World Council’s Opening Boycotted
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HARARE, Zimbabwe — The World Council of Churches began its 50th anniversary assembly Thursday with multicultural pomp and a worship service that Orthodox church delegates from Russia and Greece refused to attend.
The delegations from the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches are angry about the increasingly liberal stand of the council’s dominant Protestant denominations on homosexuality and other issues.
Although other Orthodox delegations attended the opening, they limited their participation in worship and business sessions.
The 960 delegates at the assembly, which meets through Dec. 14, come from 330 Orthodox and Protestant denominations on all continents, representing 350 million to 450 million Christians.
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