General Meeting of the Ecumenical Council of Churches

Wednesday, 8^th November, the 8^th general meeting of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (ECC) took place. The meeting was held in the beautiful rooms of the Capuchin monastery in Prague- Hračany with representatives from all member Churches of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic and also with guests from the Roman Catholic Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. On the agenda were, in addition to the traditional items like budget decisions, budget planning and the program for the executive committee for the next year, also the election of the new ECC president for the coming two years. The candidates, Mgr Joel Ruml (Evangelical Church of Brethren), Ing Daniel Fajfr (Brethren Church) and ThMgr. Dušan Hejbal (Old Catholic Church) received the most votes in the election and therefore again form the Presidium in the same constellation as they did during the previous term. An important item on the agenda of the 8^th ECC general meeting was a session entitled 'Where are you going, ecumenism?' Contributors were the Prague bishop of the Czech-Slovak Hussite Church, Doz. ThDr. David Tonzar, who is at the same time the speaker of the commission for ecumenism at the ECC in the Czech Republic, ThDr Pavel Černý, the Chairman emeritus of the ECC and Vladika Kryštof, the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and in Slovakia. This part of the general meeting was inspired by the recently adopted declaration of the Želiv thesis, which is an important pillar in the context of the ECC in the Czech Republic for ecumenical coexistence and cooperation.

Sandra Silná

General Secretary ECC