The Rev. Daniel Martensen, ecumenical officer for the Evangelical Lutherans, said the move represented "a change of mood" among churches as the next millennium approaches.

From 1984 to 1987, she worked in the office of the Protestant Student Community Stuttgart as ecumenical officer.

"There is a sense that the Orthodox are quickly stereotyped and quickly demonized," said the Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church in America.

She worked at MCC San Francisco, and then moved to Los Angeles to serve as MCC's national ecumenical officer.

"We did make the point that the military logic is inexorable," said Mr. Kishkovsky, the ecumenical officer of the Russian Orthodox Church in America.

He became the first national ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church in 1964, serving on dialogue committees with Lutheran and other Christian bodies in North America.

"They say, 'I thought all Egyptians were Muslims,' " said Mr. Mikhail, who is the ecumenical officer for the church's Archdiocese of North America.

As ecumenical officer, Mr. Thomas was a principal figure in forging one of the most important ecumenical documents of recent years, the "Formula of Agreement," in 1997.

Murray was also a diocesan ecumenical officer, chaplain of the Lansing police, and sat on several committees of the Michigan Catholic Conference.

He retired as the church's ecumenical officer at the end of 2009.