October 2005
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Middle East, US, Caribbean and Latin American churches prepare for WCC Assembly
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Women's Voices and Visions on Being Church
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Aram I and Kobia at US seminar on the future of ecumenism
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Global Communicators' Network Meeting
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia at International Conference on Violence and Christian Spirituality
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Middle East churches prepare for WCC Assembly
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 28 September - 1 October, Damascus, Syria
The WCC Middle East pre-assembly meeting will gather over 50 participants, including Assembly delegates from WCC member churches and youth stewards from the region, as well as resource persons and guests from the Catholic church. They will reflect on the assembly theme and prepare for their involvement in the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre. Participants will also discuss the situation and future of Christians in Palestine.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» US churches prepare for WCC Assembly
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 8-12 October, Chicago, USA
WCC member churches from the US will gather for their pre-assembly conference in Chicago from 10-12 October. Church leaders and ecumenists will engage in theological reflection on the theme of the WCC Assembly. Plenary sessions will focus on justice concerns and stewardship of the earth. The meeting will be co-hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Leading up to the WCC conference a youth event "Shift Your Space - Transform The World" will be held from 8-10 October in Chicago. The gathering will enable seminarians, students and youth delegates to the WCC Assembly to strategize on new ways of engaging with the vision promoted by the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Caribbean churches prepare for WCC Assembly
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 10-13 October, Eggelston, Dominica
The Caribbean Conference of Churches - in collaboration with the WCC and the Dominica Christian Council - will organise a WCC pre-assembly meeting (10-11 October) along with its annual Regional Forum for National Councils of Churches (12-13 October). The meeting will gather WCC Assembly delegates from the region and guests from the Caribbean churches. The theme for the Forum will be "Crime and Violence - an Ecumenical Response" and it will be based on a "Pastoral letter on Crime and Violence" prepared by the bishops of the Roman Catholic Antilles Episcopal Conference.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Latin American churches prepare for WCC Assembly
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 16-18 October, Mendes, Brazil
The Latin American pre-assembly meeting will gather some 50 delegates of WCC member churches from the region and other participants to prepare for the WCC’s 9th assembly. The programme will include analysis of the situation in Latin America, as well as discussion and reflection on Latin America’s contribution to the Assembly. The programme will be co-hosted by the Latin American Council of Churches.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Women's Voices and Visions on Being Church
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 17-20 October, Geneva, Switzerland
Women from all WCC member confessions will draw together the findings of the "Women's Voices and Visions: On Being Church" process in the past 6 years. The study process is a follow-up to the 1988-1998 Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women. This meeting will bring together women's concerns from all six world regions, and it will look at the role of women at the 9th Assembly of the WCC and beyond.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Aram I and Kobia at US seminar on the future of ecumenism
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 22 October, New York, USA
WCC moderator Aram I, Catholicosof Cilicia, Armenian Apostolic Church (Lebanon), will convene a seminar entitled "Challenges facing the ecumenical movement in the 21st century" at the Interchurch Center in New York. Keynote speaker will be WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia. The meeting is co-hosted by the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and the US Conference of the WCC.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Global Communicators' Network Meeting
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 25-30 October, Havana, Cuba
The theme for this conference is "Communication and Power: Independence and Responsibility in a Globalized World". The meeting will involve around 60 participants and will include presentations, debates, workshops as well as sharing of visual and other productions by Global Communicators' Network (GCN) members. The local host is the Cuban Council of Churches. The GCN is an association of ecumenical communication professionals who work with mass media. It is co-ordinated jointly by the Lutheran World Federation and WCC.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Kobia at International Conference on Violence and Christian Spirituality
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» 27-29 October, Boston, USA
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, in co-operation with WCC and the Boston Theological Institute, will host an international conference on "Violence and Christian Spirituality". Opening remarks will be given by WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia. Keynote speaker will be Archbishop Demetrios of America, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America. Scholars from nearby Harvard University, Boston College and Boston University will contribute to the programme.
<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Major WCC events coming up:
Interreligious event on "My Neighbour's Faith and Mine"
12-14 November, Geneva, Switzerland
Roman Catholic Church and WCC: 40 years of co-operation
17-20 November, Bossey, Switzerland
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2006
18-25 January 2006, world-wide
WCC 9th Assembly (2006)
14-23 February 2006, Porto Alegre, Brazil
