wfn.org | Faith & Order and WCC Staff News

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
11 January 1999

FAITH AND ORDER FIRST - PLUS WCC STAFF NEWS

Moderator - Faith and Order Commission

For the first time, an African has been appointed as Moderator of the
World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission.

At its meeting during the Eighth Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe (3-14
December), the newly-elected Central Committee itself elected Rev. Dr
David K. Yemba as Moderator of the Faith and Order Commission for the
period until the next WCC Assembly.

Dr Yemba succeeds Dr Mary Tanner (Church of England).  He is a United
Methodist ordained minister in the Church of Christ in Congo, and
currently Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Professor of Christian
Theology at Africa University, a United Methodist-Related Institution in
Mutare, Zimbabwe.

WCC Executive Staff

Four new executive staff appointments were approved by the World
Council of Churches Executive Committee when it met in Harare just
before the beginning of the WCC Eighth Assembly.  The four new
appointments are within the new organisational structure of the WCC
which came into operation on 1 January 1999 (see details below), and
are:

Ms Karin Achtelstetter: Media Relations Officer, Cluster on
Communication.  Ms Achtelstetter is from Germany and a member of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria.  She is a journalist and
theologian and comes to the WCC from the Lutheran World Federation
where she has been the Acting Director of the Office for Communication
Services, and Assistant Editor (German) of Lutheran World Information. 
Ms Achtelstetter speaks German, English, French and Spanish and reads
Swedish, Yiddish and Italian.

Ms Genevieve Jacques: Executive Secretary for International Affairs,
Cluster on Relations and Constituencies, Team on International Relations. 
Ms Jacques is from France and a member of the French Reformed
Church.  She is a former General Secretary of CIMADE (Ecumenical
Service Agency, France).  Since 1996 she has been a consultant on
human rights within the WCC's Commission of the Churches on
International Affairs and has concentrated on monitoring trends and
responses to critical situations particularly in Latin America, the
Caribbean and the Francophone countries of Central and Western
Africa.  She has also worked on questions of impunity, truth, justice and
reconciliation.  Ms Jacques speaks French, English and Spanish.

Rev. Dr Nyambura Njoroge: Executive Secretary for Education and
Ecumenical Formation, Cluster on Issues and Themes, Team on Mission
and Evangelism.  Dr Njoroge is from Kenya and a member of the
Presbyterian Church of East Africa.  She will move to the WCC from the
World Alliance of Reformed Churches where, since 1992, she has been
Executive Secretary in the Department of Partnership of Women and
Men.  Dr Njoroge obtained her Ph.D in African Theology and Christian
Social Ethics from Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.  Dr Njoroge
speaks Gikuyu, Kiswahili and English.

Rev. Dr Faitala Talapusi: Executive Secretary/Lecturer at the Ecumenical
Institute, Bossey, General Secretariat.  Dr Talapusi is from Samoa and is
a member of the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa.  He obtained
a Master of Sacred Theology from Yale University, USA and his
doctorate from the University of Montpelier, France.  He is a former
principal of the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji and has lately
been working as a parish minister in Samoa.  Dr Talapusi is also a former
international rugby player and coach, and has served as Chief Executive
Officer for the Western Samoa Rugby Football Union.  He speaks
Samoan, English and French.

Retirement

Ms Mary Ann Lundy, WCC Deputy General Secretary, will retire at the
end of January.  Ms Lundy comes from the USA and is a member of the
Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA).  She joined the WCC staff in
February 1995 and says, "I came to the WCC during a period of transition
for the organisation in terms of finances and restructuring.  Because of
my previous experience with such work in the US with the YWCA and
the PCUSA, I felt able to contribute to this process in the relatively brief
time I was with the WCC.  My work was primarily internal and
staff-orientated and I very much enjoyed working with such committed
and talented people."  Ms Lundy will retire to Santa Fe in New Mexico
where she expects to be involved once again on issues concerning
migrants, refugees and Central America.  In the mid-1980s, Ms Lundy
was very involved in the sanctuary movement in the USA which gave
shelter to illegal immigrants from Central America who were fleeing
persecution and death squads in their own countries.

The new WCC organisational structure is:

General Secretariat  - General Secretary, Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser

plus four 'clusters':

Communication - Director, Ms Kristine Greenaway
Teams: 
- Public Information
- WCC Publications and Documentation

Finance, Service and Administration - Director, Mr Robert Christeler
Teams:
- Finance
- Income Monitoring and Development
- House Services
- Human Resources
- Computer and Information Technology Service

Issues and Themes - Director, Rev. Dr Sam Kobia
Teams:
- Faith and Order
- Mission and Evangelism
- Justice, Peace and Creation
- Education and Ecumenical Formation

Relations and Constituencies - Director, Rev. Myra Blyth
Teams:
- Ecumenical Relations
- Regional Relations
- Interreligious Relations and Dialogue
- International Relations

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 338, 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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