Members of the WCC Executive Committee (2004)
Sophia O.A. Adinyira (born 1949) from Ghana is a High Court judge and the vice-moderator of the WCC Central Committee. Justice Adinyira holds LLB (Hons.) and BL degrees. She is a member of the Church of the Province of West Africa and was appointed diocesan chancellor of her church in 1994, and provincial chancellor in 1995 - responsibilities that she continues to hold today. Justice Adinyira was elected vice-moderator of the WCC Central Committee at the Harare assembly in 1998.
Bishop Dr Hilarion of Podolsk Alfeyev (born 1966) from Russia has been the bishop of Vienna and Austria of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Moscow Patriarchate since 2002. He is also the head of the official delegation of the ROC with the European Union. Prior to that, he served as bishop of Kerch and, in this capacity, was responsible for the Diocese of Sourozh in England. From 1995 to 2001, he served as secretary for ROC inter-Christian affairs of the Department for External Church Afairs. He is a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees.
His Holiness Aram I (born 1947) is catholicos of the See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Antelias, Lebanon). Ordained a priest in 1968, Aram Keshishian was named primate in 1979, ordained as a bishop in 1980, and elected catholicos in 1995. Having studied theology at his church's theological seminary, the Near East School of Theology and the American University of Beirut, he earned a Ph.D in theology from Fordham University (New York). He was elected moderator of the WCC Central Committee at the Seventh Assembly (Canberra 1991) – the youngest person ever to be chosen for that position – and was re-elected at the Eighth Assembly (Harare 1998). He is the first Orthodox to serve as WCC Central Committee moderator.
Marion Best (born 1932) is retired, and was a moderator of the United Church of Canada. She is a registered nurse, and holds a certificate in adult education and an honorary doctorate of Divinity from St Stephen's College and the Vancouver School of Theology. She has held a number of positions in her church: a member of its Theology & Faith Committee, she chaired an Interchurch Interfaith Committee (1986-92), was president of the British Columbia Conference (1987-88), a member of the General Council Executive (1988 to date), and moderator from 1994-1997. She has been a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees since 1991.
Inamar Corrêa de Souza (born 1970) from Brazil is a member of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, and dean of the Anglican cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.
John Taroanui Doom (born 1936) from Tahiti, French Polynesia is a member of the Evangelical Church of French Polynesia, and served as secretary general of his church from 1971 to 1988. In 1989 he took up the post of programme secretary for the Pacific in the WCC, where he remained until his retirement in 2000. Since his return to Tahiti in 2000, he coordinates a regional association raising international awareness on the consequences of nuclear testing in the Pacific. (Doom is replacing Rev. I. Tuwere at this meeting of the WCC Executive Committee.)
Donnalie Edwards-Cabey (born 1966) from the West Indies is diocesan youth coordinator of the [Anglican] Diocese of North Eastern Caribbean's Aruba (NECA). Cabey studied law at Holborn College (UK) and economics and history at the University of the West Indies. After serving as co-moderator of the WCC Working Group on Youth (1992-94) and a member of the then-Unit II: Sharing and Service Commission (1991-93), Edwards joined the staff of the WCC Youth Office as a programme consultant (1994-97). She has been a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees since 1998.
Dean Anders Gadegaard (born 1952) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark is dean of Our Lady's Cathedral of Copenhagen. He has a masters degree in theology from the University of Copenhagen and, as a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees, serves on the Finance Committee of both.
Metropolitan Prof. Dr Gennadios of Sassima (Limouris) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Turkey) is a vice-moderator of the Faith and Order Commission. From 1983-93, he was a staff member of the WCC's Faith and Order secretariat in Geneva. He has been involved in a number of bilateral dialogues between the Orthodox and other churches, and a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees since 2002.
Kondothra M. George is a lecturer at the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam Kerala, India. Fr George is an ordained minister of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Kottayam. He was a member of the faculty of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, outside Geneva, from 1989-94, has been a member of the WCC Central Committee since 1998, and is moderator of the Programme Committee of the WCC Central Committee.
Iteffa Gobena (born 1954) from Ethiopia is the president of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). After studying theology at the Mekane Yesus Seminary, he was posted to Jima Synod in the west. During the 1970s, the communist regime intensified persecution of those it considered opposed to its policy, and Gobena was among other church leaders who were imprisoned. He was released from prison and ordained in 1978. In 1986 he went to the US and graduated in 1988 with a master’s degree in sacred theology from the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Iowa, he serving in the EECMY's education and evangelism departments on his return; before his appointment as EECMY president, he headed its evangelism department.
Carmencita Karagdag (born 1944) from the Philippines is a member of the Philippine Independent Church (IFI). A former youth secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, she was an instructor in political science at the University of the Philippines. A staff member of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) programme unit on Ecumenical Education and Nurture, she also co-chairs the IFI Commission on Ecumenical Relations and International Affairs. A WCC Central Committee member from 1968-75, she was re-elected to the Central Committee at the WCC's eighth assembly in 1998.
H.G. Archbishop Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim (born 1965) from Syria is the metropolitan and patriarchal vicar for the Eastern United States of the Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. In 1985, he was ordained to the diaconate in Egypt and, later the same year, to the sacred priesthood in Kamishly, Syria. From 1988 to 1989, he served as both the secretary of HH Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Syrian Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, and as a teacher at St Ephrem's Theological Seminary in Damascus. Archbishop Karim has a bachelor of divinity degree from the Coptic Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt, a licentiate of sacred theology degree (1991) and a doctor of divinity degree (1994) from St Patrick's College in Maynooth, Ireland.
Clifton Kirkpatrick (born 1945) is the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He directed the PC(USA)’s Global Mission office for 15 years before becoming stated clerk in 1996. He is a member of the Executive Committees of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), and of the World Council of Churches. He has a Master of Divinity from Yale University, and a Doctorate of Ministry from McCormick Theological Seminary.
Archpriest Leonid Kishovsky (born 1943) of the Orthodox Church in America is the ecumenical officer of his church and editor of The Orthodox Church. Leonid Kishkovsky is the pastor of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Sea Cliff, NJ, and a past president of the National Council of Churches. He is a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees, and was involved in the eight years of study, consultation and drafting on the "common understanding and vision of the World Council of Churches", mandated by the WCC Central Committee at its meeting in 1989.
Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia (born 1947) from Kenya is the general secretary of the WCC. Responsible for Urban Rural Mission in the WCC, he joined the National Council of Churches in Kenya in 1984 as director of church development activities and later as its general secretary. Appointed executive director of the WCC Justice, Peace and Creation team in 1993, he later directed its Cluster on Issues and Themes. Kobia helped reorganize the Zimbabwe Christian Council (1980-81), chaired the Frontier Internship in Mission International Coordination Committee (1981-85), helped found the Nairobi Peace Group and the Fellowship of Councils of Churches in Eastern and Southern Africa (1987), chaired peace talks for Sudan (1991) and Kenya’s National Election Monitoring Unit (1992). Kobia holds degrees in Theology and Urban Ministry from St Paul's United Theological College (Kenya) and McCormick Theological Seminary (USA), respectively, a Masters degree in City Planning at MIT, and a Doctorate of Divinity from the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis.
Bishop Rolf Koppe has been head of the Department of Ecumenical Affairs and Ministries Abroad of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) since 1993. From 1984 till 1988 Bishop Koppe was press officer of the EKD and publications adviser in the Church Office of the EKD. Thereafter he served as regional superintendent for the Göttingen district of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover. Bishop Koppe is co-moderator of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the WCC, and has been a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees since 2002.
Jana Krajciriková (born 1973) of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church in the Czech Republic is a lawyer by profession, and is director of the Diocesan Council office of the Prague diocese of her church. She is a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees.
Septemmy Eucharistia Lakawa (born 1970) is an ordained minister of the Protestant Church in South-East Sulawesi, Indonesia. With an MA in theology from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA, and in missiology from Jakarta Theological Seminary, she lectures in missiology, contextual theology and ecumenism at the Jakarta Theological Seminary. She also coordinates the Jakarta Seminary's centre for research and service to society, is general secretary of the Association of Theologically Educated Women in Indonesia and chief editor of the Indonesian women's theological journal Sophia. Lakawa collaborates with various NGOs dealing with violence against women and the impact of international debt as well as with NGOs working with displaced people. She has been a member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees since 1998.
Prof. Dr Samuel Lee (born 1941) of the Presbyterian Church of Korea is director of the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (UNESCO) in Seoul. Before assuming his current post, he was at the Christian Institute of Social Studies of Soong Sil University, Seoul. He is a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees.
Prof Dr M.J.S. Masango (born 1947) of the Uniting Presbyerian Church in Southern Africa, South Africa, is a lecturer at the University of Pretoria Faculty of Theology, and a parish minister in his church. He has a Ph.D in pastoral counselling. He is a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees.
Bishop McKinley Young (born 1944) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (USA) is chief officer of his church's office of ecumenical and urban affairs, endorsing agent for all chaplains in the denomination, and presiding prelate of the Tenth Episcopal District (State of Texas). As a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees, he serves on the finance committee of both. Prior to being elected to the episcopacy, Bishop Young served as the senior pastor of the historic Big Bethel AME Church, Atlanta. He has served as a leader to such organizations as the Concerned Black Clergy, Georgia Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless, and the Atlanta Police Civilian Review Board.
Archbishop Nifon of Targoviste (born 1944) of the Romanian Orthodox Church is a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees.
Idah Njobvu (born 1972) from Zambia is and accountant and is the youth chairperson of the Reformed Church in Zambia, and ex-officio member of the church management committee. She has been a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees since 2003.
Bishop Zacharias Mar Theophilus (born 1938) from India is the bishop of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar's Dioceses of Chennai-Kolkotha & Malaysia-Singapore-Australia. He was previously bishop of the Diocese of North America and Europe. He is a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees.