WCC Meeting in Rochester
Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1963 [XI-13]
Rochester, N. Y., will be the focal point for consideration of Christian unity in August 1963.
The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches will convene in Rochester, August 26 - September 2.
Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, New York, president of the Lutheran Church in America, is chairman of the WCC committee and will preside at the meeting.
The 100-member policy making committee was elected at the World Council's assembly in New Delhi in 1961. It includes archbishops, bishops, pastors, and laymen from all continents. The committee meets annually to direct the work of the Council between assemblies which are held every six or seven years.
The six presidents of the World Council of Churches are also voting members of the Central Committee and plan to attend. They include two Americans: Methodist layman Charles C. Parlin, head of the world's largest law firm Shearman and Sterling, New York, and Archbishop Iakovos, also of New York, Greek Orthodox primate of North and South America.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Arthur Michael Ramsey; Sir Francis Ibiam, governor of Eastern Nigeria, Presbyterian; Dr. Martin Niemoeller, noted German church leader; and Dr. David Moses, United Church of Northern India and Pakistan, are the other presidents. Dr. Joseph H. Oldham, ecumenical pioneer from Great Britain, is honorary president.
Episcopal members of the Central Committee are Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger and Dr. Nathan M. Pusey, president of Harvard University. Besides the Americans and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Communion is represented by 10 members in the committee.