Pre-Assembly meeting held at St. Ephrem Theological Seminary, Maʼarat Saydnaya, near Damascus, Syria, May 7-13, 1998. Purpose of the meeting was to reflect upon issues related to the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches which will be held in Harare, Zimbabwe, Dec. 3-14, 1998.

Final statement of the Orthodox pre-Assembly meeting -- Address of His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I Iwas -- Response of His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim -- The Orthodox pre-Assembly meeting : an introduction / Thomas FitzGerald -- Aphrahat the Persian sage on turning to God : a reflection on the Assembly theme / Mor Cyril Aphrem (Karim) -- The environment of the Harare Assembly of the WCC : a tentative weather forecast / K.M. George -- The Assembly in context : the WCC and the Orthodox churches on the way to Harare / Leonid Kishkovsky (in absentia) -- Orthodox perspectives from Africa -- Common understanding and vision of the WCC : preliminary observations on the reflection process -- Three Orthodox contributions to the common understanding and vision process -- Discerning the signs of the times : women in the life of the Orthodox Church -- Gospel and cultures : an inter-Orthodox consultation -- Orthodox witness in Africa today : a pan-African inter-Orthodox consultation -- Report of the moderator, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia -- Meeting of the partriarchs of the Middle East Oriental Orthodox churches -- The ecumenical movement in the twentieth century : the role of theology in ecumenical thought and life in Romania -- Evaluation of new facts in the relations of Orthodoxy and the ecumenical movement -- Orthodox liturgical renewal and visible unity -- On the relationship of the Orthodox Church to the WCC -- From Canberra to Harare (1991-1998) : an Orthodox-WCC activity report -- Orthodox-WCC relations : a contribution from the Orthodox Task Force.