The World Council of Churches is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948. Its members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, the Old Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, most mainline Protestant churches and some evangelical Protestant churches. Notably, the Catholic Church is not a member; the WCC arose out of the ecumenical movement and has as its basis the following statement: The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the scriptures, therefore seek to fulfill together their common calling to the glory of the one God: Father and Holy Spirit. It is a community of churches on the way to visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ, it seeks to advance towards this unity, as Jesus prayed for his followers, "so that the world may believe."

The WCC describes itself as "a worldwide fellowship of 349 global and sub-regional and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service." It is based at the Ecumenical Centre in Switzerland. The organization's members include denominations which claim to collectively represent some 590 million people across the world in about 150 countries, including 520,000 local congregations served by 493,000 pastors and priests, in addition to elders, members of parish councils and others; the Ecumenical Movement met with initial successes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910. In 1920, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Germanus V of Constantinople, wrote a letter "addressed'To all the Churches of Christ, wherever they may be', urging closer co-operation among separated Christians, suggesting a'League of Churches', parallel to the newly founded League of Nations". Church leaders agreed in 1937 to establish a World Council of Churches, based on a merger of the Faith and Order Movement and Life and Work Movement organisations.

Its official establishment was deferred with the outbreak of World War II until August 23, 1948. Delegates of 147 churches assembled in Amsterdam to merge the Faith and Order Movement and Life and Work Movement; this was consolidated by a second meeting at Lund in 1950, for which the British Methodist Robert Newton Flew edited an influential volume of studies, The Nature of the Church. Subsequent mergers were with the International Missionary Council in 1961 and the World Council of Christian Education, with its roots in the 18th century Sunday School movement, in 1971. WCC member churches include most of the Eastern Oriental Orthodox Churches. Many churches who refused to join the WCC joined together to form the World Evangelical Alliance. Delegates sent from the member churches meet every seven or eight years in an Assembly, which elects a Central Committee that governs between Assemblies. A variety of other committees and commissions answer to its staff. Assemblies have been held since 1948.

The "human rights abuses in communist countries evoked grave concern among the leaders of the World Council of Churches." However, historian Christopher Andrew claims that, during the Cold War, a number of important WCC representatives of the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe had been working for the KGB, that they influenced the policy of the WCC. From 1955 to 1958, Robert S. Bilheimer co-chaired a WCC international commission to prepare a document addressing the threat of nuclear warfare during the Cold War. At the 1961 conference, a 32-year-old Russian Orthodox Bishop named Aleksey Ridiger was sent as delegate to the assembly, appointed to the WCC's central committee, he was elected as Russian patriarch in 1990 as Alexei II. The ninth assembly took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil in February 2006, under the theme "God, in your grace, transform the world". During the first Assemblies, theologians Vasileios Ioannidis and Amilkas Alivizatos contributed to the debates that led to the drafting of the "Toronto Statement", a foundational document which facilitated Eastern Orthodox participation in the organization and today it constitutes its ecclesiological charter.

The 10th Assembly was held in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 30 October to 8 November 2013. In 2013 Dr. Agnes Abuom of Nairobi, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, was elected as moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches; the World Council of Churches has held 10 Assemblies to date, starting with the founding assembly in 1948: Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22 August – 4 September 1948 Evanston, United States, 15–31 August 1954 New Delhi, India, 19 November – 5 December 1961 Uppsala, Sweden, 4–20 July 1968 Nairobi, Kenya, 23 November – 10 December 1975 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 24 July – 10 August 1983 Canberra, ACT, Australia, 7–21 February 1991 Harare, Zimbabwe, 3–14 December 1998 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 14–23 February 2006 Busan, South Korea, 30 October – 8 No

College Square is a shopping centre in Nepean, a suburb of Ottawa, Canada, located at the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and Baseline Road, is north of Algonquin College. It has an area of 389,244 square feet. Called Shoppers City West, the mall opened in November 1961. Over the years, the mall had stores like a barber shop, dry cleaners, a restaurant, Loblaws and Towers, which changed to Zellers. In its location there was a strip mall featuring Chances R, LCBO, Pet Value, a drug store and a mini-cinema. Chances R is co-owned by former hockey player and Ottawa 67's coach Brian Kilrea. Chances R is the only business that existed after Shoppers was demolished, was re-opened in College Square in 2002. Other buildings included a gas station, beer store, a round-shaped building that had a convenience store with a post office, a McDonald's. In July 2001, Shoppers City West was subsequently demolished; the site was redeveloped as College Square by the Leiken Group. Loblaws The Home Depot https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195302/http://www.obj.ca/Other/Archives/2001-01-22/article-2161000/College-Square-replaces-Shoppers-City-West-mall/1

Brad Loper is an American photojournalist, best known for winning the Pulitzer Prize for his breaking news photography during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He is the first recipient of the Don Wilberforce Memorial Scholarship awarded in 1989. Loper is a recipient of numerous honors, including being named Newspaper Picture Editor of the Year three-consecutive years in a row, awarded by the National Press Photographers Association. Brad Loper was raised in Amarillo, Texas, he graduated from Tascosa High school where he moved on to attend Amarillo College, subsequently transferring to the University of Texas at Arlington. While in school, Loper worked as a staff photographer at The Shorthorn, he graduated from UTA with a bachelor's degree in Communications in 1993. Soon after graduating, Loper began interning with the Topeka Capital-Journal in Kansas. Following his time in Kansas, Loper interned with the Palm Beach Post in Palm Beach, before earning a full-time position with the Arlington Morning News as a staff photographer in Arlington, Texas.

The local competitor at the time, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, subsequently led to the dismissal of The Arlington Morning News, in Arlington, allowing Loper to join The Dallas Morning News in 2001 as a staff photographer. In 2005, Loper was one of 20 photographers sent to cover the aftershock of Hurricane Katrina, he was one of the eight photographers awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Loper has photographed notable events like the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster in 2003 and the U. S. Republican National Conventions in 2004 and 2008, he covered the Dallas Mavericks throughout the playoffs, including their appearance in the NBA Finals in 2006. In 2007, he began working as an adjunct faculty instructor at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington, use footnote number to link where he now serves as senior lecturer, teaching photojournalism courses. While enrolled at UTA, Loper met his wife Adrienne while working at The Shorthorn, he was a staff photographer and she was a beat reporter.

The two married in May 1995 and have four children together: three boys, Ian and their daughter, whom they adopted from China in 2009