wfn.org | Assembly essay competition

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World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
9 July, 1997

WCC LAUNCHES ASSEMBLY ESSAY COMPETITION

An opportunity exists for a young person to win an all-expenses-paid
trip to Harare, Zimbabwe to attend the Eighth Assembly of the World
Council of Churches.

The winner will be the person who writes the best essay on the biblical
topic of Jubilee.  Judges will look for clarity, originality and ecumenical
vision.

Announcing the competition, Mr Jan Kok, Director of the WCC Office of
Communication, says,  "The subject of jubilee has been chosen because
the next WCC assembly will take place in the organisation s fiftieth
anniversary year (the WCC was founded in Amsterdam in 1948),
and  jubilee  will be the underlying motif of the forthcoming assembly
whose theme is   Turn to God - Rejoice in Hope ".

In Leviticus 25, God calls for a jubilee every 50 years in which land is to
be restored to its original owners and slaves are to be set free.  In the
prophetic literature of Israel, these elements of liberation were taken up
in the announcement of the  year of the Lord s favour , e.g.,  in Isaiah
61:2.  Jesus later cited this passage in his sermon in Nazareth, as
recorded in Luke 4:18-19.

Mr Kok says the competition is aimed specifically at younger people
because the WCC is "aware of the continuing need to widen the circle of
those who are involved in the ecumenical movement".  Entrants must
have been born on or after 1 January 1964.  They do not have to belong
to a WCC member church.

Details of the competition have been sent to over 2000 theological
colleges around the world as well as to all WCC member churches,
national councils of churches and members of the WCC s central
committee.

The deadline for entries is 1 May 1998.  The WCC Eighth Assembly will
be held 3-14 December 1998.

Full details can be obtained from WCC Publications, Assembly Essay
Competition, PO Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland.  Fax:
+41.22.798.1346.  Email ec@wcc-coe.org

**********
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.

World Council of Churches
Press and Information Office
Tel:  (41.22) 791.61.52/51
Fax:  (41.22) 798 13 46E-Mail: jwn@wcc-coe.org
http://www.wcc-coe.org

P.O. Box 2100
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