wfn.org | WCC - Federal president of Germany, Dr Johannes Rau, to

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

visit the WCC

World Council of Churches
Press Release, PR-01-38
For Immediate Use
16 October 2001

Federal president of Germany, Dr Johannes Rau, to visit the
World Council of Churches

The president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr Johannes
Rau, will visit the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, on
Wednesday, 17 October, at the invitation of the World Council of
Churches (WCC).  The Ecumenical Centre houses the headquarters of
the WCC and several other international church bodies.  

After a short private conversation with the WCC's general
secretary, Dr Konrad Raiser, President Rau will have a
round-table discussion with the general secretaries of three
other organizations:  Dr Keith Clements of the Conference of
European Churches (CEC), Dr Ishmael Noko of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) and Dr Setri Nyomi of the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches (WARC).  The discussion will focus on
interreligious and interconfessional dialogue and on the role of
religion in politics.  

The programme will also include a meeting with the staff of the
Ecumenical Centre.  

President Rau met representatives of the world-wide ecumenical
movement earlier this year when he addressed the WCC Central
Committee at its meeting in Potsdam, Germany, from 29 January to
6 February.  In his address to the WCC governing body, the German
president addressed the question of a just international economic
order, one of the main themes on the Central Committee's agenda. 

"The president's visit to the World Council of Churches is a
welcome opportunity for us to continue the discussion we started
in Potsdam," the WCC general secretary said. "President Rau made
it unequivocally clear in his speech then that churches and
religious institutions have an important role to play in
accompanying the political decision-making process."  The visit
of the German head of state also has symbolic importance for the
world-wide ecumenical movement, Raiser noted.   

For further information, please contact Karin Achtelstetter,
Media Relations Officer, Tel.:  (+41.22) 791.61.53   Mobile: 
(+41) 79.284.52.12

**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, 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, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general
secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41 22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail: ka@wcc-coe.org 
Web: www.wcc-coe.org 

PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland