Rev. Jerry Pillay, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria a member of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, has been elected the new general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Pillay succeeds Father Ioan Sauca, a Romanian Orthodox priest.

350 Protestant and Orthodox communities are members of the World Council of Churches, which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Pope Francis made an ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva in 2018 for the World Council of Churches’ 70th anniversary.