Church Council Executive Committee in Landmark First Meeting

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Executive Committee is currently meeting at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute outside Geneva from until 19 May 2006, for its first session since its election at the Council's 9th Assembly in Brazil earlier this year.

|TOP|The committee has been given the commission to focus on how the WCC will reorganise its programmatic priorities. They are expected to focus on a limited number of core activities, in line with the Assembly's recommendations.

The executive committee is also scheduled to issue statements on major international issues, in particular the situation in the Middle East.

The 25-member committee, which includes members appointed by churches in every region, is moderated by Rev. Dr Walter Altmann from Brazil.

Also this week the WCC General Secretary Dr Samuel Kobia, has spoken out asking for churches and ecumenical partners to fight against “terminator technology”.

Rev Kobia said, “Applying technology to design sterile seeds turns life, which is a gift from God, into a commodity. Preventing farmers from re-planting saved seed will increase economic injustice all over the world and add to the burdens of those already living in hardship.”

He continued, “Terminator technology locates food sovereignty, once the very backbone of community, in the hands of technologists and large corporations. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 1.4 billion people depend on farmer-saved seed as their primary seed source. All Christians pray "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt 6:11). That this profoundly material request appears in this profoundly spiritual prayer, signals for us the centrality of food in our lives, as well as the indivisibility of the material and spiritual in the eyes of God. It is of great concern to me that life itself is now often thought of and used as a commodity.”

|AD|The WCC Executive Committee is meeting at Bossey Ecumenical Institute outside Geneva from 16-19 May 2006.

The new WCC executive committee is made up of the following central committee members:

AFRICA

Dr Agnes Abuom, Anglican Church of Kenya
Bishop Ivan Manuel Abrahams, Methodist Church of Southern Africa (South Africa)
Pastor Antonio Pedro Malungo, Evangelical Reformed Church of Angola
Ms Iyabo Oyekola, Church of the Lord Aladura Worldwide (Nigeria)

ASIA

Rev. Dr Margaretha M. Hendriks-Ririmasse, Protestant Church in the Moluccas (Indonesia)
Ms Hae-Sun Jung, Korean Methodist Church
Bishop Samuel R. Azariah, Church of Pakistan

CARIBBEAN

Ms Nerissa Celestine, Church in the Province of the West Indies (Grenada)

EUROPE

Bischof Dr Rolf Koppe, Evangelical Church in Germany
Ms Inger Aasa-Marklund, Church of Sweden
Mr Graham G. McGeoch, Church of Scotland

LATIN AMERICA

Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil

NORTH AMERICA

Ms Carmen Rae Lansdowne, United Church of Canada
Rev. Dr Tyrone Pitts, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (USA)
Rev. Dr Larry Pickens, United Methodist Church (USA)

PACIFIC

Rev. Sanele Faasua Lavatai, Methodist Church of Samoa

EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCHES

Metropolitan Prof. Dr Gennadios of Sassima, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Bishop Dr Hilarion of Wien and Austria (Alfeyev), Russian Orthodox Church
Archbishop Nifon of Targoviste, Romanian Orthodox Church
Bishop Dr Vasilios of Trimithus (Karayiannis), Church of Cyprus
Ms Outi Vasko, Orthodox Church of Finland

ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES

Metropolitan Bishoy, Coptic Orthodox Church (Egypt)
Bishop Vicken Aykazian, Armenian Apostolic Church (Holy See of Etchmiadzin) (USA)


The moderators of the programme and finance committees of the central committee, who are also members of the executive committee, will be elected at the first full meeting of the central committee in September 2006.