{"id":4819,"date":"2018-06-23T14:37:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T14:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=4819"},"modified":"2018-09-27T14:41:14","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T14:41:14","slug":"bethany-seminary-president-at-wcc-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2018\/bethany-seminary-president-at-wcc-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethany Seminary president takes part in ecumenical meeting with Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nJune\u00a023,\u00a02018<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Pope Francis speaks at the WCC Central Committee meeting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bethany Seminary president Jeff Carter attended World Council of Churches (WCC) biennial meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, June 15-21. He is the Church of the Brethren representative to the WCC Central Committee, a group of 150 people who represent nearly 40 percent of the WCC\u2019s 348 member churches.<\/span><\/p>\n

A highlight was a day-long visit from Pope Francis I on June 21, which included a prayer service, time with students at the Ecumenical Institute, and an exchange of messages with WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit and central committee moderator Agnes Abuom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pope\u2019s visit to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches is a visible sign and symbol of the church\u2019s yearning for unity and the growing cooperation between Christians throughout the world,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the morning worship, Pope Francis stressed our relationship as companions on the pilgrimage of justice and peace. In the afternoon he stressed the evangelical nature of our witness related to unity: \u2018Christians do not witness to the gospel when we are divided.\u2019”<\/p>\n

Carter added, \u201cPersonally it was an uplifting experience to have Pope Francis travel to Geneva to share in the morning prayer service and afternoon lectures.\u201d He also noted the significance of the Pope\u2019s visit for the Church of the Brethren \u201cas a charter member of the World Council of Churches and more importantly, a partner known for service to those most in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Francis\u2019 visit is an encouragement to all Christians who seek collaboration and partnership in service to the Gospel which calls us to live lives of compassion, grace, and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s central committee meetings also celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the WCC. Business items included a mid-term review of WCC programs, planning the next WCC assembly in 2021, monitoring the ongoing work of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, updates on development plans for WCC property, receiving a new landmark study on ecumenical \u201cdiakonia\u201d (service to the disadvantaged), and addressing a variety of public issues.<\/p>\n

Read the Bethany release on Carter\u2019s participation in the WCC meetings at\u00a0https:\/\/bethanyseminary.edu\/president-attends-wcc-meeting<\/a>\u00a0. Find out more about the meeting agenda at\u00a0www.oikoumene.org\/en\/press-centre\/news\/wccs-central-committee-set-for-packed-agenda-on-unity-justice-and-peace<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bethany Seminary president Jeff Carter attended World Council of Churches (WCC) biennial meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, June 15-21. He is the Church of the Brethren representative to the WCC Central Committee, a group of 150 people who represent nearly 40 percent of the WCC\u2019s 348 member churches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1268,1262,1263],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-4819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bethany-seminary","tag-ecunemical","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4819"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4828,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4819\/revisions\/4828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4819"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}