The world's main Christian traditions are hoping to organise a "truly ecumenical" celebration in Jerusalem to mark the new millennium, the General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) revealed in August.
The plan has initial approval of the world's major Church communions, some of whom feared previous plans for millennium celebrations indicated that major events would be Roman Catholic dominated.
Milan Opocensky, WARC's General Secretary, said that a meeting in Geneva earlier this year of representatives of Christian World Communions - including the Roman Catholic Church - had agreed to approach the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and other local Churches to organise a meeting in Jerusalem "initiated by the oldest local Church and which would have from the outset a truly ecumenical character".
As a result millennium gatherings could be held in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Milan Opocensky said that he believed the proposal would be supported by the Vatican, which was represented at the Geneva meeting.
The Geneva meeting - convened by the World Council of Churches - followed calls by some Churches for a truly joint Christian celebration rather than the elaborate preparations announced by the Vatican.