[Episcopal News Service] The World Council of Churches’ 11th Assembly, described as “the most diverse Christian gathering of its size in the world,” opened August 31, 2022, in Karlsruhe, Germany, with leaders expressing a desire for a new era of Christian unity to counter the proliferation of global crises in the 21st century.
Delegates from the WCC’s 352 Protestant and Orthodox member churches have traveled to Germany for the weeklong conference, including House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris and four other Episcopalians.
Opening Assembly press conference
At an opening press conference, Acting General Secretary the Rev. Ioan Sauca noted that since the 2013 Assembly, the world has seen massive changes, many of them arising from political and cultural divisions. The Assembly’s theme – “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity” – is more relevant than ever, he said.
“Karlsruhe will be a new beginning,” Sauca said. “We have to come together as Christians, more united in addressing the challenges of the world. Because Christian unity is linked to the unity of all creation.”
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Assembly opening address
WCC Moderator Agnes Abuom, in her opening address, added a tone of urgency to the Assembly, telling delegates that unity is the only way to address the existential crisis of climate change.
“Listen carefully to youth among us,” Abuom said. “They are the generation that is experiencing the first catastrophes of [the] climate crisis and the last generation that can take any action to stop global warming.”
She also expressed hope that the Assembly would rise to the challenge.
“At its best,” Aboum said, “the Assembly is a spiritual celebration of the power of God’s love to renew our minds and hearts so that we may become a countercultural force driven by solidarity with the most vulnerable people and God’s creation.”
Assembly news updates can be found here.
Livestreams and recordings of Assembly proceedings can be found here.
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is a community of churches on the way to visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ. It seeks to advance towards this unity, as Jesus prayed for his followers, “so that the world may believe.” (John 17:21)
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement, a movement whose goal is Christian unity.
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