Six committed ecumenists, each with significant ecumenical experience have been appointed to take up key leadership roles within the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC).

The newly appointed staff members will head five programmes plus a planning and integration office, all of which are the result of programmatic reshaping following the WCC 9th Assembly in 2006.

The newly appointed WCC directors are: Rev. Dr Hielke Wolters (Justice, Diakonia and Responsibility for Creation); Mr Mark Edward Beach (Communications); Rev. Dr Martin Robra (WCC and the Ecumenical Movement in the 21st century); Rev. Jacques Matthey (Unity, Mission, Evangelism and Spirituality); and Dr Aruna Gnanadason (Planning and Integration). The director of the WCC programme on Education and Ecumenical Formation, Fr Prof. Ioan Sauca, was appointed last year.

Wolters and Beach will be leaving positions in their own countries to come to the Council, whereas Sauca, Robra, Matthey and Gnanadason are already on WCC staff.

Rev. Dr Hielke Wolters is from the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. He is a theologian and pastor engaged in work on social justice, interreligious dialogue and development.

The WCC programme on Justice, Diakonia and Responsibility for Creation is designed to support churches' efforts to meet human need, combat injustice, and threats to creation. In particular, it will help support and strengthen churches' work with uprooted people, on health and healing, climate change, water, energy, nuclear concerns, and the use/misuse of new technologies.

Wolters is reported to bring solid experience in combining theological reflection with result-oriented project management skills to the Council. The main programme challenge, he says, "will be to develop creative initiatives that can give hope to those fighting for survival on a daily basis; to promote solidarity between churches in spite of divisions due to economic globalisation; and to support movements and initiatives promoting sustainable development in order to counter the effects of climate change".

Mr Mark Edward Beach, a US Mennonite, brings 25 years of experience in communications strategic planning, management and supervision to his new post in the WCC. Beach is an accomplished and award-winning news and feature writer for public and church media, he has also worked extensively in photo journalism and editing, and video production. He moves to the WCC from his current position as director of communications of the Mennonite Central Committee - the international relief, development and peace agency of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches of North America.

Rev. Dr Martin Robra, a theologian and pastor from the Evangelical Church in Germany, joined the WCC in 1994. He has been responsible for the Council's work on ethics and ecology.

Under Dr Robra's guidance, considerable efforts were made to galvanise churches' support for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Kyoto Protocol.

Rev. Jacques Matthey, a Swiss theologian and pastor, came to the WCC in 1999, bringing with him 18 years of experience as staff and then general secretary of the mission department of the Protestant churches of French-speaking Switzerland. As head of the WCC's desk on mission and evangelism, he was responsible for the thematic agenda of the 2005 World Conference on World Mission and Evangelism - a role for which he was specially qualified, having been involved in three previous world mission conferences (Bangkok 1973, San Antonio 1989, and Salvador de Bahia 1996) and organised a fourth one (Melbourne 1980).

Fr Prof. Ioan Sauca is a theologian and priest in the Orthodox Church of Romania with a special interest in mission and spirituality, interfaith dialogue, ecumenical formation and inter-confessional encounters. Coming to the WCC in 1994, he was responsible for Orthodox studies and relationships in mission, and was later appointed as missiology professor at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey - the international centre for encounter, dialogue and formation of the WCC. In 2001, he became the director of the Institute.

Dr Aruna Gnanadason, a member of the Church of South India, is an Asian theologian who came to the WCC in 1991 from the National Council of Churches in India. An advocate for justice and for women's rights in church and society, she worked to build the Indian women's movement in the church, and to help church women relate to secular women's movements. In the WCC, she was responsible for the 1988-1998 Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, supported the participation of women in all aspects of the WCC's life, and worked to ensure that their perspectives and visions were included in its programmatic work. She also coordinated the WCC's Justice, Peace and Creation department between its 8th and 9th assemblies.

The positions of director of programmes on Public Witness and on Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation are still open.