wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Korea stands ready to welcome WCC

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

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 01/09/2009 15:52:22

>KOREA STANDS READY TO WELCOME WCC

A beachfront location, an opportunity to be a witness for peace
and reconciliation, and a commitment to engage the breadth of the
region’s church community as widely as possible: these are among
the features those attending the World Council of Churches’ 10th
Assembly (
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/organization-structure/governing-bodies/assembly.html
)in Busan, South Korea can expect.

The WCC central committee on 31 August chose Busan as the venue
for the 10th Assembly in 2013, and the host region is eager to
welcome the event.

“It is a really great joy to be able to invite the WCC Assembly
to Korea,” said Rev. Dr Jong-wha Park, chair of the international
committee of the National Council of Churches in South Korea.
“You can experience there how a wide ecumenism may be
possible.”

He also expressed hope that the WCC’s presence could “contribute
greatly toward peaceful reconciliation and reunification” for the
divided peninsula of Korea.

The assembly will take place at the state-of-the-art BEXCO
exhibition and convention centre, which has previously hosted the
final draw for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and was the main venue for
the 2005 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic
leaders’ meeting. Its main exhibition hall is three times the
size of a soccer field, according to publicity materials.

“Every venue we visited offered challenges to be overcome and
opportunities that made us dream,” said Douglas Chial, WCC
programme executive for church and ecumenical relations and
coordinator of the WCC’s 9th Assembly in 2006. “As we look
forward to planning (the assembly) in Busan, we have an exciting
city to host us, excellent facilities, many possibilities. Now we
can focus our dreams there.”

Chial joined a committee responsible for visiting the four
regions whose churches had extended invitations for the assembly.
The National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) issued the
invitation to come to Busan on behalf of all NCCK member
churches, including four who are members of the WCC.

Busan, on the southeastern corner of the Korean peninsula, is
the second largest city in South Korea with more than 4 million
people. An international airport offers connections throughout
Korea and most of eastern Asia, as well as Hawaii and other
locations in the Pacific.

Among the unique features in Busan named by the site visit
committee were the diversity of churches and the interreligious
context of Korea, the “new horizon” of holding an assembly in the
Far East for the first time and the strength of local
congregations, along with the hope for unity on the peninsula. 

Park re-iterated the local steering committee’s plan to invite
North Korean churches to the assembly and to promote dialogue and
cooperation in the years leading up to the event. He also
expressed his desire for evangelical and pentecostal churches and
other religious groups in South Korea to have a presence at the
assembly. Many of those churches joined the WCC members in
extending the invitation to host the assembly.

That spirit of cooperation could be a particularly powerful
witness in Busan, he said, as the city has not been a hub of much
ecumenical activity.

“We will try to ecumenize this community,” Park said, laughing.
“It’s a good chance!”

Chial said that the participation of groups beyond the WCC
membership will be determined by central committee and its work
with the assembly planning committee, but he noted that the
assembly is always expanding and changing.

“In the past assemblies we have seen a growing participation of
evangelical and pentecostal churches at the invitation of central
committee,” Chial said. “There are many new possibilities in this
assembly.”

News: "WCC 10th Assembly to take place in Korea"
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-10th-assembly-to-take.html

More information on the Central Committee meeting:
http://www.oikoumene.org/cc2009

Free high resolution photos are available:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/cc2009/photo-galleries.html

WCC member churches in Korea:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/asia/south-korea.html

>###

>SIDEBAR

>An expanded space?

Following a call from the World Council of Churches 9th Assembly
in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006 for an “expanded space” at future
assemblies, the WCC central committee has been discussing the
“nature and style” of the next assembly. The central issue is
whether and how to offer participation for other Christian world
communions and ecumenical partners at the WCC’s largest event.

An Assembly Discernment Committee was established in February
2008 under the leadership of Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima,
vice-moderator of the central committee. In a report to central
committee in Geneva on 27 August, the discernment committee
brought 10 recommendations, including a call that the next
assembly should be “open and more inviting to increase
participation and interaction with the wider ecumenical movement”
and should “focus on relationships”, both among member churches
and with ecumenical partners.

“Our ecumenical assemblies are culmination points,” said
committee member Rev. Heike Bosien of the Evangelical Church in
Germany. “It is the face of our being together, manifesting the
fellowship of togetherness – the brotherhood and sisterhood of
humanity.” At stake, she said, is the question, “Who is allowed
to enter the tent?”

The discernment committee suggested involving ecumenical
partners in assembly plenaries and moving to “develop bridges”
between the various facets of the assembly to maximize
interaction and input between all groups present. Other
recommendations focused on issues of governance and the
elections/nominations process at the assembly.

Delegates offered a wide range of opinions on the issue and the
discernment committee’s recommendations, with some urging a wide
embrace of ecumenism and others concerned that the WCC’s voice
must remain distinct. Discussion will continue at future
meetings.

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.