wfn.org | Title: Nominations invited for the most universal Christian

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release 03-22
For Immediate Use
11 June 2003

Nominations invited for "the most universal Christian mission gathering" 

Invitations to nominate participants to the next Conference on World Mission
and Evangelism have been sent out to World Council of Churches (WCC) member
churches and organizations and networks affiliated with the Commission on
World Mission and Evangelism (CWME). The conference will take place in
Athens, Greece, 12-19 May 2005.

Under the title Come Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile, the conference theme
is: "Called in Christ to be reconciling and healing communities".  In their
invitation, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser and CWME moderator
Rev. Ruth Bottoms stated that churches' and Christians' mission is "to form
healing communities", and "to create and multiply such safe spaces,
hospitable to those who are stigmatized, lost, searching for meaning or
community, and to journey with victims of violence and sin towards
reconciliation and justice".

Rev. Jacques Matthey, executive secretary in the WCC Mission and Ecumenical
Formation team, states that the 2005 world conference might well be "the most
universal Christian mission gathering envisaged at the beginning of this
century in terms of denominations and cultures represented." "Other
conferences are  bigger with regard to numbers, " he says, "but I don't know
of any other meeting calling together such a variety of Christians struggling
with healing and reconciliation in mission." 

In addition to delegates from mission or church councils affiliated with
CWME, participants also include representatives of WCC member churches, the
Roman Catholic Church, and wider mission networks, in particular evangelical
and Pentecostal/charismatic churches and traditions. The conference will have
about 500 official participants; however, the letter invites wide
participation at the church and community level in the preparatory reflection
on mission. Churches, mission and church councils will submit their
nominations for participants through 2003, with final approval by the WCC
Central or Executive Committee to ensure balanced participation.

The Church of Greece is hosting the conference, the first WCC world mission
and evangelism conference to be held in an Orthodox-majority country. The
last such conference, focusing on gospel and cultures, was held in 1996 in
Salvador da Bahma, Brazil. The tradition of world mission and evangelism
conferences goes back to a 1910 world mission conference in Edinburgh, held
under the auspices of the International Missionary Council (IMC). The IMC
merged with the WCC in 1961.

Further updates and resources for the conference will be made available
through the WCC web site, www.wcc-coe.org.

For further information, please contact the Media Relations Office,  tel: +41
(0)22 791 64 21 /61 53

**********

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 

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