jerry pillay

On June 17, 2022, Rev. Prof. Dr. Jerry Pillay was elected as the new general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), an organization that currently groups 580 million Christians in 352 Churches throughout the world.

“This is a special day, not only for the Reformed family, but also for the ecumenical movement. Jerry will bring great gifts to the WCC. We look forward to working together and continuing to build a stronger relationship between the WCC and the WCRC. His belief in unity and his enthusiasm to work to improve relations between the Churches will be a new inspiration for the ecumenical movement” (Najla Kassab, President of the WCRC).

“In those dark days of ‘apartheid’, I would go to the (black) townships and be deeply inspired and yet sometimes even worried to see people laughing, praying, rejoicing and dancing in the streets. And I was wondering, how the hell can you do this in the midst of suffering? But then I realized very quickly the spirituality in that suffering” (Dr. Pillay).

The WCC includes the majority of the Orthodox Churches, dozens of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed Churches, and numerous United and Independent Churches. The Catholic Church is not among its members, although it maintains a close collaboration with the institution.


Ecumenists will already have this name engraved in their memory. On June 17, 2022, in fact, Rev. Prof. Dr. Jerry Pillay was elected as the new general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), an organization that currently groups 580 million Christians in 352 Churches throughout the world. Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religion, at the University of Pretoria, he belongs to the United Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa and hails from South Africa. Born in 1965, he is thus 57 years old.

The 70th anniversary of the WCC seemed like a wonderful opportunity to publish the list of WCC general secretaries from 1948 to 2018 (cf. The World Council of Churches through its General Secretaries: DR, 08.26.2018):

1.- Willem Adolph Visser ‘t Hooft (1948-1966).

two.- Eugene Carson-Blake (1966-1972).

3.- Philip A. Potter(1972-1984).

4.- Emilio Castro (1985-1992).

5.- Konrad Raiser (1993-2003).

6.- samuel kobya(2004-2009).

7.- Olav Fykse Tveit (27.08.2009—).

Dr. Fykse Tveit, was appointed as Presiding Bishop of the Church of Norway in April 2020: in fact, he was consecrated on April 26. Since then, Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca has acted as Acting Secretary General. The Rev. Prof. Dr. Pillay is one of the two people presented for election. The other candidate was Dr. Elizabeth Joy.

Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee, shared the following congratulatory message: “I hope that the WCC world community will give you a warm welcome, pray for you and show you in every way how important you are to us in these moments in which he assumes this outstanding leadership role for the continuation of our journey towards Christian unity. You and the ecumenical movement are making history and creating a future in which we can live God’s love for each other and for all”. Dr. Pillay will take over from him on January 1, 2023.

Former President of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), WCRC President Najla Kassab commented on the news: “This is a special day, not only for the Reformed family, but also for the ecumenical movement. Jerry will bring great gifts to the WCC. We look forward to working together and continuing to build a stronger relationship between the WCC and the WCRC. Her belief in unity and her enthusiasm for working to improve relations between the churches will be a new inspiration for the ecumenical movement”. And it is that until 2017 she had been president of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), in which capacity she visited the XII General Assembly of AIPRAL held in São Paulo in 2016.

On March 10, 2020, the election of the new general secretary of the WCC had to be postponed due to the coronavirus. WCC central committee moderator Dr Agnes Abuom of the Anglican Church of Kenya wrote to central committee members: “The decision is prudent, given all available information and having assessed all risks to participants and the WCC as an organization, as well as the integrity of a meeting of the governing bodies in these circumstances, and the health of all those involved in said meeting, directly or indirectly”.

“The decision expresses great caution about the possible difficulties that members could encounter in traveling safely abroad and guaranteeing a quorum for decision-making, as well as the health of attendees and other participants.” As the central committee was due to elect a new general secretary, Dr. Abuom announced that the central committee’s leadership team had appointed Professor Father Ioan Sauca as interim general secretary the previous week, who would take up his temporary position on April 1 until WCC executive committee meeting in June.

Professor Sauca, from the Romanian Orthodox Church, has been professor of missiology and ecumenical theology at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey since 1998 and its director since 2001. In addition, he has served as deputy general secretary of the WCC since 2014. “Fr Sauca is an experienced colleague, very competent for this position, and we will support and pray for him in his new responsibilities,” said Dr. Abuom.


Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca

Dr Pillay is the second African elected to lead the WCC. He will replace the outgoing Acting Secretary General, the Romanian Orthodox Reverend Ioan Sauca, and he was quick to make a statement: “Our task here is not to play church. It is, in reality, following the command of God.” He understands that growing up during a period of conflict and suffering in South Africa – as he did – will serve him well when he takes over from him as a leader who believes in dialogue.

Dr Pillay gave a hybrid press conference where he was asked about his vision for the WCC when he takes office; and other questions, being comfortable to answer them. “For me, the idea of ​​justice and unity is important. I believe that unity is the task of the WCC: to continue working for a visible unity, and the unity of Christians is very important. And I will say it again, that a divided church presents a very weak and weak and fragile witness to a very fragmented world.”

He also said that unity is essential, as is justice. “Some people tend to prefer one over the other. I have one and the other on equal terms.” He said that the God of justice requires us to “care for the poor and the abandoned…and support the oppressed in their situations. The WCC has done this in the past. Coming from South Africa, I bring my personal experience of how the WCC played a very vital role in dismantling the apartheid, by supporting Christians in solidarity.” “So,” he continued, “we will continue to do with other parts of the world while supporting the oppressed.”

When Pillay attended university in the 1980s, the institutions were segregated for undergraduates, and as a South African Indian, he attended Durban Westville University. Later, he earned a Ph.D. from Rhodes University, which had been for whites. Thus, a journalist lacked time to ask him about the “support of Russia’s brutal war of aggression” in Ukraine by the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill, and if he could think about suspending the Russian Orthodox Church from the WCC. .

The answer sounded like this: “The WCC advocates dialogue, conversations, bringing people to the table and asking questions. We need the Patriarch; that the Russian Orthodox Church join us in these conversations; we can’t have them without them. So suspension is not on the cards right now, especially if we stand for things like dialogue.” Pillay said that this is the way to get a “deeper understanding and appreciation of the problems.”

He was also asked about his origins in South Africa and said he was born and raised a South African Indian, of Indian descent, “but I haven’t had any connection to India. My great-great-grandfather, probably five generations ago, came to South Africa. “I have visited India many times. I’ve tried to see some of these connections… But I’m really of South African descent, like an Indian.”

When asked about the South Africa of Desmond Tutu and Gandhi, Pillay clarified that one of the things specific to South Africa that kept them sane amid the madness of apartheid “It was our spirituality.” “In those dark days of apartheid, I went to the (black) townships and was deeply inspired, and yet sometimes I was even concerned to see people laughing, praying, rejoicing and dancing in the streets. And she was asking me, how the hell can you do this in the midst of suffering? But then I realized very quickly the spirituality in that suffering.”

WCC central committee moderator Dr Agnes Abuom and deputy moderator Bishop Mary Ann Swenson also addressed reporters. Swenson said that a new central committee would be elected at the 11th WCC Assembly (Karlsruhe-Germany). The criticism of Jewish leaders for being a supporter of BDS did not take long either: “Your selection is amazing and, however, alarming”, is the response of B’nai B’rith International.

The WCC includes the majority of the Orthodox Churches, dozens of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed Churches, and numerous United and Independent Churches. The Catholic Church is not among its members, although it maintains a close collaboration with the institution. Pope Francis visited its headquarters in Geneva on June 21, 2018, on the occasion of the organization’s seventieth anniversary.

The 11th General Assembly of the WCC in Karlsruhe, Germany, is scheduled to take place from August 31 to September 8, 2022. Dr Pillay will take up his post on January 1, 2023. This means, then, that Dr. Sauca will still have a job in Karlsruhe, but, at the same time, Pillay will have the unbeatable opportunity to personally greet the cream of the cream of the ecumenism attending Karlsruhe.


Pope Francis at the Geneva headquarters of the WCC

jerry pillay