In a shock statement today the World Evangelical Alliance has announced the cancellation of its planned global Assembly in October this year. The global community of Evangelicals have been planning for several years to meet in Seoul, South Korea, bringing together up to 7,000 particpants under the theme “Following Jesus Christ into the World”.
Today’s statement from WEA Director of Membership, Mark Spisak, speaks of a “postponement” but goes on to say that future dates and venue have yet to decided. Many delegates had already made plans to travel to Korea and the WEA has apologised for the inconvenience caused.
The phrase within the statement “some may have seen this coming” is probably a reference to some of the difficulties the WEA has faced in its relationships with churches in South Korea itself as well as the emerging divergence of expectations and objectives being established for such a large gathering.
The meeting of the WEA Mission Commission in Turkey in May 2014 is unaffected by this announcement.