Final preparations are underway for the opening of the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to be held in Busan, Republic of Korea.
At the Sansung Presbyterian Church in Busan, more than 50 volunteers gathered Thursday and Friday, Oct. 24 and 25, to pack the welcome bags for assembly delegates and several thousand other participants who are expected to attend the 10-day assembly.
The bags include an array of assembly publications including worship and Bible study materials, program and resource book and information about the work of the WCC since the last assembly, held in 2006 at Porto Alegre, Brazil.
During the two days of work, the volunteers individually filled some 3,000 bags with books and other gifts for the assembly participants.
The assembly, which has the theme “God of Life, lead us to justice and peace,” opens Oct. 30 with an opening prayer service in which some 5,000 people, including 2,500 Koreans, will participate.
The opening service will be broadcast through an online live stream from the Christian Broadcast System in Korea, the oldest Christian television network in Korea.
The live stream will broadcast several other events from the WCC assembly. A schedule of programming is now available on the WCC assembly website.
In addition to a number of live stream broadcasts throughout the assembly, access to the assembly from afar will be facilitated through a number of other sources.
The WCC Assembly website will feature daily news stories and updates about the assembly.
For tablets and mobile phones, a downloadable free mobile application that will feature daily stories, photos and links to videos from the assembly is available through the iTunes Store and Google Market.
Each day a 15-minute video broadcast, Madang Live, will be available on You Tube and show highlights and feature stories from the assembly.
And the assembly will be trending through social media networks such as the WCC Twitter site, @oikoumene, @OlavTveit and the assembly Twitter site, @wcc2013.
The WCC Assembly Facebook event is now a running space on social media, engaging some 600 people from around the world through sharing of information, articles and links about the assembly.
Information on the visitors’ programme organized by the Korean Host Committee of the WCC has also been made accessible through wcc2013.kr (in Korean).
Editor’s note: Bethany Daily of the Presbyterian News Service is in Busan, serving as co-opted staff for the WCC editing the Assembly’s daily newspaper. ― Jerry L. Van Marter