Historic Faith Conference Gathers Global Church Leaders In Egypt
The World Council of Churches is preparing to host the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order starting on Friday at the Logos Papal Center in Wadi El Natrun, Egypt.
The landmark four-day gathering — convened under the theme “Where now for visible unity?” — marks a significant moment in the century-long journey of ecumenical dialogue.
Hosted at the invitation of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, this will be the first time the global conference is held by an Oriental Orthodox Church and the first to take place in Africa. The event will bring together around 400 theologians, church leaders, and ecumenical scholars from across Christian traditions, denominations and continents.
READ: Why Is This 1,700-Year-Old Creed So Important?
This year’s venue — nestled in the Egyptian desert near the historic fourth-century St. Bishoy Monastery — was deliberately chosen to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. That council was a foundational moment in Christian history, when bishops from across Christendom gathered to affirm the Nicene Creed, the cornerstone of shared Christian belief in the trinity.
Rev. Prof. Dr. Stephanie Dietrich, moderator of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order, said marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will recall the church’s shared confession and history.
“We need to strive for unity and the visible unity of the churches and of Christians,” she said in an interview published on the WCC website.
Dietrich said the venue chosen for the gathering is also important.
“Going to a place which is representing so much of the tradition of the early church in the desert surrounded by these monasteries carrying the spirituality of the desert fathers — it’s really a unique place also to commemorate 1,700 years of our joint faith, the joint Nicene Creed,” she said.
Christian ecumenism is a movement that aims to promote unity and cooperation among the many different Christian denominations. The WCC, established in 1948 and currently headquartered in Geneva, describes itself as “a worldwide fellowship of 352 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service.”
Prof. Dr Andrej Jeftić, the director of the Faith and Order commission, said the gathering will mark a significant moment in the history of the ecumenical dialogue.
“I think the major thing is to bring back the conversation on the visible unity to the very heart of the ecumenical movement,” he added. “It's in the very heart of what the WCC is, as the fellowship of churches.”
Amid a number of world crises, the conference’s academic program will feature research papers and dialogue sessions addressing how churches can collaborate more closely in mission and doctrine. A special emphasis, organizers said, will be placed on amplifying voices from the Global South — where a majority of Christians now live — and engaging a new generation of ecumenists.
The WCC’s Faith and Order conferences — previously held in Lausanne (1927), Edinburgh (1937), Lund, Sweden (1952), Montreal (1963) and Santiago (1993) — have shaped both theological consensus and future direction within the WCC and wider Christian community.
As the churches look to the future, the gathering in Egypt will serve not just as a milestone, but as a sacred space for discernment, rooted in monastic spirituality and nearly two millennia of Christian prayer and tradition.
“I think this holistic understanding also of unity will hopefully shape our conference in Wadi El Natrun, together with this very special environment of monastic spirituality,” Dietrich said. “So that, I hope, will be shaping our world conference, that the Holy Spirit will guide us during this conference and help us to move forwards towards even deeper, even wider visible unity.”
Clemente Lisi is executive editor at Religion Unplugged.