wfn.org | WCC Staffing

[Miriam REIDY PROST <mr@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
23 October 1998

WCC STAFF APPOINTMENTS

Three people from Orthodox member churches of the World Council of
Churches (WCC) are among a total of five staff appointments recently
made by the WCC Executive Committee.  Two of the five are women. 
Three of the five come from the South, one is from the Middle East and
one is Canadian.  This profile is seen as going some way to rectifying the
balance of WCC staff on which Orthodox, women and people from the
South are under-represented.

The titles of the appointments reflect the new WCC staffing structure
which will come into effect in January, 1999, and are:

Kristine Greenaway, Director, Cluster on Communication
Kristine Greenaway is from Canada and a member of the United Church
of Canada.  She currently works for her church as Interim Manager,
Resource Distribution and was formerly its Communication Education
Coordinator.  She is a member of the Central Committee of the World
Association for Christian Communication.

Dr Manoj Kurian, Executive Secretary for Health and Healing in the Team
on Mission and Evangelism within the Cluster on Issues and Themes
Manoj Kurian is from Malaysia and belongs to the Malankara Orthodox
Syrian Church (Oriental). He is currently Consultant to the Community
Health Department of the Christian Medical Association of India where,
among other responsibilities, he is involved in developing, implementing,
monitoring, evaluating and supporting community health and development
projects.

Father Kwame Labi, Executive Secretary for Community and Justice in
Mission, in the Team on Mission and Evangelism within the Cluster on
Issues and Themes
Kwame Labi is from Ghana and an ordained member of the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa (Eastern).  He is
currently the Secretary General of the Archdiocese for the Orthodox
Church in Ghana.  He has a special interest in Orthodox liturgical
theology and practice, and its inculturation in Africa.  He participated in
the WCC Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in 1993, and the
Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in 1996.

Dr John Lamola, Executive Secretary for Economy and Justice, in the
Team on Justice, Peace and Creation within the Cluster on Issues and
Themes
John Lamol is from South Africa and an ordained minister of the Baptist
Church of Southern Africa.  He currently works for Denel Aviation and
has been responsible for leading the refocussing of the companys'
production of armaments into non-military markets.  He has held senior
staff positions within the South African Council of Churches and in 1994,
as an independent consultant, established and administered the South
Africa Free Elections Fund in connection with voter education
programmes for South Africa's first democratic elections.

Dr Marina Rizk, Executive Secretary, Team on Regional Relations within
the Cluster on Relations and Constituencies
Marina Rizk is from Syria and a member of  the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East (Eastern).  She is a medical
doctor and currently works for the Syrian Ministry of Health as Head of
the Data Section of the Syrian Poison Information Centre which she
helped establish.

**********
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.

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