wfn.org | Main Speakers at WCC Zimbabwe Assembly Announced

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9-June-1998 
98161 
 
    Main Speakers at WCC Zimbabwe Assembly Announced 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
    and John W. Newbury, WCC Press and Information Office 
 
GENEVA-The global and ecumenical nature of the World Council of Churches 
(WCC) is vividly illustrated in the slate of keynote speakers announced 
recently for the WCC's Eighth Assembly, scheduled for Dec. 3-14, 1998, in 
Harare, Zimbabwe. 
 
                   WCC 50th anniversary celebration 
 
    The former president of Tanzania, Julius K. Nyerere, and the Rev. 
Philip Potter, a Methodist from Dominica, West Indies, and the third WCC 
general secretary (1972-1984), will speak on Dec. 13 at a public 
celebration to mark the WCC's 50th anniversary. 
 
    Nyerere, a longtime friend of the WCC, and Potter will reflect on how 
the work and witness of the WCC, since its foundation 50 years ago, has 
made a difference in the lives of churches and people both in Africa and 
around the world. 
 
    The event will be moderated by Pauline Webb, a Methodist from Great 
Britain who was the first woman officer of the WCC.  Webb was appointed 
vice moderator of the Central Committee elected by the WCC's Fourth 
Assembly at Uppsala in 1968.  Dr. Webb was also the first 
woman to preach at the opening worship of an Assembly, at the Sixth 
Assembly in Vancouver in 1983.  She is a former head of religious 
broadcasting for the BBC's World Service. 
 
                           Theme plenary 
 
    The first plenary session of the Assembly on Dec. 4 will concentrate on 
the Assembly theme "Turn to God - Rejoice in Hope."  Main speakers will be 
the Rev. Wanda Deifelt, Kosuke Koyama and Archbishop Anastasios 
Yannoulatos. 
 
    Deifelt is a Lutheran from Brazil and professor of systematic theology 
at the seminary of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession, Sao 
Leopoldo, Brazil.  She is a member of the 
board of the WCC's Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland. 
 
    Koyama is from Japan and a member of the United Church of Christ in 
Japan. He first came to prominence with his 1974 book, "Waterbuffalo 
Theology."  Until his retirement in 1996, he was professor of ecumenics and 
world Christianity at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. 
 
    Yannoulatos is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.  He went to 
Albania in 1991 to contribute to the reconstruction and reorganization of 
the Albanian Orthodox Church and in 1992 he became Archbishop of Tirana and 
All Albania.  Yannoulatos was moderator of the WCC's Commission on World 
Mission and Evangelism from 1983 to 1991. 
 
                        Women's decade plenary 
 
    On Dec. 7, a plenary session will review the Ecumenical Decade of 
Churches in Solidarity with Women and consider challenges arising from it. 
The Decade was launched by the WCC Central Committee meeting in Geneva in 
January 1987. 
 
    Speakers for the plenary will be Metropolitan Ambrosius, the Rev. Lala 
Biasima, the Rev. M. Deenabandhu, Mukami McCrum, Despina Prassas and the 
Rev. Bertrice Wood. 
 
    Ambrosius is a member of the Orthodox Church of Finland and 
Metropolitan of the Diocese of Oulu.  He is a member of the WCC Central 
Committee, and a former member of the Faith and Order Commission 
(1983-1991). 
 
    Biasima is a member of the glise du Christ au Congo (Church of Christ 
in Congo).  She is a theologian who has worked actively on justice 
concerns, including the issue of economic justice for women. 
 
    Deenabandhu, from India, is a Lutheran pastor and Dalit ("untouchable" 
caste) theologian.  He is currently a doctoral student in Sathri, India. 
 
    McCrum is Kenyan and now lives in Scotland, where she is a member of 
the Church of Scotland. 
 
    Prassas is a member of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, U.S. Diocese, and a 
student of theology. 
 
    Wood, a minister of the United Church of Christ in the U.S., was the 
moderator of the WCC's Working Group on Women, which planned and proposed 
the Decade. 
 
                          Africa plenary 
 
    A Dec. 8 plenary on Africa will present an overview of the current 
state of Africa and consider the responsibility of the international 
community and world churches for the future of the continent.  Speakers 
will be Mercy Amba Oduyoye and the Rev. Barney Pityana. 
 
    Oduyoye is a Methodist from Ghana, a former WCC deputy general 
secretary (1987-1994) and now a professor at the University of Ghana. 
 
    Pityana, from South Africa, is an Anglican priest and currently 
chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of South Africa.  He is a former 
director of the WCC's Program to Combat Racism (1988-1992) and has also 
taught at the University of Cape Town. 
 
                       About the World Council of Churches 
 
    The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of 332 churches in more 
than 100 countries on 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 Geneva-based 
staff is headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical 
Church in Germany. 

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