Asia, Rev. Dr Ahn Jae-woong, and of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, Rev. Dr Hermen Shastri. An address by the prime minister of Malaysia, H.E. Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is also scheduled.
Issues to be considered
Among the main issues to be considered by the commissioners at this meeting will be:
the churches' mutual recognition of Christian initiation (baptism);
different understandings of the nature and mission of the church (ecclesiology);
relations between ethnic and national identities and the search for the unity of the church;
the understanding of the nature of the human person from a Christian point of view (theological anthropology) and its consequences when it comes to issues like community identity, human sexuality, disabilities or bio-ethics;
the way in which the texts, symbols and practices of different Christian churches may be interpreted, communicated and received (ecumenical hermeneutics).
Commissioners will also discuss the Faith and Order process of theological reflection on peace, justice and reconciliation in the context of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010), and the challenges of interreligious dialogue.
The full plenary commission on Faith and Order normally meets only once between WCC assemblies. Its previous meeting took place in 1996 in Moshi, Tanzania. The Kuala Lumpur gathering will be the commission's last meeting before the ninth WCC Assembly, to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in February 2006.
The theme of the meeting, to be hosted by the Council of Churches of Malaysia, is "Receive one another, as Christ has received you, for the glory of God" (Romans 15:7).
"This theme opens perspectives on reception, hospitality, spirituality, recognition and reconciliation," the moderator of the commission, Rev. Dr David Yemba, points out. "But above all, it constitutes a call to live in communion beyond the boundaries within the household of God."
According to Yemba, the theme and the role of the plenary commission as a forum for theological debate "will help Faith and Order to make its call to visible unity more audible to the churches".
Website, agenda, media accreditation
Additional information on Faith and Order and the Kuala Lumpur meeting, including a detailed agenda and a form for media accreditation, is available on the meeting website at
http://www.wcc-coe.org/kualalumpur2004.html
Media coverage
An ecumenical media team will provide
daily feature and news stories in English, German, Spanish and French
, as well as
photos
. All material can be viewed and downloaded free of charge from the meeting
website
.
Daily e-mail digest
To subscribe to a daily e-mail digest of news and features, fill in the form on the meeting
website
.
Additional information:
Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
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