wfn.org | WCC NEWS: 'Keeping the Faith' - Multimedia project shows

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

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 20/10/2005

"KEEPING THE FAITH":
IN LEAD-UP TO 9TH ASSEMBLY, WCC MULTIMEDIA PROJECT SHOWS VITALITY OF
ECUMENISM

Web banners available at:
http://www.keeping-the-faith.info

The ecumenical movement is a reality for people and congregations around
the world who live their faith on a daily basis. An integrated communication project, "Keeping the faith" shows this reality, and conveys the
vitality of the ecumenical movement today.

Launched ahead of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) 9th Assembly taking
place in February 2006 in Brazil, the project includes a mobile exhibit,
photo essays, a book and a website.

Together and separately, these elements explore the reality of the living
church in various cultural contexts throughout the oikoumene: the reality
of people, their faith and their communities, engaging in dialogue,
working in mission, praying together, facing conflict and violence,
poverty and illness, and responding to a rapidly changing world.

"Keeping the faith" offers a glimpse of the immense spiritual riches and
cultural diversity within the ecumenical movement and the Christian world.

With the aim of making churches and ecumenical bodies around the world
feel that this is their oikoumene, the project has involved editors and
journalists from secular and religious media, and communicators from WCC
member churches and ecumenical partner organizations as well as the
people, congregations and communities portrayed.

At the heart of the project is the mobile exhibition - consisting of
around 40-55 2m-high panels allowing maximum flexibility of arrangement -
that will be on display in the city of Porto Alegre during the 9th
Assembly.Churches and other WCC partners are invited to host the exhibition in their own contexts in the years following the event.

The "Keeping the Faith" website currently contains eight photo essays on
people and communities living their faith - in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda,
Switzerland, Denmark and Romania. In the run-up to the Assembly, the site
will progressively be expanded and updated.

For more information on "Keeping the faith", consult the website at:
http://www.keeping-the-faith.info or contact the WCC Public Information
team.

Please support this project by using the "Keeping the Faith" banners on
your website.

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.