wfn.org | Staff changes in WCC International Relations and Media Relations

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release PR-02-25
For Immediate Use
26 September 2002

Staff changes in WCC International Relations and Media Relations

Appointed as coordinator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 
International Relations team and director of the Commission of the Churches 
on International Affairs (CCIA) by the WCC executive committee in February, 
Peter Weiderud from Sweden took up his new post on 1 September 2002. 
Weiderud succeeds Dwain Epps, who retired at the end of August 2002 after 
three decades of ecumenical ministry in the field of international affairs, 
including twenty years on the staff of the CCIA.

A journalist by profession, Weiderud was the general secretary of the 
Christian Peace Movement in Sweden for six years. He next worked at the 
diocesan level in his church, the Church of Sweden, for five years and then 
with the Swedish Ecumenical Council on justice and peace concerns, before 
being named political advisor the the foreign minister of Sweden as speech 
writer and advisor on security policy. Most recently, Weiderud served as 
director general for international mission and diaconia in his church. In 
that role, he coordinated policy on international affairs, and managed the 
overall work of the Church of Sweden Mission, Church of Sweden Aid, and the 
international branch of the Swedish Evangelical Mission.

At its meeting in August, the WCC executive committee appointed Juan Carlos 
Michel from Argentina as WCC Media Relations officer. A journalist with a 
degree in theology, Juan Michel has been working for his church, the 
Evangelical Church of the River Plate, since 1987. He began writing for the 
church's monthly magazine Revista Parroquial, and in 1993 became the 
magazine's editor. Most recently (from 1999), he assumed responsibility for 
communication development and media relations in the church, including 
editorial supervision of its publications. During this time, he also worked 
as a freelance correspondent for Latin America Press, Lutheran World 
Information, and for the Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency.

Michel's efforts to build up a positive image of his church in the media 
and broaden its communication strategy to draw on grassroots communicators 
will be a precious asset when he assumes his new task in Geneva on 1 
December 2002. He succeeds Karin Achtelstetter from Germany, who served as 
Media Relations officer from March 1999 to August this year, and left the 
WCC to take up the post of director of communication for the Lutheran World 
Federation.

For further information, please contact Media Relations Office,   tel: +41 
(0)22 791 64 21

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, 
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, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by 
general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail: media@wcc-coe.org
Web: www.wcc-coe.org

PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland