wfn.org | WCC NEWS Faith & Order plenary commission to meet in Kuala

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

World Council of Churches 7 Press Release
For immediate release - 08/07/2004 

THE WORLD'S MOST REPRESENTATIVE THEOLOGICAL FORUM TO MEET IN KUALA LUMPUR

				      Daily coverage (news, features, photos)
				      will be available. See below.

The world's most representative theological forum for Christian unity - the
World Council of Churches' (WCC) commission on Faith and Order - will meet
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 28 July to 6 August, 2004.  As the
commission's first meeting in the 21st century, this will also be the first
time it will gather in a Muslim-majority country.

With 120 members representing the WCC member churches and several
non-member churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, the commission's
work aims to promote the goal of the visible unity of the Christian church.

The commission pursues its mandate by undertaking studies on both doctrinal
and non-doctrinal questions that have given rise to church division.

The Kuala Lumpur meeting agenda includes examination and appraisal of the
commission's work over the last eight years. Commissioners will also
propose guidelines for further work, and are responsible for communicating
the results of current studies to the churches.

The meeting will be addressed by the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel
Kobia, as well as by the general secretaries of the Christian Conference of
Asia, Rev. Dr Ahn Jae-woong, and of the Council of Churches of Malaysia,
Rev. Dr Hermen Shastri.  An address by the prime minister of Malaysia, H.E.
Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is also scheduled.

Issues to be considered

Among the main issues to be considered by the commissioners at this meeting
will be:

-   the churches' mutual recognition of Christian initiation (baptism);
-   different understandings of the nature and mission of the church
    (ecclesiology);
-   relations between ethnic and national identities and the search for the
    unity of the church;
-   the understanding of the nature of the human person from a Christian
    point of view (theological anthropology) and its consequences when it
    comes to issues like community identity, human sexuality, disabilities
    or bio-ethics;
-   the way in which the texts, symbols and practices of different Christian
    churches may be interpreted, communicated and received (ecumenical
    hermeneutics).

Commissioners will also discuss the Faith and Order process of theological
reflection on peace, justice and reconciliation in the context of the WCC's
Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010), and the challenges of
interreligious dialogue.

The full plenary commission on Faith and Order normally meets only once
between WCC assemblies.  Its previous meeting took place in 1996 in Moshi,
Tanzania.  The Kuala Lumpur gathering will be the commission's last meeting
before the ninth WCC Assembly, to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in
February 2006.

The theme of the meeting, to be hosted by the Council of Churches of
Malaysia, is "Receive one another, as Christ has received you, for the
glory of God" (Romans 15:7).

"This theme opens perspectives on reception, hospitality, spirituality,
recognition and reconciliation," the moderator of the commission, Rev. Dr
David Yemba, points out.  "But above all, it constitutes a call to live in
communion beyond the boundaries within the household of God."

According to Yemba, the theme and the role of the plenary commission as a
forum for theological debate "will help Faith and Order to make its call to
visible unity more audible to the churches".

Website, agenda, media accreditation

Additional information on Faith and Order and the Kuala Lumpur meeting,
including a detailed agenda and a form for media accreditation, is
available on the meeting website at
http://www.wcc-coe.org/kualalumpur2004.html 

Media coverage

An ecumenical media team will provide daily feature and news stories in
English, German, Spanish and French, as well as photos. All material can be
viewed and downloaded free of charge from the meeting website.

Daily e-mail digest

To subscribe to a daily e-mail digest of news and features, fill in the form
on the meeting website or click the following link
http://onlineservices.wcc-coe.org/pressnames.nsf/signup?OpenForm&comment=kual
alumpur

For more information contact: Juan Michel, +4122 791 6153, +4179 507 6363
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 Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.