wfn.org | New Director Ecumenical Institute

[smm@wcc-coe.org]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
9 January 1997

NEW DIRECTOR FOR ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE

Professor Heidi Hadsell is to be the new director of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Ecumenical Institute, headquartered at the Château de Bossey, Céligny, near Geneva.  Prof. Hadsell, a lay member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is expected to take up her duties in the late summer of 1997.

Prof. Hadsell is currently Dean of the Faculty, Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Christian Social Ethics at McCormick Seminary, Chicago, USA.  She will be the ninth director of the Ecumenical Institute, founded in 1946 and commonly known as "Bossey", and the first woman to have held the position.  Prof. Hadsell succeeds Rev. Dr Jacques Nicole (Swiss Protestant Church Federation).

Bossey, described in a recent history of the institute as "A Laboratory for Ecumenical Life",  provides courses on contemporary ecumenical issues and the history of the ecumenical movement.  It aims to share the ecumenical spirit with as many participants as possible and to train a future generation of ecumenical leaders, both clergy and lay.  One of the institute's main activities is the annual four-month long Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies which brings together students from all around the world.

Prof. Hadsell taught one such graduate school in 1983/1984 on the theme, "The Visible Unity of the Church in a Divided World".  One of her first responsibilities as director will be the 1997 graduate school.  Its theme is "Called to One Hope: The Gospel in Diverse Cultures", which was the title for the WCC's Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, held in Salvador, Brazil in December 1996.

Prof. Hadsell herself has lived and worked in Brazil.  She was visiting professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis (1979/1981) and subsequently did a post-doctoral study on Brazilian popular social movements and the role of mediators.

In 1979, Prof. Hadsell gained her PhD from the University of Southern California on the topic of Ethical Issues of Third World Development.  She wrote her dissertation on "The Moral Thought of Julius Nyerere".

Prof. Hadsell (born October 1949) is particularly interested in economic, political and environmental issues and their interaction with and impact on Christian thought and Christian communities.  She speaks English, Portuguese, French and Spanish.  
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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 330, 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, Netherlands.  Its staff is headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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