wfn.org | WCC News: New WCC co-president

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

World Council of Churches 7 Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 24/06/2004 - pr-04-11

 African-American human rights activist
 is new WCC co-president

 Free photo available - see below

Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, the executive minister of the Justice
and
Witness ministries of the United Church of Christ in the USA,
has been
elected as World Council of Churches (WCC) president from North
America,
joining seven co-presidents from other regions. Powell Jackson
replaces
Rev. Kathryn Bannister of the United Methodist Church.

According to the Council's rules, WCC presidents are
traditionally chosen
for their widely recognized ecumenical experience and standing;
as ex
officio members of the Central Committee, their role is to
promote
ecumenism and interpret the work of the Council, particularly in
their
respective regions.

"Especially in 2004, as the WCC focuses the Decade to Overcome
Violence on
the US, I look forward to finding new ways of connecting justice
advocacy
with ecumenical partners in my work as the WCC president from
North
America," said Jackson. "This is a wonderful honour, an exciting
challenge
and an opportunity to share the ecumenical vision of the WCC in
our world
today."

Following Bannister's resignation from the WCC co-presidency for
personal
reasons, the Board of the US Conference for the WCC recommended
Powell
Jackson for the position; the Executive Committee endorsed the
nomination
at its meeting last February, and the Central Committee elected
Powell
Jackson via a postal vote.

A member of the WCC Central Committee since 1998, Powell Jackson
is the
spokesperson for this year's WCC Decade to Overcome Violence
focus on the
US. An activist on behalf of civil, women's and human rights
around the
world for more than a quarter of a century, she serves as one of
the five
officers of the United Church of Christ, and is mandated to work
on a wide
range of justice issues confronting the church and the world.

Powell Jackson was formerly executive director of her 1.3
million member
denomination's Commission for Racial Justice and, prior to that,
executive
associate to the church's president. She served for three years
as the
director of the Bishop Tutu Southern African Refugee Scholarship
Fund, and
was also on the staff of New York governor Hugh Carey, and on
the
communications staff of the National Urban League.

Born and raised in Washington DC, Powell Jackson lived for
nearly 20 years
in New York City.  She relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1990
along with the
national offices of the United Church of Christ.  She is a
graduate of
Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, holds master's
degrees from
the Columbia University School of Journalism and Union
Theological
Seminary, and received an honorary doctor of humane letters
degree from
Defiance College in 1994.  She is married to Dr Franklyn
Jackson, a retired
school administrator.

The other WCC presidents, elected in 1998 at the WCC's eighth
assembly in
Harare, are: Dr Agnes Abuom (Anglican Church of Kenya), Bishop
Jabez Bryce
(Anglican Church in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Polynesia),
Metropolitan
Chrysostomos of Ephesus  (Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople
[Turkey]), Dr Moon Kyu Kang (Presbyterian Church in the Republic
of Korea),
Bishop Federico J. Pagura (Evangelical Methodist Church of
Argentina),
Bishop Eberhardt Renz (Evangelical Church in Germany), and
Patriarch Mar
Ignatius Zakka I Iwas (Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch
and All the
East).

Free high-resolution picture available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/powelljackson.html 

Interview with Dr Bernice Powell Jackson on the US focus of the
Decade to
Overcome Violence available at:
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/wcc.nsf/index/wccnews200402-en.html#DOV

For more information contact:
	 Media Relations Office: tel: (+41 22) 791 64 21 /  61
53
	 e-mail:media@wcc-coe.org - http://www.wcc-coe.org 

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now
342, in more
than 120 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 Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in
Kenya.