wfn.org | Georgian Orthodox leave WCC

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (131
notes).

Note 128 by UMNS on May 30, 1997 at 16:05 Eastern (2060 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                             316(10-71B){128}
         New York (212) 870-3803                     May 30, 1997

United Methodist regrets Georgian
Orthodox decision to leave WCC

               by United Methodist News Service

     The decision of the Georgian Orthodox Church to withdraw from
the World Council of Churches (WCC) is "unfortunate and regretful,"
according to a United Methodist long involved with the
organization.
     Jan Love of Columbia, S.C., a WCC Central Committee member and
moderator of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International
Affairs, noted in a May 29 telephone interview that many Orthodox
churches are in countries undergoing political and social upheaval.
     "It's not really surprising that they're reassessing their
ties to the world outside," she said.
     Officials of the Georgian Orthodox Church -- in the former
Soviet Republic of Georgia -- made the decision to leave the
council May 20. According to Ecumenical News International, the
country's most influential Orthodox monasteries had pressured
church leaders to end ecumenical participation. The church's
patriarch, Ilia II, served as a WCC president from 1979 to 1983.
     Love said she had learned that the successor body to the USSR
Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists also is withdrawing
membership from the council.
     She added that she hopes other Orthodox bodies are not
influenced to take the same action. "It's a time in the life of the
world where ecumenism is needed more, not less," she declared.
     The Rev. Bruce Robbins, general secretary, United Methodist
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, said he
looked forward to the day when the Georgian Orthodox Church might
be able to rejoin the council. "We will continue to support the
church in our prayers," he added.
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