December 9, 2002

Valley Forge, Pa. – The World Council of Churches announced last month that it would reorganize its Geneva and New York staffs "around the five historic themes of the Council's work" in an effort to increase its efficiency.

The American Baptist-related ecumenical body will be reconfigured into the following areas: faith and order; mission and ecumenical formation; justice, peace and creation; international affairs, peace and human security; and diakonia and solidarity. "The adjustment of the internal organization and leadership structure," according to WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser, "will result in a clearer profile of the WCC's programs and strengthen its cooperation with ecumenical partners."

The restructuring was part of significant changes that include cuts in expenditures and staff that were necessitated by a predicted income shortfall and losses in the value of the WCC's investment portfolio.

American Baptist Churches USA (then the Northern Baptist Convention) was a founding communion of the World Council in 1948.

American Baptist News Service