The World Council of Churches (WCC), the major international Christian grouping, looked likely on Monday to part company with its current chief, Samuel Kobia of Kenya, after only one five-year term in the post. A delegate to the WCC's policy-setting Central Committee said that Kobia, a Methodist minister whose U.S. doctorate was revealed to have been issued by an unaccredited institution, told the gathering he would not stand for a second term as general secretary.
The delegate did not say if the committee, with representatives from around the world meeting behind closed doors, had accepted what would amount to a resignation.
Officials declined all comment, saying the proceedings were confidential. The 149-member committee extended its meeting on the question into the afternoon and early evening, after a scheduled midday news conference by Kobia was cancelled.
Kobia's current term began in 2004 and runs out at the end of this year -- being celebrated as the WCC's 60th anniversary.
"All the signs are pointing to him going," said one experienced WCC watcher, pointing to criticism of Kobia's overall performance by a senior German bishop, Martin Hein of Kassel, to the German Protestant news service EPD.
Hein's comments are important because German churches provide around one third of the budget of the WCC, which links some 560 million Protestant and Orthodox believers from 349 different church bodies.
The WCC also works closely with the Roman Catholic Church on a number of inter-faith issues and also maintains a dialogue with Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.
Hein complained to the EPD that WCC decisions had been taken without broad discussion, adding: "I'm sometimes amazed how often the General Secretary is on the road."
Kobia, 60, told reporters last week he saw visiting outlying faith communities around the world as part of his mandate. On the doctorate, he said he took the course in good faith from 2000 to 2003 and had been shocked to learn it was invalid.
If Kobia does step down, he will be the first WCC head to serve only one full term. The first general secretary, Willem A. Visser 't Hooft of the Netherlands, served from 1948 to 1966.
Kobia's immediate predecessor, Konrad Raiser of the German Evangelical Church, held the post from 1993 to 2003.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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