Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity represented at WCC Central Committee

21 Jun 2022


The 67th meeting of the Central Committee (CC) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was attended by Reverend Andrzej Choromanski, staff member of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU) responsible for multilateral relations. The meeting took place at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, from 15-18 June 2022.

The meeting gathered more than 200 participants, including representatives of the member churches, ecumenical partners, and WCC staff. The Committee addressed important current issues for the ecumenical movement such as the attitude of churches towards the war in Ukraine, the preparations for the forthcoming WCC Assembly, as well as different matters related to the governance of the organization. One of the responsibilities of the CC is the election of the General Secretary, and during the meeting Revd Professor Dr Jerry Pillay from the Presbyterian Church of South Africa was appointed. His term of office is effective as from 1 January 2023, and he takes over from the Acting General Secretary, Revd Professor Ioan Sauca from the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Composed of 150 members elected by the Assembly from among its delegates, the Central Committee is the chief governing body of the WCC that serves until the following Assembly, meeting every two years. The meeting was the last of the current mandate which began after the Assembly in Busan, South Korea, in 2013, and will end with the election of the new Central Committee by the next Assembly that will take place in Karlsruhe from 31 August to 8 September 2022. Not being a member of the WCC, the Catholic Church is represented by an official adviser appointed by the DPCU on the invitation of the Secretary General. The last meeting of the CC took place online in February 2022.