Geneva
The Romanian city of Sibiu, named as one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2007, has been chosen as the site for a major continental religious gathering.
The Conference of European Churches (CEC) announced on Oct. 4 that Sibiu would host the third European Ecumenical Assembly which CEC is organizing with the Council of European (Roman Catholic) Bishops’ Conferences. The two church groupings account for almost all of Europe’s Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic churches.
The assembly is scheduled for September 2007, the CEC announced after a recent meeting of its main governing body.
The two previous ecumenical assemblies were in Basle, Switzerland, in 1989, and in Graz, Austria, in 1997. The Basle gathering came just before the events that led to the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, and drew 7,000 people to its closing worship. At Graz, 700 delegates were joined by more than 10,000 other participants.
