Following the high-profile visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury last month (October), World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, will be leading an ecumenical delegation to visit the People's Republic of China (15-22 November 2006). It will be Dr Kobia's first visit as WCC general secretary to China.
In China, Kobia and delegates will visit Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Xi'an. The reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement and its role in the 21st century in the midst of the changing landscape of Christianity will be among the issues to be discussed with leadership of the China Christian Council (Protestant) and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Meetings with state officials, staff of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, and social scientists at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are also scheduled....