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World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
19 December 1996

WCC SENDS CONGRATULATIONS TO NEW UN SECRETARY GENERAL:
SEEKS MEETING TO DISCUSS CHURCHES' INVOLVEMENT WITH UN

Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, General Secretary of the World Council of
Churches, has sent the following letter to H.E. Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General Elect of the United Nations:

"We have received the news of your election as Secretary-General
of the United Nations with great satisfaction.  We extend to you
our warmest congratulations.

The World Council of Churches has followed your distinguished
career as a diplomat in the service of your country, and as an
international civil servant since your time as a student here in
Geneva.  We know how well received your nomination to this high
post has been among the diplomatic corps and the staff of the
United Nations agencies with whom we maintain close contact.  We
are convinced that the international community has rightly
recognized in you a leader of exceptional quality, competence and
vision.

You come into your new high office at one of the most difficult
moments in the life of the United Nations Organization and in a
time of almost unprecedented complexity in world affairs.  The
expectations of the role you will play are great indeed, and
often contradictory.  I wish to assure you of our support and
prayers.

It would be an honour for me to extend to you in person our
congratulations and to exchange views about how the World Council
of Churches and its more than 300 member churches can assist and
support you in your new responsibilities.  My colleagues in our
Commission of the Churches on International Affairs will be in
contact with your office early in the new year to consult with
respect to such an opportunity, either at United Nations
Headquarters, or possibly on the occasion of an early visit by
you to Geneva.

May God bless, guide and sustain you."

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now
330, in more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually
all Christian traditions.  The Roman Catholic Church is not a
member church but works cooperatively with the WCC.  The highest
governing body is the Assembly, which meets approximately every
seven years.  The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
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