WCC assembly elects Central Committee
Feb. 23, 2006
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By Linda Bloom*
PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL (UMNS) - Five United Methodists have been elected to the World Council of Churches' Central Committee.
The elections took place Feb. 22, during the WCC's 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre.
Four U.S. United Methodists were elected: Bishop Sally Dyck of Minneapolis; the Rev. Larry Pickens, chief executive, United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns; Lois McCullough Dauway, an executive with the Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries; and Motoe Yamada, a youth delegate from San Jose, Calif. Dauway will be serving her second term on the committee.
Also elected, from the United Methodist Church in Cote d'Ivoire, was Akissi Jeannette Aneye.
The 150-member Central Committee is the WCC's main decision-making body between assemblies, which occur every seven years or so. The new committee has 63 women (42 percent), 22 youth (15 percent) and six indigenous people (4 percent). About 65 percent, or 97 committee members, are ordained.
Members of other Methodist denominations elected to the Central Committee included Bishop McKinley Young, African Methodist Episcopal Church, USA; Evelyn Parker, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, USA; the Most Rev. Robert Aboagye-Mensah, Methodist Church of Ghana; Itayi Ndudzo, Methodist Church in Zimbabwe; and Bishop Ivan Manuel Abrahams, Methodist Church of Southern Africa, South Africa.
Also, Bishop Taranath S. Sagar, Methodist Church in India; Hae-Sun Jung, Korean Methodist Church; Anthony Row, Methodist Church in Malaysia; the Rev. William Premkumar Ebenezer Joseph, Methodist Church of Sri Lanka; and the Rev. Heather Morris, Methodist Church in Ireland.
Also, Bishop Carlos Poma Apaza, Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia; Magali Nascimento Cunha, Methodist Church in Brazil; Geraldine Varea, Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma; and the Rev. Sanele Faasua Lavatai, Methodist Church of Samoa.
The assembly also appointed presidents from each region and for the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches. They have voice, but no vote, on the Central Committee and promote ecumenism and interpret the council's work, particularly in their own regions.
The WCC eight presidents are the Rev. Simon Dossou, Methodist Church in Benin; the Rev. Soritua Nababan, Protestant Christian Batak Church (Indonesia); the Rev. Ofelia Ortega, Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba; Mary Tanner, Church of England; the Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson, United Church of Christ (USA); John Taroanui Doom, Maohi Protestant Church (French Polynesia); Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania; and His Holiness Abune Paulos, Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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