wfn.org | Churches warned about 'cafeteria ecumenism'

[DISCNEWS.parti@ecunet.org]

October 11, 1996
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Cliff_Willis.parti@ecunet.org

96b-87                        

    GENEVA, Switzerland (ENI) -- A leading U.S. ecumenist
has warned that national and international ecumenical
organizations -- like the National Council of Churches of
Christ in the U.S.A. and the World Council of Churches -- 
risk becoming "service agencies" with little to distinguish
them from other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

    "If they are not careful, the National Council of
Churches and the World Council of Churches will be trapped
into becoming secular service agencies, seeking funding from
government and secular agencies," said the Rev. Paul A. Crow
Jr., president of the Council for Christian Unity, Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ).

    "The WCC risks becoming just another international NGO --
and we don't need any more of those," he said.

    Crow, who is a member of the WCC Central Committee,
which recently met in Geneva, is a leading supporter of the
World Council in North American church circles. He is deeply
concerned, however, about trends in the United States where,
he said, church hierarchies were becoming more introverted,
focusing on their own denominational structures and
identities. Such trends, he warned, could have fatal
consequences for the ecumenical movement.

    "In today's destabilized situation -- Americans
generally like things cut and dried -- most American churches
are in a neo-denominational attitude," Crow said. "For
example, the Presbyterians are saying the way to deal with
this is to become more Presbyterian." He said one Methodist
group had decided there should be a Methodist church in
every country, while "the Anglicans are looking for
salvation through Anglicanism."

    "Rather than saying this is a kairos (moment of truth)
for living out our unity, the churches, including member
churches of the World Council of Churches, are becoming more
isolationist."

    At the same time, ecumenism between churches on
official levels was becoming "cafeteria style -- you can pick
and choose. For example, some church leaders might say:  We
only want to be involved in sending food to the Third
World.'"

    Unfortunately, Crow added, the World Council of
Churches failed to understand that the present crisis in the
ecumenical movement was a "crisis of relationships."

    The Disciples' ecumenical officer also said that some
of the WCC's main financial supporters in the United States
also were facing financial difficulties. He added that, "the
crisis is not just a crisis of funds as the church
congregations have as much money as before, if not more. But
they are unwilling to trust leadership and structures."

    Congregations are spending more on initiatives in their
own communities than they are on donations to church
headquarters, he said, and are giving much more attention to
local programs, such as those giving shelter to the homeless
and assistance to women in need.

    In this work, congregations are "ignoring the
boundaries" set by the church hierarchies and by ecumenical
organizations. "This informal ecumenism does not identify
with the official agenda," he said, commenting that the
official ecumenical movement had lost touch with the
grassroots.

    The present challenge of the WCC, he said, is to resist
the view of some Christians that "we don't need to be
reconciled, we need to be servants of human causes."

    In the past, he said, the WCC has been relatively
faithful to the ecumenical vision that unity in Christ was
essential to the nature of the church. The ecumenical
movement must not allow itself to be defined purely by the
current generation of people. "If it is rooted in Jesus
Christ, the holistic vision [of ecumenism] calls us to
reconcile the whole church," Crow said.

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