pre-49 - 13.12.98: WCC'S NEW CENTRAL COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

	World Council of Churches Office of Communication Press Release 150, route de Ferney PO Box 2100 1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland E-mail: media
	13 December 1998 WCC'S NEW CENTRAL COMMITTEE ELECTS OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE WCC Eighth Assembly - Press Release No. 49
	In a session held late on Saturday (12 December) during the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, its newly-elected Central Committee chose its officers and Executive Committee. The outgoing moderator of the Central Committee, His Holiness Aram I, was re-elected. This is only the second time the most senior officer of the WCC has been re-elected. Franklin Clark Fry was chairman of the Central Committee from the Second Assembly (Evanston) in 1954 to the Third Assembly (New Delhi) in 1961, and was re-elected and served until the Fourth Assembly (Uppsala) in 1968. Details: MODERATOR H.H. Aram I, Armenian Apostolic Church - Catholicossate of Cilicia, Lebanon VICE MODERATORS Ms Justice Sophia O.A. Adinyira, Church of the Province of West Africa, Ghana Dr Marion S. Best, United Church of Canada, Canada. Executive Committee: AFRICA Mrs Justice Sophia O.A. Adinyira, Church of the Province of West Africa, Ghana Rev. Yadessa Daba, Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, Ethiopia Rt Rev. Dr Maake Jonathan Masango, Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa, South Africa Ms Abigail O. Ogunsanya, Church of the Lord Aladura, Nigeria ASIA Ms Carmencita Karagdag, Philippine Independent Church, Philippines Dr Samuel Lee, Presbyterian Church of Korea, Korea Rev. Septemmy E. Lakawa, Protestant Church in South-East Sulawesi, Indonesia Bishop Dr Zacharias Mar Theolphilus, Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India CARIBBEAN Ms Donnalie Edwards, Church in the Province of the West Indies, Antigua EUROPE Rev. Anders Gadegaard, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, Denmark Bishop Dr Wolfgang Huber, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, Germany Ms Jana Kalinova, Czechoslovak Hussite Church, Czech Republic LATIN AMERICA Ms Inamar Correa de Souza, Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, Brazil < NORTH AMERICA Dr. Marion S. Best, United Church of Canada, Canada Rev. Dr Clifton Kirkpatrick,Presbyterian Church, USA Rt Rev. McKinley Young, African Methodist Episcopal Church, USA PACIFIC Rev. Dr Ilaiti Sevati Tuwere, Methodist Church in Fiji, Fiji EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCHES Rev. Dr Hilarion Alfeyev, Moscow Patriarchate, Russia Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, Orthodox Church in America, USA Bishop Nifon of Slobozia and Calarasi, Romanian Orthodox Church, Romania Very Rev. Georges Tsetsis, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Switzerland ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES H.H. Aram I, Armenian Apostolic Church - Catholicossate of Cilicia, Lebanon Mar Cyril Ephraim Karim, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, USA Contact: John Newbury, WCC Press & Information Officer Press and Information Office, Harare Tel: +263.91.23.23.81 E-Mail: WCC media The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 339, in more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the Assembly, which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.