WCC NEWS: Pentecostals and WCC need each other, Tveit says

[WCC media <noreply@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News

WCC AND PENTECOSTALS NEED EACH OTHER, WCC GENERAL SECRETARY SAYS

For immediate release: 25 August 2010

“Among the many challenges that we face in the search for Christian
unity is the need to overcome divisions and prejudices that exclude 
one
another,” Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World
Council of Churches (WCC) said Wednesday, 24 August to the 22nd
Pentecostal World Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

In his greeting – the first ever offered by a WCC general secretary 
to a
Pentecostal World Conference – Tveit highlighted the hope that comes
with being invited to the conference and spoke of his personal 
experience
with Pentecostal churches.

He also expressed how the WCC and Pentecostals have a common call in
God’s mission and need each other to fulfil this call.

“It is my deep conviction that the member churches of the WCC, some of
which are Pentecostal, need the closer bond to the Pentecostal 
churches
you represent,” he said to the group. “And it is my humble conviction
that you need us.”

“To be one is to give witness together to the cross and the 
resurrection
of Christ, to follow God's call together to work for justice and 
peace in
God's world, to obey God's commandment to be a good neighbour to all 
need
us as whoever they are, wherever they live, whatever skin colour they 
may
have and whatever religion they might follow,” he said.

Referencing the first letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament 
where
the apostle Paul says there are many members in the church, yet one 
body,
Tveit said, “I cannot say to any brother or sister in Christ that I 
have
no need for you. We need each other because it is only together that 
we
can grow into the one body of Christ.”

Acknowledging his Scandinavian roots, Tveit, who is Norwegian, said 
the
Pentecostal movement has contributed much to the spiritual life of the
Nordic countries and to his own faith journey.

He said part of his ecumenical journey includes “being richly blessed”
by family members who belong to Pentecostal churches and 
participating in
the processes that led the Norwegian Pentecostal churches to full
membership in the Christian Council of Norway.

Reflecting on the conference theme of “Equip Yourself, Others and the
Church” as “a call for growth together in unity for God’s great
mission,” Tveit said that the WCC and Pentecostal churches “will find
new ways of witnessing to our unity in Christ and sharing in God’s
mission. That you have welcomed me here today is one such sign of
hope.”

The Pentecostal World Conference is a 3-day event drawing together
Pentecostal church leaders from around the world.  In Sweden there are
nearly 450 Pentecostal congregations.

The World Council of Churches is a global fellowship of 349 churches 
in
some 140 countries representing more than 550 million Christians, 
some of
which are Pentecostal churches.

Full text of the WCC general secretary's greetings (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=498216b100f4c379e41c )

Website of the 22 (Link: 
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=97b1adfeaca56dc4f641 )nd
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=f71ce737d3e3af665bc1 ) 
Pentecostal World Conference
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=1861d7afcd6438e0ca96 )


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 Olav Fykse 
Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, 
Switzerland.



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