Orthodox Church in America Represented at Meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches

Between June 18 and 24, Matushka Rebecca Luft, Ph.D., of the Diocese of the Midwest, represented the Orthodox Church in America at the meeting of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Notably, resulting from the advocacy of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox participants, the Central Committee produced a Minute on St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt in which they asked the WCC General Secretary to write a formal letter to the president of Egypt expressing the WCC’s concern and “to call for a clear and binding agreement recognizing the Holy Monastery’s right and title to the site in perpetuity.”

The Central Committee also issued a Statement on Guarding Against Atrocity Crimes, which included an acknowledgement of the genocide committed by Turkish nationalists against Armenians, Syriac-Aramaic-Assyrian Christians, and Pontic Greeks in areas under the hegemony of the Ottoman Empire. The statement also recognized the impacts of Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus and acknowledged the extermination of Orthodox Serbs by Nazi Germany.

The participants also produced a Minute on Bomb Attack on Mar Elias Church, Damascus. The minute conveyed “deep condolences” and made an appeal “to the Government and authorities of Syria to take swift and decisive action to ensure the security of all citizens, especially in cases where sectarian violence targets specific communities.”

The Central Committee also produced a minute dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflict, in which the committee called attention to the plight of Palestinian Christians.