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

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

WCC AND RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Following recent suggestions in some media that the Russian Orthodox
Church has suspended its membership of the World Council of Churches
(WCC), the situation, as confirmed to the WCC by the Representation of
the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Geneva, is as follows:

The Russian Orthodox Church has not suspended or withdrawn its
membership of the World Council of Churches.

A meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, held 28-29
December in Moscow, heard a report on the WCC Eighth Assembly from
the ROC delegates who attended.  The report included details of the
Assembly decision to set up a special commission to examine Orthodox
concerns with and participation in the World Council of Churches.

The Holy Synod agreed that from now until the results of the special
commission were known, the Russian Orthodox Church would suspend
its active participation in the regular work of the WCC.  In practice, this
means elected Russian Orthodox Church members of the WCC executive
committee and central committee would attend meetings but would not
actively participate in general discussion or voting.

The Holy Synod agreed that the church would fully participate in the
work of the special commission.

**********
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.

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

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