A flood of contributions from congregations and individuals, as well as member churches and ecumenical partners, has been one of the greatest joys for new World Council of Churches’ income manager, Doug Chial, just three months in to the job.
“Giving at Christmas is not only a sign of gratitude, as any gift is, but also a sign of hope. Christmas gifts are offered in a spirit of celebrating the birth of Christ who brings hope into the world," he said.
“The way so many congregations and individuals feel part of the fellowship is a sign of hope that by working together we are able to do more for God’s world.”
By the third week of Advent, 98 per cent of the WCC membership contributions income target of 3.9 million Swiss francs for 2014 had been received.
Over 95 per cent of the 20 million Swiss francs annual contributions income is provided by member churches and ecumenical partners, which is a very healthy situation for the WCC, Chial said.
Chial moved from Church and Ecumenical Relations – which included the mammoth task of coordinating the last two WCC assemblies – to the Income Monitoring and Development (IMD) department, in September 2014 to lead a team of three others.
He points to three objectives for the IMD team – to foster relationships, to deepen the fellowship and to strengthen collaboration with member churches and ecumenical partners.
“Deeper collaboration is possible by knowing the work of the WCC well and developing synergies with member churches and ecumenical partners so that we can achieve more together by sharing resources.”
* WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/
* More on Christmas from Ekklesia: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/christmas
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