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The Conference of European Churches (CEC) was founded in 1959 to promote reconciliation, dialogue and friendship between the churches of Europe at a time of growing Cold War political tensions and divisions.
In its commitment to Europe as a whole the Conference seeks to help the European churches to renew their spiritual life, to strengthen their common witness and service and to promote the unity of the Church and peace in the world.
The CEC is a fellowship of some 114 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, and Old Catholic Churches from all countries of Europe, plus 40 National Council of Churches and Organisations in Partnership. The CEC was founded in 1959 and has offices in Brussels and Strasbourg.
CEC assemblies take place once every five years. The 4th CEC assembly (1964) had to be held on a ship on the Baltic Sea owing to the difficulties of obtaining visas for delegates from eastern European countries.
Until 2013, the CEC was governed by an annual Central Committee meeting between assemblies. The 12th Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (Trondheim, 2003) elected the 40-member Committee. This Committee, according to the CEC Constitution, was "empowered to conduct the business of the Conference when the Assembly is not meeting". At the 14th CEC Assembly (Budapest 2013) the Central Committee was replaced by a 20-member Governing Board. The Governing Board meets twice annually to oversee the implementation of the decisions of the Assembly. (art. 6.1) [1] Recent meetings of the Central Committee took place in Geneva (2003), Prague (2004), Crete (2005), Derry (2006) and Crete (2012).
The President of the CEC (from 2009 to 2013) was H.E. Metropolitan Emmanuel of France. He was succeeded in 2013 by Christopher Hill, a retired Church of England bishop (formerly Bishop of Guildford. On 4 June 2018, Rev. Christian Krieger, from the Reformed Church in Alsace and Lorraine was elected President, in Novi Sad, Serbia. Since 19 June 2023, H.E. Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain is the President of the CEC.
The longstanding membership status of the Associated Organisations from all strands of the ecumenical movement was cancelled after a controversial debate by the 14th CEC Assembly in a second vote during a closed session requested by the Protestant Church in Germany, one of the main contributors to the CEC budget. The organisations excluded were offered a non-voting status of organisations in partnership like national councils of churches in the CEC. It is affiliated with the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The offices of the Conference of European Churches are (since 2014) based in Brussels, Belgium - formerly the offices used by the Church and Society Commission of the CEC. The CEC General Secretariat and the (former) Churches in Dialogue Commission were previously located in the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, Switzerland - which remains also the headquarters building of the World Council of Churches. General Secretary Fr. Heikki Huttunen from the Orthodox Church of Finland succeeded Rev. Dr Guy Liagre, formerly President of the United Protestant Church in Belgium and Rev. Prof. Dr Viorel Ionita who served as Interim General Secretary from 2010. The former General Secretary (2005-2010) was the Venerable Colin Williams, formerly Archdeacon of Lancaster in the Church of England; he succeeded the Rev. Dr Keith Clements. Jørgen Skov Sørensen was general secretary of the Conference of European Churches until December 2023. [2] The position of the General Secretary at CEC is vacant at the moment.
By 2014 the two former Commissions of the CEC were fully integrated into the core work of the CEC.
In 1999 the European Ecumenical Commission on Church and Society (EECCS) merged with the CEC, becoming the CEC's Church and Society Commission. The Church and Society Commission's secretariat was located in offices in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France. The Director of the Church and Society Commission from 2002 until 2013 was the Rev. Rüdiger Noll. Recent annual plenary meetings of the Church and Society Commission have been held in El Escorial, Spain (2003), Wavre, Belgium (2004), Dunblane, Scotland (2005), Sigtuna, Sweden (2006), Etchmiadzin, Armenia (2007), Prague, Czech Republic (2008) and Nyborg, Denmark (2009). Following the 14th CEC Assembly in Budapest in 2013 the programmes of the Church and Society Commission were integrated fully into the work of the CEC, a move completed in 2014.
Based in Geneva, the staff member in charge was until July 2012, Rev. Professor Father Viorel Ionita, of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The new General Secretary of the CEC, Rev. Dr Guy Liagre succeeded him from 2012. From 2013 the work of the Churches in Dialogue Commission has been fully integrated in the work on ecumenical relations led by the CEC General Secretary.
The largest Christian body, the Roman Catholic Church, is not a member of the CEC for the same reasons that it abstains from officially participating in the World Council of Churches, which is that such organizations do not recognize any kind of Roman Catholic primacy in the governance of the universal Church. [3]
The Third European Ecumenical Assembly (co-organised by the CEC and the CCEE) was held in Sibiu, Romania, 4–9 September 2007. [4]
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Union of Utrecht, the Lutheran World Federation, the Anglican Communion, the Mennonite churches, the World Methodist Council, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Pentecostal churches, the Moravian Church and the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church. Notably, the Catholic Church is not a full member, although it sends delegates to meetings who have observer status.
A synod is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word synod comes from the Ancient Greek σύνοδος 'assembly, meeting'; the term is analogous with the Latin word concilium'council'. Originally, synods were meetings of bishops, and the word is still used in that sense in Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not. It is also sometimes used to refer to a church that is governed by a synod.
Ecumenism – also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalism – is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any non-denominational initiative that encourages greater cooperation and union among Christian denominations and churches.
Samuel Kobia, is a Methodist clergyman and the first African to be elected General Secretary (2004–2009) of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and local churches representing a Christian population of over 590 million people. In 2010, Kobia was appointed Ecumenical Special Envoy to Sudan by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC). Kobia is married to Ruth, and they have two daughters, Kaburo and Nkatha, and two sons, Mwenda and Mutua.
The International Prison Chaplains' Association (IPCA) is an association of prison chaplains. It is divided into several sections like IPCA-Europe, IPCA Oceania etc. It is a non-governmental organization and has held Special Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2014.
The World Methodist Council (WMC), founded in 1881, is a consultative body and association of churches in the Methodist tradition. It comprises 80 member denominations in 138 countries which together represent an estimated 80 million people; this includes approximately 60 million committed members and a further 20 million adherents. But there is also another, contradictory, number of members of the member churches on the WMC's website: about 40 million. It is the fifth-largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and World Communion of Reformed Churches.
The Canadian Council of Churches is a broad and inclusive ecumenical body, now representing 26 member churches including Anglican; Eastern and Roman Catholic; Evangelical; Free Church; Eastern and Oriental Orthodox; and Historic Protestant traditions. Together these member churches represent 13,500 worshiping communities and comprise 85% of the Christians in Canada.
Alison Elliot CBE FRSE is an honorary fellow at New College, Edinburgh. She was the former Associate Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2004 she became the first woman ever to be elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. An elder and session clerk at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, she was also the first non-minister to hold this post since George Buchanan in 1567.
Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania is the Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania and as such the primate and Head of the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania. He was elected in June 1992. Professor Emeritus of the National University of Athens. Honorary Member of the Academy of Athens. Anastasios is one of the presidents of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. He is also the honorary president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.
Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS) is a national ecumenical organisation of churches in Scotland, founded in 1990. It is the successor to the former Scottish Council of Churches. ACTS is one of the four national ecumenical bodies in the UK, with equivalent bodies being Churches Together in England, Cytûn in Wales and the Irish Council of Churches, plus Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. The ACTS office was originally located in Dunblane, then in Alloa and finally in Stirling.
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) is an ecumenical organisation. The members include most of the major churches in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. CTBI is registered at Companies House with number 05661787. Its office is in Central London. As of 2022 the General Secretary is Nicola Brady, who succeeded Bob Fyffe.
The Church of Christ in Thailand (C.C.T.) is a Protestant Christian association. It is the largest Protestant denomination in Thailand and is considered to be the largest by group of Protestant members in Thailand.
Lukas Vischer was a Swiss Reformed Theologian. From 1961 he was Research Secretary of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Faith and Order Commission in Geneva and from 1966 until 1979 the Commission’s Director. From 1980 until 1992 he headed the Protestant Office for Ecumenism in Switzerland and taught Ecumenical Theology at the Theological Faculty of the University of Bern. From 1982 until 1989 he was moderator of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches’ (WARC) Theology department and from 1982 until 2008 moderator of the John Knox International Reformed Centre’s Programme Commission in Geneva. In these years, ecological responsibility of the Churches became a focal point of his work.
All Africa Conference of Churches is an ecumenical fellowship that represents more than 200 million African Christians in 210 national churches and regional Christian councils in 43 African Countries. AACC's head office is in Nairobi, Kenya, and there is a regional office in Lomé, Togo. AACC also has an office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which serves as its Liaison Office to the African Union. Its current General Secretary is the Rev. Dr. Fidon Mwombeki, Minister of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania. The Desmond Tutu Conference Centre in Nairobi is an affiliate of the AACC.
The Rev. Dr. Larry D. Pickens is a graduate of North Park University and holds a master of theology degree and master of divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, a doctorate in ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary, and a Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law. Larry is the executive director of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. Larry is the former general secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns of the United Methodist Church. During his tenure as the ecumenical staff officer these significant events took place. Pickens served as the Ecumenical Director of The Lehigh Conference of Churches in Allentown, Pennsylvania from 2014-20.
Vilakuvelil Cherian Samuel (1912–1998), called Samuel Achen was an Indian Christian philosopher, scholar, university professor, theologian, historian, polyglot and ecumenical leader. He was a priest of the Indian Orthodox Church. He was the author of many doctrinal books and papers including The Council of Chalcedon Re-Examined: Historical Theological Survey.
Olav Fykse Tveit is a Norwegian Lutheran theologian and bishop, and the current Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway. He was elected to the post of general secretary of the World Council of Churches on 27 August 2009. He entered office on 1 January 2010, for a proposed term of five years, and was re-elected to a second term in July 2014. He resigned from the post in March 2020, having been elected Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway.
Matthew Ross is a minister of the Church of Scotland, working for the World Council of Churches. He was General Secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland 2014-2018.
Joan Brown Campbell is an American Christian minister and ecumenical leader. She has standing as an ordained minister in both the Christian Church and the American Baptist Church. In 1991, she became the first ordained woman to serve as the general secretary for the National Council of Churches of Christ USA. During her career, she also served as the head of the US office for the World Council of Churches, and later, as director of the Religion Department for the Chataqua Institution. In both cases, she was the first woman to hold these roles.
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