Articles

Atlanta to Host Annual Meeting of World Council of Churches U.S. Conference
Staff

Faith And The City e.Letter
Volume 3 Issue 8
August 2004

The World Council of Churches will visit Atlanta October 4-5 for the annual meeting of the organization's United States Conference. Featured speakers for the meeting -- which carries the theme, "the Power and Promise of Peace" -- include the WCC's international Secretary General Samuel Kobia and North America President Bernice Powell Jackson.

Officially established in 1948 and headquartered today in Geneva, Switzerland, the WCC is an ecumenical Christian fellowship of more than 340 churches, denominations, and fellowships in 120 countries. WCC member organizations -- representing 400 million people in a wide range of Christian traditions -- are found now in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and the Pacific.

The organization's goal "is not to build a global 'super-church,' nor to standardize styles of worship, but rather to deepen the fellowship of Christian churches and communities," according to the WCC, which describes itself as "the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement, a movement whose goal is Christian unity."

International initiatives of the World Council of Churches include programs to encourage reflection on globalization, enable churches to address the HIV/AIDS challenge, advocate peaceful resolution of armed conflicts, and a range of other ecumenical efforts. A priority focus for the organization is its Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) initiative, which is reflected in the theme of the annual meeting U.S. Conference.

The WCC is headed at the international level by Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, a Methodist pastor from Nigeria who has served as the organization's general secretary since January of 2004. A veteran WCC staffer and former general secretary of the national council of churches in his homeland, Dr. Kobia will deliver the keynote address for the meeting in Atlanta and participate in a number of other conference programs.

Also playing a prominent role in the Atlanta meeting is Rev. Dr. Bernice Powell Jackson, WCC president for North America. For more than a quarter of a century, Dr. Jackson, executive minister of justice and witness ministries for the United Church of Christ, has been an activist for civil rights, women's rights, and human rights throughout the world.

To learn more about the World Council of Churches, visit: http://www.wcc-coe.org.

For more information on the U.S. Conference of the WCC and the annual meeting in Atlanta, visit: www.wcc-usa.org.