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  • ANTELIAS: Ecumenical news

    PRESS RELEASE
    Catholicosate of Cilicia
    Communication and Information Department
    Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
    Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
    Fax: (04) 419724
    E- mail: [email protected]
    Web: http://www.ArmenianOrthodoxChurch.org/

    PO Box 70 317
    Antelias-Lebanon

    HIS GRACE BISHOP NAREG ATTENDS THE SEARCH COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE WORLD
    COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC)

    >From April 1-4 2009, the Search Committee of the WCC met on the Island of
    Crete. His Grace Bishop Nareg, Director of Ecumenical Relations of the
    Catholicosate of The Holy See of Cilica, and a member of the Central
    Committee of the WCC, is one of the members of the Committee. The task of
    the Committee is to recommend candidates for the Position of General
    Secretary to the Executive Committee.

    Members of the Committee heard from member churches and ecumenical bodies
    regarding their expectations from a WCC General Secretary; they received an
    evaluation report from the Presidents and the staff on the role of the
    General Secretary, and screened new applications. In the end of their
    deliberations, they prepared a report for the Executive Committee meeting in
    September 2009. The new General Secretary is expected to take office on
    January 1 2009.

    ##


    AN EXPERTS' GROUP MEETS TO CONTINUE ECUMENICAL CONVERSATION ON CHRISTIAN
    SELF-UNDERSTANDING IN RELATION TO ISLAM

    29 March to 1 April a group of experts from WCC member churches and
    confessional families, scholars and educators met at the Ecumenical
    Institute Bossey, near Geneva. Mrs. Teny Pirri-Simonian was invited to join
    the group as representative of the Armenian Orthodox Church Catholicosate of
    Cilicia.

    The purpose of the meeting to study the listeners' report prepared at an
    earlier meeting held at Chavannes de Bogis near Geneva in October 2008. The
    experts also discussed the keynote speech of His Holiness Aram I entitled
    "Living As A Community With Islam - Concerns, Challenges And Promises, and
    other papers presented at the first meeting The participants agreed that
    it was not possible to speak with one Christian voice, yet it was important
    to prepare together any Christian-Muslim dialogue. They also emphasized the
    political context in which such dialogues happen, and the role of power. At
    the end of the meeting they proposed a framework to be discussed by WCC
    Programme staff and the Secretaries of Christian World Communions.

    ##


    THE ARMENIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ATTENDS THE MEETING OF THE COMMISSION ON
    INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (CCIA) OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

    The Commission on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches met
    15-20 March 2009 in the Carribbean Islands. Commissioner Mrs. Vana Der
    Ohannessian represented the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

    The global economic crisis and the response of the ecumenical movement were
    at the center of CCIA's discussions. The commissioners also discussed
    matters of political urgency and interreligious issues affecting the lives
    of the churches. The geographic context of the meeting also provided the
    opportunity for the commissioners to discover the vibrant Christian churches
    in the region.

    ##


    THE ASSEMBLY DISCERNMENT COMMITTEE (ADC) OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
    PREPARES ITS REPORT TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

    The ADC met for the second time in Dortweil near Frankfurt in Germany 16-19
    March 2009. Mrs. Teny Pirri-Simonian attended the meeting on behalf of Dr.
    Nora Bayrakdarian, a member of the WCC Central Committee.

    The mandate of the group was to propose to the Central Committee new models
    for an expanded Assembly. The ADC affirmed that it was possible to create
    space for greater participation and involvement from those ecumenical actors
    that are already in relationship with the WCC such as, Christian World
    Communions (CWCs), Regional Ecumenical Organizations (REOs), National
    council of Churches (NCCs), and other ecumenical partners. They also
    underlined the importance of preserving the integrity and uniqueness of the
    WCC as a fellowship of churches, as well as the ethos and method of
    consensus. In their report to the Central Committee in September 2009, they
    said that such an Assembly would become meaningful only when a new matrix of
    relationships is designed. ADC hoped that the new Assembly Planning
    Committee would plan differently than earlier Assemblies.
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