Public Witness Committee

Dear Member Churches to the 26th General Council,

On behalf of President Jerry Pillay, we offer you warm greetings and prayerful expectation of our time together in Leipzig. In preparation for the work of the Public Witness Committee, we are writing to share with you the role of Public Witness Committee (PWC) in the General Council and how you will help to inform this work.

1. Aims and Specific tasks:

• The PWC is to consider the global and local issues of common concern on which the WCRC and its member churches ought to speak clearly and with one voice.
• It will propose recommendations on public issues identified by delegations and the WCRC’s resources.
• The PWC will draft a report to the General Council with recommendations for actions to be taken or statements to be made.

2. Delegate proposal for Public issues and schedule

• The Executive Committee has identified five areas in which public issues will be classified. They are some issues (refugee, economic and ecological justice, overcoming racism and affirming right of indigenous people, peace-making, gender justice, etc.) will be addressed in thematic plenary sessions. Some issues may have already been addressed by previous General Councils or Executive Committees.
• Delegates to the 26th General Council are invited to submit proposals for consideration by using the attached Proposal Form. These proposals should have the consensus of a member church’s delegation and if possible consensus of at least one other member church delegation. Individual delegate proposals are not encouraged.
• The Proposal Form is attached to this communication. The Proposal Form should be submitted by 1 July at 19:00 hours to gcoffice@wcrc.eu. Hard copies may be submitted by the same deadline to the General Council office at the CCL of the Leipzig Messe.
• Please note that because of the limited time available to consider issues, new proposals should focus on issues of immediate urgency, are not being addressed through other forums of General Council (e.g. thematic plenaries or the reports from the President and General Secretary), and have not been previously addressed by WCRC. In this regard, a list of Public Issues addressed by WCRC (and its predecessor bodies) between 1996 – 2016 is attached for your reference (Page 3).
• Members of the Public Witness Committee will be available on 30 June and 1 July at 12:00 p.m. to consult with delegates preparing proposals.

German Zijlstar
Rev. Victor Hsu
Rev. Lee HongJung
Rev. Robina Marie Winbush
Working Group for Public Witness Committee