The World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary, Rev Dr Samuel Kobia is set to lead an ecumenical delegation on a visit to China this week. The historical visit will take place from 15 to 22 November, and will be Kobia's first visit to China as the WCC head.

|PIC1|In China, Kobia and delegates will visit Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Xi'an. The reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement and its role in the 21st century in the midst of the changing landscape of Christianity will be among the issues to be discussed with the leadership of the China Christian Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

Meetings with state officials, staff of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, and social scientists at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are also scheduled.

The WCC member church in China, the China Christian Council, is a post-denominational church linked with the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China.

The ecumenical delegation accompanying the WCC general secretary is composed of Rev Dr Tyrone Pitts (WCC central committee member, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, USA); Rev Dr Seong-Won Park (WCC central committee member, from the Presbyterian Church of Korea, South Korea); Rev Fr Gabriel Papanicolaou (ecumenical officer of the Church of Greece), Dr Mathews George Chunakara, (WCC Asia secretary) and, as consultants to the delegation, Dr Monika Gaenssbauer (on China issues) and Rev Deborah DeWinter (on communications).

Kobia's predecessor, Rev Dr Konrad Raiser, also visited China officially with the WCC more than a decade ago, in 1994.