World Council of Churches

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is an inter-church organization founded in 1948. Its members today include most mainstream Christian churches, but not the Roman Catholic Church, which sends accredited observers to meetings. It arose out of the ecumenical movement and has as its basis the following statement:

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The WCC describes itself as "a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service." It is based at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization members include denominations, which claim to collectively represent some 590 million people, across the world in ca. 150 countries, including 520,000 local congregations served by 493,000 pastors and priests, in addition to elders, teachers, members of parish councils and others.

Read more about World Council Of Churches:  History, Commissions and Teams, Peace Journalism, Endorsement of Kairos Palestine and Condemnation of Israel, Spin-offs and Related Organizations, Regional/national Councils

Famous quotes containing the words world, council and/or churches:

    ... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    I haven’t seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were asked this week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company’s behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    People fall out of windows, trees tumble down,
    Summer is changed to winter, the young grow old
    The air is full of children, statues, roofs
    And snow. The theatre is spinning round,
    Colliding with deaf-mute churches and optical trains.
    The most massive sopranos are singing songs of scales.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)