wfn.org | Appointment of Deputy Gen. Sec.

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
15 May 1998

GEORGES LEMOPOULOS APPOINTED WCC DEPUTY GENERAL
SECRETARY

By a postal vote, the World Council of Churches' (WCC) central
committee has confirmed its executive committee decision last February
to appoint Mr Georges Lemopoulos as Deputy General Secretary with
effect from 1 January 1999.

Mr Lemopoulos is a member of the Orthodox Church (Ecumenical
Patriarchate) and has been on the staff of the World Council of Churches
since 1987.  He will be the third Orthodox to hold the post of Deputy
General Secretary.  The others were Marie Assaad  (1980-1986) from
Egypt and a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church (Oriental), and Todor
Sabev (1979-1993), a member of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
(Eastern).

Georges Lemopoulos is currently Executive Secretary in the WCC's
Office of Church and Ecumenical Relations (OCER) where he serves as
co-secretary of the Joint Working Group of the WCC and Roman Catholic
Church; he is also responsible for contacts and relations with Orthodox
churches and Christian World Communions.

Commenting on the appointment, WCC General Secretary, Rev. Dr
Konrad Raiser, said:
"Georges Lemopoulos brings to his new responsibility a unique range of
broad ecumenical experience gained during more than two decades of
work in the ecumenical movement.  Clearly, the governing bodies of the
WCC accept, and I wholeheartedly endorse, the importance of having a
member of the Orthodox Church as the WCC's Deputy General Secretary
at a time when there is the intention to strengthen Orthodox participation
in the life of the Council.  Georges Lemopoulos will play a crucial role in
putting that intention into practice and I have full confidence in his ability
to do so.

"Among his future tasks will also be the coordination of the programmes
and activities of the WCC, for which he is well prepared since he has
been moderator of the group working on the rationale for the future
organisational framework of the WCC."

Commenting on his appointment, Georges Lemopoulos said, "I am taking
up the post at an important time for the ecumenical movement.  The 50th
anniversary of the WCC this year could be a real turning point as
churches prepare to renew their commitment to the Council and the
ecumenical movement, and as new situations are emerging in the world
which particularly threaten local communities.  Against this background,
churches know they must find new ways to cooperate and be faithful
witnesses to the Gospel.  Furthermore, some Orthodox churches are
raising fundamental questions about their participation in the WCC and
the ecumenical movement.

"The long experience of the churches' common journey has been marked
by open and friendly cooperation.  I believe this, together with the
potential of the new structure of the WCC and, above all, the strength
and inspiration we can draw through prayer to our common Lord and
Saviour, allow us to look to the future with realism as to the difficulties
ahead and also with confidence in the possibilities which exist."

Further biographical information on Georges Lemopoulos:

He was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1952 and studied at the
Chalki-Istanbul School of Theology (1969-71) and the University of
Thessaloniki (1972-73).  Gaining a degree in theology in 1973, he went
on to postgraduate studies at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey
(1973-74) and later at the universities of Geneva (1974-76) and Fribourg
(1982-84).  He was a steward at the WCC's Fifth Assembly in Nairobi in
1975.  While studying in Geneva, Lemopoulos served as a part-time
intern in the WCC's Department of Religious Education, focusing on
Christian education in the Orthodox churches. 

^From 1976 to 1987 Lemopoulos was Programme Secretary at the
Ecumenical Patriarchate's Orthodox Centre in Geneva.  During that time
he represented the Patriarchate as an official delegate to the WCC's
Sixth Assembly in Vancouver, Canada (1983), and as a member of the
WCC's central committee between 1983-87.

In 1987 Lemopoulos joined the staff of the WCC, serving  until 1993 as
Secretary for Orthodox Studies and Relations in the WCC's Commission
on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).  During this time he visited
Orthodox communities in Central and Eastern Europe and in diaspora and
was involved in ecumenical formation, reflection on "common witness"
and proselytism, work on missionary congregations in secularised
Europe, and enabling the witness of local churches in Eastern Europe. 
With CWME colleagues, he helped prepare the 1989 Conference on
World Mission and Evangelism in San Antonio, Texas.

He became Executive Secretary in the WCC Office of Church and
Ecumenical Relations in 1993. 

Lemopoulos holds dual Turkish/Swiss nationality. He is married with two
sons.

He is the author and/or editor of many articles and reports and of several
books, the two most recent being "The Ecumenical Movement, the
Churches and the World Council of Churches: An Orthodox Contribution
to the Reflection Process on 'The Common Understanding and Vision of
the World Council of Churches'" (Syndesmos, 1996), and "Let us Pray to
the Lord: A Collection of Prayers from the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox
Traditions" (WCC Publications, 1996).

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 332, 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.

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