Methodist Archbishop Michael Kehinde Stephen of Nigeria has been chosen to moderate the Continuing Committee on Ecumenism in the 21st Century, a group assigned to monitor and encourage initiatives in the global quest for Christian unity.
He was affirmed by consensus of the fourteen members attending the committee’s first meeting during the week of 18-20 November in Bossey, Switzerland.
Archbishop Stephen was active in two earlier conferences that led to the establishment of the continuing committee, a 2003 session in Antelias, Lebanon, on “reconfiguring the ecumenical movement”, and a 106-person consultation in late 2004 in Switzerland on “ecumenism in the 21st century”.
A quartet of alp-horns welcomed the committee to the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey and was featured in opening prayers, emphasising the Swiss context for the gathering of Christian leaders from six regions of the world.
The group included representatives of the Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Protestant and Pentecostal churches as well as Christian youth, regional ecumenical organisations, Christian world communions, national councils of churches and relief and development agencies.
Georges Lemopoulos, deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), noted that the process leading from Antelias to Bossey has relied on the Council’s backing but is not under its control.
Lemopoulos said, “We have sincerely moved from seeing the WCC as the central, privileged instrument of the ecumenical movement to a vision of a polycentric movement."
The Council has been seeking new and renewed partnerships with Evangelical and Pentecostal churches as well as the Roman Catholic Church in a manner “characterised by a spirit of mutuality and cooperation, by a practice of shared tasks and resources, by a common policy of avoiding competition and the demarcation of areas of influence”, he added.
