World of religious plurality not yet understood: former WCC head

Geneva

Inter-religious encounter is one of the most crucial challenges facing churches today, according to Rev. Konrad Raiser, former general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

“It will be an ecumenical challenge also because it requires the churches to reconsider their understanding of the place of Christianity in a world of religious plurality,” Mr. Raiser said in an interview shortly before his retirement. “The Christian community, the Christian churches, have to reassess their own place if only to avoid that they become a major source of the inter-religious problem rather than being able to contribute to the solution.

In 1993, Mr. Raiser became general secretary of the WCC, which gathers 342 member Christian churches, but does not include the Roman Catholic church.