Five hundred delegates from all over the world will meet in Athens on 10th May for the opening session of the first World Mission Conference of the 21st century. The gathering will prove to be historical as it will be the first time that all plenary sessions of the conference will be available for viewing live on the internet. The new technological advancements will enable many more participants to gather than those who are seen in Athens.

The World Mission Conference 2005 will also allow participants to interact through video and chat discussion groups, and after each plenary people viewing from all over the world will be given the chance to engage in dialogue on healing and reconciliation.

Six plenary sessions will be held, and each will focus on the conference’s main topics. This year the focus will be on the Holy Spirit, experiences of Christian communities practicing healing, mission and violence (as a Decade to Overcome Violence mid-term event), healing (looking, for example, at HIV/AIDS as a missiological challenge), and reconciliation (with case studies from South Africa and Kiribati).

The annual World Mission Conference is jointly organised by the International Missionary Council (IMC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC). There have been 13 such conferences to date. WCC said the 2005 conference is expected to host participants from the widest range of churches in the history of mission conferences.

The conference will begin with the call of "Come Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile". The theme reminds ministers that mission does not belong to anyone, but is the mission of God, who is present and active as the Holy Spirit in church and the world. It highlights that mission is to form healing and reconciliation between communities in celebration, witness, mutual love, forgiveness and respect.

"In our globalised and fragmented world, filled with much division and conflict, the gospel message of healing and reconciliation is vital," says Rev. Ruth Bottoms, a Baptist pastor from the UK who is moderator of both the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the conference's planning committee.

Hosted by the Church of Greece, it will be the first time that an ecumenical mission conference is held in an Orthodox context. It will finish with a Sunday sending service at the Areopagos, where St Paul preached to the Athenians, calling people of different faiths to seek God (Acts 17:27).

WCC is also delighted to hold the conference in a unique cultural and historical city- Athens- providing a special setting in which participants will be called to focus on mission as healing and reconciliation and the role of the Holy Spirit.

Alongside with WCC’s formal announcement, the Conference website (www.mission2005.org) is now up and running in four languages, allowing people around the world to follow the conference closely and participate in discussions on conference themes.

Reference and preparatory materials in English, German, French and Spanish are now available on the website, and congregations and individuals are invited to contribute resources and share ideas.

Participants are expected to come from WCC member churches, as well as the Roman Catholic Church, Pentecostal and Evangelical churches and bodies, and the participants include young people, women and men working at the frontiers of Christian witness, church and mission leaders, theologians and missiologists.