WCC Head to Lead Delegation on China Visit
The head of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, is set to lead an ecumenical delegation on a visit to China this week. The historic visit will take place Nov. 15-22 and will be Kobia’s first visit to China as the WCC general secretary.
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.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
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 the Rev Dr Tyrone Pitts, WCC central committee member and general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.; the Rev Dr Seong-Won Park, WCC central committee member from the Presbyterian Church of Korea, South Korea; the 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, consultant on China issues, and the Rev Deborah DeWinter, consultant on communications.
Kobia's predecessor, the Rev Dr Konrad Raiser, also visited China officially with the WCC more than a decade ago, in 1994.
