World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

For immediate release: 28 April 2005


World mission conference to be broadcast live on the internet


On 10 May, when 500 delegates from all over the world meet in Athens for the opening session of the first world mission conference in the 21st century, many more participants world-wide will be able to join them online.

It's the first time that all the plenary sessions of a world mission conference will be broadcast live on the internet. And participation can go even further: interactive video and chat discussion groups following each plenary will give people all over the world the possibility to engage in the dialogue on healing and reconciliation.

Each of the five plenary sessions will focus one of the conference's main issues: the Holy Spirit; experiences of Christian communities practising healing; mission and violence (as a Decade to Overcome Violence mid-term event); healing (looking, for example, at HIV/AIDS as a missiological challenge); and reconciliation (with case studies from South Africa and Kiribati).

A detailed schedule of the webcasts and webconferences is available on the world mission conference website: www.mission2005.org

The 9-16 May Conference on World Mission and Evangelism will gather around the theme "Come, Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile" and the sub-theme "Called in Christ to be reconciling and healing communities."

It will offer a unique opportunity for Christians from all continents and the largest confessional families to exchange experiences and to reflect on the priorities for mission and the future of Christian witness.

Coming from WCC member churches and the Roman Catholic Church as well as Pentecostal and Evangelical churches and bodies, the participants include young people, women and men working at the frontiers of Christian witness, church and mission leaders, theologians and missiologists.

Find the detailed schedule of the live broadcasts via the internet on the conference's website:
http://www.mission2005.org/Daily_webcasts.539.0.html

This material may be reprinted freely.

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..