WEA

The head of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has welcomed the release of 19 South Korean hostages this week.

The group of Christian medical volunteers, originally numbering 23, endured six weeks of captivity at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan after their bus was overtaken by the Islamic militant group en route to provide free medical services to poor Afghan citizens.

Since the kidnapping – the largest abduction of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 – two male hostages were killed by their captors. The remaining 21 were all released, beginning with two female hostages on Aug. 13 and followed weeks later by the final 19, who were released in successive rounds over the course of two days – Wednesday and Thursday. more >>

After several long days of back-to-back meetings and zig-zagging from one end of Washington, D.C., to another, the international director of the World Evangelical Alliance had a chance to sit down, unwind and chat with The Christian Post about the WEA’s plan to open a branch in Iraq next year.

The following are excerpts from the interview on Tuesday with the Rev. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe:

CP: I know that there is a lot of discussion and planning right now for a WEA Iraq branch, but is it a sure thing or only an idea at this point? more >>

A global network of evangelicals is urging its members to pray for Christians in Lebanon who are facing a “perilous time” as fighting continues between the Lebanese army and the Islamist militants.

Whenever Sunnis and Shiites fight each other, Christians and Jews suffer enormously, noted the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA)’s Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) in a recent bulletin to its members, primarily because Islamic fundamentalist zeal flares up.

The commission went on to highlight the dilemma facing Christians, which was succinctly put by Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic leader, Archbishop Beshara Rai of Byblos. more >>

The executive chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and the head of the World Evangelical Alliance have formally launched a new partnership for the next International Congress on World Evangelization - Lausanne III.

WEA International Director Geoff Tunnicliffe, who represents around 420 million Christians worldwide, and LCWE’s S. Douglas Birdsall were officially invited to hold Lausanne III in Cape Town, South Africa, during the Lausanne Bi-Annual International Leadership Meeting currently taking place in Budapest, Hungary.

“Lausanne III has the most enormous salvific potential for the church in South Africa and indeed all of Africa,” African Enterprise founder Michael Cassidy told the leaders on Tuesday before formally inviting Tunnicliffe and Birdsall to Cape Town. “We pray we will bless you and that it will be a mighty reviving, renewing and historic moment for the church around the world, and for mission and evangelism all across our globe.” more >>

The head of the World Evangelical Alliance is meeting with South Korea’s top Christian leaders this week in an effort to unite and build partnerships between the largest evangelical body in the world and the churches in South Korea, which contain some of world’s largest congregations.

Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the WEA, visited the Korea National Council of Churches (KNCC) on Thursday, where he met with General Secretary the Rev. Kwon Oh-Sung, according to Seoul-based newspaper Christian Today Korea.

The two leaders shared about their organizations’ focuses and discussed mutual concerns on global issues such as poverty and AIDS. more >>

The World Evangelical Alliance strengthened its North American Council last week with the addition of a new member.

The network of 128 national evangelical alliances and 104 associate member organizations on Thursday welcomed Dr. David J. Jang, president of the Olivet Center for World Mission (OCWM) in San Francisco, as the newest member of its North American Council. The North American Council consists of members from the WEA International Council, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) - the largest network of evangelicals in the United States.

"We are delighted by Dr. Jang's appointment to our North American Council," said Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director for the WEA, in a public announcement. "Dr. Jang has a wealth of experience in Christian higher education and cutting edge mission strategies. He will be a great asset to the global work of the World Evangelical Alliance." more >>