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

World Council of Churches
Press Update
9 July 1999

STAFF NEWS

Heidi Hadsell to lead Bossey redevelopment. Dr Heidi Hadsell (49) will remain as director of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC). In a surprise announcement, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser reported that McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, had agreed to extend Dr Hadsell's leave of absence as a member of its faculty for up to two more years. It was previously announced that Dr Hadsell would return to her position as McCormick dean this fall (cf. press update of 22 April 1999).      

When Dr Hadsell became director of Bossey in 1997, she was granted a two-year leave of absence from her post as vice-president for Academic Affairs and dean of  McCormick Theological Seminary. During her two years at Bossey, Dr Hadsell completed a comprehensive redevelopment plan, approved by the board of Bossey in March 1999. Recent developments include a new Master's programme, two graduate school terms per year,  a renewed programme of seminars and conferences, and a major renovation of the Château de Bossey, in which the institute is located.    

With these new initiatives underway, Rev Dr. Raiser approached McCormick Theological Seminary to find a way to extend Dr. Hadsell's term at Bossey.  
  
Dr Hadsell expressed her "special thanks" to the WCC and McCormick: "I am delighted  now to be able to lead Bossey's redevelopment through to completion. The redevelopment assures the future of Bossey's mission - to ecumenically engage issues of global ethics and to prepare Christian leadership for ministry in a pluralistic age."
 
Contact:  Karin Achtelstetter, Media Relations Officer           

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of 336 churches, 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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