The Assembly Planning Committee of The World Council of Churches, which was appointed by the Central Committee in 2018, met online from March 23rd to the 25th, to continue planning the WCC 11th Assembly, which will take place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from August 31st to September 8th 2022. Prof. Teny Pirri-Simonian participated on behalf of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

The APC welcomed the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity” and the building blocks approved by the Central Committee in 2018. During the three days of meetings, APC members discussed the building blocks for a coherent programme on the spiritual life of the assembly, which have been proposed, elaborated and tested by the WCC staff. These building blocks comprise daily prayers, thematic plenaries, home groups, ecumenical conversations and “Brunnen” workshops. The Assembly host, the Evangelical Church in Germany, proposed the Brunnen (German for ‘the well’) workshops as a safe open space for encounter, sharing and awareness building for all participants to reflect on the theme and to develop ideas for the future.

The APC noted that the Covid-19 Pandemic and its future consequences will probably dominate the Assembly life. While discussing ecumenical conversations, Prof. Pirri-Simonian stressed that the voice of the youth and their concerns for the future should be a high priority in the Assembly recommendations. The input found unanimous support.