The World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) will celebrate their joint anniversary after forty years of collaboration at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 17 November.
The focus of the event will be a reflection on the renewal of ecumenism in the 21st century and will begin with a welcome by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia.The co-moderator of the Joint Working Group (JWG) between the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC, Archbishop Mario Conti, will introduce the joint journey of faith between the two bodies.
The JWG was formed in 1965 following the Second Vatican Council as a consultative body charged with initiating, evaluating and sustaining the many forms of collaboration between its two parent bodies.
Other speakers include PCPCU president Walter Cardinal Kasper and WCC central committee moderator Catholicos Aram I (Armenian Apostolic Church, See of Cilicia) who will present their analysis and views on the role and mandate of the JWG and the ways in which it can promote the renewal of ecumenism in the 21st century.
Kasper will present his vision of the new challenges that the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council should address together if they want to be more effective in his address, with Aram I focussing of a necessary shift in face of new challenges from reflection to reception in local churches.
A consultation on the 18 to 19 November at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute involving the JWG executive group and a few former JWG members will also focus on the contribution of the JWG to ecumenism over the coming decades.
