wfn.org | WCC General secretary to visit Germany

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

World Council of Churches
For immediate release: PR-04-10
23 June 2004

WCC general secretary visits Germany

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC)
Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia will visit Germany from 28 June to 2 July.
This is Kobia's first official visit to Germany since taking
office in January 2004.

Kobia's visit will include the German capital Berlin, the
headquarters of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in
Hanover, and time in various other EKD member churches.
Discussions will focus upon Kobia's plans as new general
secretary and on the World Council's ongoing work.

In Berlin, Kobia will meet amongst others with Dr Wolfgang
Huber, chair of the EKD Council and bishop of
Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz, with Dr Rolf Koppe,
bishop for ecumenical relations and ministries abroad, and Dr
Margot Kdssmann, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Hanover. On 1 July, the WCC general secretary will bring
greetings to the annual St John's reception of the Evangelical
Church in Germany, to which prominent politicians and members of
society have been invited.

Following a meeting with Professor Christoph Schwvbel, dean of
the faculty of theology in Heidelberg, there will be a discussion
session with students. At Heidelberg Univeristy, Kobia will give
a lecture entitled "Grounded in faith - a spirituality of
resistance and alternatives to injustice, violence and despair".
Kobia will then visit the Protestant Institute for Ecumenical
Studies and Research in Bensheim to hear about the institute's
work.

Meetings with representatives of EKD member churches in Bavaria,
Kurhessen-Waldeck, Thuringia, W|rttemberg and the Palatinate are
also planned, as are meetings with Free Church representatives
from other WCC German member churches. Discussions will focus on
the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence, the WCC ninth assembly in
2006 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the Ecumenical Accompaniment
Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), as well as looking at
wider theological and political issues.

The programme will end with visits to the Wartburg in Eisenach,
the Bonhoeffer House in Berlin, and a walk along a remaining part
of the Berlin wall.

Kobia will be accompanied on this visit by Rev Sabine Udodesku,
WCC executive secretary.

Press appointments:
Press conference at the Protestant Institute for Ecumenical
Studies and Research in Bensheim
Tuesday 29.06.2004, 11.00-11.30. 
Contact: Dr Alexander Gemeinhardt, tel. +49 62 51 84 33 0
Place: Konfessionskundliches Institut / Evangelischer Bund -
Protestant Institute for Ecumenical Studies and Research, 
Eifelstrasse 35, D-64625 Bensheim
Press conference in Bad Orb
Tuesday 29.06.2004, 15.30-16.15 
Contact: Karl Waldeck, tel + 49 561 93 78 272
Place: Evangelisches Gemeindezentrum - Protestant parish
centre,
W|rzburger Strasse 13, D-63619 Bad Orb

Press briefing for journalists in Berlin 
Thursday, 01.07.2004, 16:00-17:00 Uhr 
Contact: Silke Fauzi, tel +49 511 27 96 267 
Place: Haus des Bevollmdchtigten des Rates der EKD - House of
the EKD Council representative to the Government of the Federal
Republic of Germany, 
Charlottenstrasse 53/54, D-10117 Berlin

For further information, please contact Juan Michel, WCC  media
relations officer,  tel: +41 22 791 6153, mobile +41 79 507 6363,
media@wcc-coe.org