wfn.org | Title: WCC general secretary visits Ecum. Patriarchate

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches 7 Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 25/11/2003 - pr-03-35

 WCC general secretary's last official visit
 to a WCC member church before retirement

 The last official visit of World Council of Churches (WCC)
outgoing
 general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser to a WCC member church
will be to
 the Ecumenical Patriarchate from 29 November to 3 December
2003.

 Writing to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I about his
forthcoming
 farewell visit to the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate,
Raiser
 recalled that the Patriarchate was one of the first WCC member
churches he
 had visited upon taking up his new position as general
secretary of the
 WCC in 1993.

 And, as he pointed out in his letter, the fact that it will now
be the
 last WCC member church that he will visit before leaving the
Council is,
 "Your All Holiness may be sure, much more than a simple
coincidence!"

 The Ecumenical Patriarchate is considered the 'first among
equals' of the
 Eastern Orthodox churches, and was one of the founder members
of the WCC
 in 1948.

 Raiser will spend Saturday 29 November with the patriarch; on
Sunday 30
 November, the WCC general secretary will participate in a
celebration on
 the feast of St Andrew, the church's patron saint.

 Accompanying Raiser on the visit will be his wife Dr Elisabeth
Raiser, WCC
 deputy general secretary Mr Georges Lemopoulos and WCC
executive secretary
 Rev. Sabine Udodesku.

For more information contact:
	 Media Relations Office: tel: (+41 22) 791 64 21 /  61
53
	 e-mail:media@wcc-coe.org - http://www.wcc-coe.org 

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now
342, in more
than 120 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.