Ecumenical student leaders getting ready for WCC Assembly

Free photos available, see below

Next February, twenty-six young leaders from the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) will come together in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to offer their experiences and challenges to the wider ecumenical movement.

The WSCF Executive Committee will have its annual meeting immediately before the World Council of Churches (WCC) 9th Assembly in order to allow its members to participate in the ecumenical summit. The WSCF, founded in 1895, is a community of over 100 student organizations from over 90 countries, with a membership that amounts to more than half a million students.

"As one of the oldest ecumenical youth and student organizations, we aim to fully participate in a WCC Assembly that wants to be very open to youth, offering the contribution of empowered Christian students who are schooled and practised in ecumenism," says WSCF vice-chair, Ms Adèle Djomo Ngomedje, from the Movement of Protestant Students in Cameroon.

WSCF general secretary Michael Wallace looks forward to the chance for WSCF to actively contribute to the new vision for ecumenism in the twenty-first century: "The great thing about youth involved in Student Christian Movements is that they come to ecumenical gatherings as experienced ecumenists, who have considered critically what it means be a Christian today with all its theological and political implications."

Wallace believes that the time is right to showcase today's student ecumenical movement: "This WCC Assembly is a golden opportunity for WSCF to re-engage with the wider ecumenical family and for the ecumenical family to re-engage with WSCF."

Current WSCF themes fit well with the Assembly's own agenda, calling on students to question the global order and search for just alternatives. Young WSCF leaders will bring their insights from study and dialogue on the themes of women, empire, migration and "Students in the 21st century". WSCF will offer four workshops on these themes at the Assembly Mutirão.

WSCF members will also be there to support the practical life of the Assembly. Students and student leaders will lead worship and music, facilitate discussion sessions and take an active part in ecumenical conversations.

The WSCF Executive Committee is made up of the officers and staff of the global federation of Student Christian Movements. Also forming the committee are representatives from the six WSCF regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East, and North America.

Free high resolution photos are available at the WCC Assembly website:

www.wcc-assembly.info