wfn.org | WCC AGENDA: July 2005

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

World Council of Churches - Agenda
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 28/06/2005

JULY 2005

   > Indigenous peoples challenge UN draft declaration
   > Second World Assembly of the People's Health Movement
   > Kobia speaks at Jewish-Christian and church gatherings
   > Kobia meets Caribbean Conference of Churches
   > Kobia visits churches in Cuba and Haiti

> Indigenous peoples challenge UN draft declaration
> 16-17 July, Geneva, Switzerland

According to indigenous peoples, "self-determination", "collective
rights", "right to land and territory", and "indigenous people" rather
than "indigenous population" are concepts and terms that constitute the
minimal standards for their existence. They are therefore insisting that
these minima are inscribed in the final draft of the UN declaration on the
rights of indigenous peoples. At a WCC-sponsored Indigenous Peoples Caucus
in Geneva, 100-150 delegates, including indigenous leaders from the
Americas, the Philippines and Aborigines from Australia, will meet to
strategize for their participation in the 23rd session of the UN Working
Group on Indigenous Peoples.

http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/indig.html

> Second World Assembly of the People's Health Movement
> 17-23 July, Cuenca, Ecuador

A WCC delegation is participating in the Second World Assembly of the
People's Health Movement (PHM) in Cuenca, Ecuador, where a "Global
Campaign for the Right to Health" will be launched. The campaign aims to
strengthen the "right to health" in the context of weakening public health
systems, unchecked privatization and erosion of universal access to health
care. Equity, ecologically-sustainable development and peace are at the
heart of PHM's vision of a better world. The People's Health Movement is a
grassroots movement composed of NGOs in more than 80 countries world-wide,
created in Bangladesh in 2000, and which has emerged, in the past five
years as a major global action movement on health.

http://phmovement.org/pha2/

> Kobia speaks at Jewish-Christian and church gatherings
> 24-26 July, Chicago and Portland, USA

On 24 July, the WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia will deliver the
keynote address at the annual conference of the International Council of
Christians and Jews, in Chicago, on the theme "Healing the World - Working
Together. Religion in Global Society".

On 26 July, Kobia will speak at the general assembly of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) in Portland, Oregon, on the topic of future
global challenges to North American Christian involvement in the ecumenical movement in the coming years. The same day, he will also preach on the
theme of "In Christ a new humanity" (Ephesians 2:11-22). The Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ), a North American mainline Protestant
denomination, is a member of the WCC.

http://www.iccj.org/
http://www.disciples.org/

> Kobia meets Caribbean Conference of Churches
> 28 July, Trinidad

WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia will meet with leaders from the
Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC). CCC is the recognized regional
ecumenical organization in the Caribbean and one of the major development
agencies at work in the region today. Currently comprised of 34 member
churches in 33 territories across the Dutch-, English-, French- and
Spanish-speaking territories of the region, it was founded in 1973.

http://www.ccc-caribe.org/

> Kobia visits churches in Cuba and Haiti
> 30 July - 7 August, Havana, Cuba, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti

On a visit to WCC member churches in Cuba and Haiti, WCC general secretary
Samuel Kobia will meet with leaders of WCC member churches - the Methodist
Church, and the Presbyterian Reformed Church - as well as other churches
in Cuba. He will also meet with Cuban authorities and visit the Theological Evangelical Seminary of Matanzas.

In Haiti, Kobia will meet with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church as
well as with church leaders from the Protestant Federation. A meeting with
high-ranking government officials is also scheduled.

> Major WCC events coming up:

International Day of Prayer for Peace
21 September, worldwide

Conference on "Living the interreligious experience together"
12-14 November, Geneva, Switzerland

WCC 9th Assembly (2006)
14-23 February 2006, Porto Alegre, Brazil

For further information, visit the WCC media calendar at:
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/wcccalendar.nsf

Unless noted otherwise, events are by invitation only and not open to the
press or general public. The information above may change without
notice.

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, 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.