wfn.org | Title: Staff appointments in the WCC in 2003

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

World Council of Churches 7 Press Update 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 18/12/2003 - pu-03-51 

Staff appointments in the WCC in 2003 

Alexander Belopopsky from the UK was appointed coordinator of
the WCC 
Public Information team by the WCC officers meeting in November
2003. 
Belopopsky, a lay member of the Orthodox Church (Ecumenical
Patriarchate), 
has been responsible for the WCC Europe Desk since February
1996, and will 
move into his new position at the beginning of 2004. He replaces
Sara 
Speicher from the USA, who moved to the UK end-November after 7
years with 
the Council. Before coming to the WCC, Belopopsky served as 
secretary-general of SYNDESMOS, the World Fellowship of Orthodox
Youth. He 
has a degree in modern history from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en 
Sciences Sociales, France. 

Rev. Dr Laurence Konmla Brophleh from Liberia was appointed as
WCC United 
Nations representative in New York by the WCC Central Committee
meeting in 
August-September 2003. He has a doctorate with special emphasis
on 
conflict resolution, uprooted people and refugees from Wesley
Theological 
Seminary at American University in Washington, DC, USA. After
serving as a 
United Methodist Church (UMC) pastor from 1991-97, he joined the
churchs 
General Board of Global Ministries as regional executive
secretary for 
sub-Saharan Africa. Most recently, Brophleh was director of
African 
initiatives, and senior minister for the UMC
Baltimore-Washington 
Conference. He took up his new post in September 2003. 

Rev. Deborah DeWinter, a minister of the United Church of
Christ, was 
appointed WCC programme executive for the United States. She
replaces Jean 
Stromberg, who was executive director of the US Office, and
retired on 31 
March 2003 after 36 years with the WCC. DeWinter has served as a

missionary in Hong Kong with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America, 
worked with the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service,
NCCC-USA Church 
World Service Immigration and Refugee Program, the UN High
Commissioner 
for Refugees Resettlement Section and, most recently, FilmAid 
International, New York. She was appointed by the WCC Central
Committee 
meeting in August-September 2003, and took up her new position
in 
September. 

Beate Fagerli from Norway was appointed by the WCC general
secretary as 
conference organizer for the forthcoming 2005 Conference on
World Mission 
and Evangelism in Athens, Greece. A member of the Church of
Norway, 
Fagerli took up her duties in August 2003, and will work as a
consultant 
in the Mission & Ecumenical Formation team. She has a master of
theology 
degree from the University of Oslo, and has worked in various
pastoral 
capacities - for example, as an assistant in homes for mentally

handicapped people and as a university student counsellor.
Before coming 
to the WCC, Fagerli was co-secretary general of the World
Student 
Christian Federation. 

Denyse Liger from Canada was appointed WCC coordinator, library
and 
archives, by the WCC general secretary. She took up her duties
in the 
Publications & Research team in May 2003, succeeding library
director 
Pierre Beffa, who retired in December 2002 after 37 years of
service. A 
member of the Roman Catholic Church, Liger has a Masters in
Library and 
Information Sciences from the University of Montreal, and a
graduate 
degree in business administration from the Ecole des hautes
itudes 
commerciales, Montreal. Her extensive experience as a librarian
and 
project manager in various environments includes ten years in
Africa as 
well as positions at the United Nations, the US Agency for
International 
Development, the Canadian International Development Agency, the
University 
of Montreal, and private consulting firms. 

Natalie Kim Maxson of the United Church of Canada was appointed
programme 
executive of the WCC Youth Desk by the WCC officers' meeting in
November 
2003. Maxson will take up her new duties in November 2004, and
will 
replace Rev. Freddy Knutsen of the Church of Norway, who will
leave the 
Council after 8 years at the helm of the Youth Desk. Maxson is
presently 
completing a degree in Women's Studies and Political Sciences at
the 
University of Victoria, British Columbia. She is also serving as
youth 
minister for the Cadboro Bay United Church in Victoria, BC. She
has a 
broad background in youth work in her church, including an
8-months 
"immersion" visit of a youth group to India, and has been
involved in a 
wide variety of human rights campaigns and activities. 

Lina Moukheiber from Lebanon was appointed executive secretary
of the WCC 
Middle East Desk by the WCC general secretary in November 2003.
As of 1 
January 2004, the desk will be located in Beirut, Lebanon. A
member of the 
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, Mukheiber has a Masters
in Public 
Health from the University of Tennessee, and is currently
director of 
development at the Saint George Hospital University Medical
Centre in 
Lebanon. Previous posts include a 4-months' health education
consultancy 
with the World Health Organization, and a decade of service as
regional 
health coordinator of the Middle East Council of Churches
(MECC). 

Sydia Nduna from Zambia was appointed consultant for the WCC
programme on 
Uprooted People by the WCC general secretary in November 2003,
and took up 
her position within the WCC Diakonia & Solidarity team at the
beginning of 
December. With a diploma and a BA in social work from the
University of 
Zambia, Nduna has worked for many years as a technical advisor
to Sexual 
and Gender-based Violence Programmes run by the International
Rescue 
Committee (IRC), and by the UN High Commission for Refugees - in
refugee 
camps in, among others, Uganda, Rwanda, the Great Lakes region,
Kenya, 
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. She also did a study and
report on 
sexual exploitation of refugee children in West Africa. 

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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.