WCC MODERATOR AND GENERAL SECRETARY TO ADDRESS ECUMENICAL CHALLENGES AT US SYMPOSIUM
Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (Comunicados de prensa), Switzerland
Oct 12 2005
“Challenges facing the ecumenical movement in the 21st Century” is
the theme of a symposium to be held on 22 October at the Interchurch
Center in New York.
Planned in honour of Catholicos Aram I, head of the Armenian Apostolic
Church (See of Cilicia) and moderator of the World Council of Churches’
(WCC) central committee, who will be visiting the United States in
late October, the symposium will feature WCC general secretary Rev. Dr
Samuel Kobia as keynote speaker; Aram I will offer closing reflections.
Other symposium speakers will include Rev. Dr Wesley
Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church of
America; Rev. Dr Diane Kessler, executive director of the Massachusetts
Council of Churches; Bishop Thomas Hoyt, president of the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA; Rev. Dr Robert Edgar,
general secretary of the National Council of Churches, Dr Anthony
Kireopoulos, deputy general secretary of the National Council of
Churches, Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky, moderator of the US Conference for the
WCC and ecumenical officer, Orthodox Church in America, Rev. Deborah
DeWinter, programme executive for the United States office of the WCC;
and a representative from the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops. Archbishop Oshagan, prelate for the Eastern United States
of America of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, will deliver
the welcome speech.
The symposium is being jointly sponsored by the Armenian Apostolic
Church of America, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in
the USA, and the WCC.
On Sunday, 23 October a pontifical divine liturgy will be celebrated
by Aram I at St Bartholomew’s Church at 13:30 p.m, to be followed by
a banquet at the Pierre Hotel commemorating the 75th anniversary of
the Armenian Apostolic seminary in Antelias, Lebanon.
Aram I was one of the founding members of the Middle East Council of
Churches in 1974. He attended the WCC assemblies in Nairobi, Vancouver,
Canberra, and Harare as a delegate; in 1975, he was elected to the
WCC’s Faith and Order Commission, and soon after as a member of the
central committee. At the 1991 Assembly in Canberra, he was elected
moderator of the WCC.
Media contacts: – Caroline Hennessy 212-870-2192 917-407-6172 (mob.)
– Armenian Apostolic Church of America 212-689-7810
Interchurch Center address: 475 Riverside Drive, New York , NY
10115, USA.
A free high resolution photo of Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia
with HH Aram I is available on the WCC website at: