The World Council of Churches (WCC), the major international Christian grouping, launched a search for a new chief on Monday after its current head, Samuel Kobia of Kenya, decided to leave after only one five-year term. The WCC's policy-making Central Committee has decided to appoint a search committee for a new general secretary to be elected at its next meeting in September 2009, the WCC said in a statement.
Kobia, a Methodist minister whose U.S. doctorate was revealed last week to have been issued by an unaccredited institution, earlier told the committee he would not stand for a second five-year term as general secretary.
Kobia said he was taking his decision for private reasons, the WCC said. It said the committee would consider extending his current term, which runs until the end of this year, which the WCC is celebrating as its 60th anniversary.
"The central committee received this news with regret but accepts the decision of the general secretary. We want to respect his decision and privacy," WCC Central Committee moderator Walter Altmann said.
MANAGEMENT STYLE
Earlier Kobia cancelled a scheduled news conference as the 149-member committee extended its closed-door meeting on Kobia's future.
Kobia's management of the council had come under criticism in the run-up to the meeting from senior German bishop, Martin Hein of Kassel.
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 told the German Protestant news service 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.
Kobia's decision to step down makes him 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.
Kobia was the first African to be elected to the general secretary position of the WCC, which he took up in January 2004. He was previously general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Kenya.
The WCC gained an international voice during the 1970s and 1980s when it played a key role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Today it campaigns on issues like poverty and free trade, and the rights of Palestinians.
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