wfn.org | WCC General Secretary Addresses Opening Session

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12-September-1997 
97349 
 
    WCC General Secretary Addresses Opening Session 
    of Central Committee Meeting 
 
    by John Newbury 
    World Council of Churches News and Information Office 
 
GENEVA--The globalization of economic markets is seriously harming the 
common good, environmental sustainability and democracy, according to 
Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). 
 
    Raiser made his comments to the WCC's Central Committee in Geneva Sept. 
11, when he singled out globalization as one of  the challenges of the 21st 
century.   The WCC's chief executive also gave an upbeat but realistic 
review of his organization's current work, which he strongly believes is 
beginning to suggest answers to some of the problems facing the church and 
the world.  The fruits of WCC work are now ready for harvesting, Raiser 
told the 156-strong Central Committee, which meets annually and is the 
WCC's governing body between Assemblies, which are held every seven years. 
The next Assembly is scheduled for December 1998 in Harare, Zimbabwe. 
 
    On globalization, it is known Raiser believes some critics use the term 
in a simplistic,  catchall  way and portray globalization as an anonymous 
enemy rather than analyzing the phenomenon properly.  He told the Central 
Committee globalization was a description of trends and developments which 
have been around for more than 20 years, and it had contradictory faces. It 
increased opportunities for cooperation and participation but also 
marginalized and excluded. 
 
    Globalization, Raiser said, was to a large degree the result of 
decisions of governments wedded to neoliberal economic theory.  The goal of 
the globalization of markets was replacing the search for a viable order of 
world community and was being promoted as "unquestioned truth" by such 
institutions as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade 
Organization. 
 
    However, other aspects of globalization included the global character 
of ecological threats, the electronic revolution -- particularly with its 
effect on communication, transport, production and finance -- and the 
disintegration of the communist world, which had left Western capitalism as 
the sole competitor for global leadership. 
 
    Raiser said the ecumenical movement must resist globalization as an 
ideological and political project but could not easily opt out of the 
"historical dynamic and ambiguities of global interdependence." 
Christianity, he said, was committed to the unity of humankind, and the WCC 
could not "join hands easily with a wholesale rejection of globalization." 
Its task was to put forward an alternative understanding and vision of the 
process which would lead to international behavior for the benefit of 
everyone and the environment. 
 
    Earlier in his address, Raiser reviewed the current state of the WCC. 
He said that since the last WCC Assembly in Canberra in 1991, the life of 
the Council had been "rich but increasingly difficult."  The Central 
Committee at this meeting should "take stock" of what the WCC had achieved 
since Canberra and how it should move ahead. 
 
    Saying it was now time for "harvesting the fruits" of past work, Raiser 
highlighted three major areas where this had already begun. 
 
    First, in the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, 
which ends next year, 75 teams had visited nearly all the WCC's 330 member 
churches, which was "a very remarkable achievement," said Raiser. 
 
    However, a report of the visits which will be presented to the Central 
Committee showed "how far most of our churches have still to go to embody 
the new and inclusive community they are meant to be in Christ.  In 
particular, the extent of violence against women even in Christian 
communities has come as a shock to many."  The WCC will be expected to 
"take a lead in responding to this challenge." he added. 
 
    Second, Raiser said, the WCC has recently completed its "Theology of 
Life" study. The study  aimed to find a language and a way of doing 
theology and ethics to describe and affirm a vision of humanity which cares 
for creation and in which all are entitled equally to enjoy life in its 
fullness.  This study process, said Raiser, had uncovered "hidden sources 
of life from which those who struggle for survival draw their strength and 
hope" and would "transform the approach to ecumenical social thought and 
action in the years to come." 
 
    Third, the results of the WCC's Conference on World Mission and 
Evangelism in Salvador, Brazil, last December would, said Raiser, "continue 
and transform ecumenical thinking and practice of mission."  The conference 
had identified the challenge faced by the WCC and ecumenical movement of 
how churches, locally and globally, can be true to the Christian gospel as 
they engage in mission which is sensitive to different cultures, contexts 
and other faiths. 
 
    As further examples of the WCC's current activities, the general 
secretary mentioned work done on the search for a common date of Easter, a 
new statement on Mission and Evangelism, the Reconstructing Africa program, 
and the Program to Overcome Violence -- including the recent launch in 
Johannesburg of its Peace to the City Campaign, which will focus on seven 
cities around the world in an attempt to help replace the current global 
culture of violence with a culture of peace. 
 
    The general secretary also noted work done on uprooted people and by 
the Ecumenical Church Loan Fund, which provides small amounts of capital to 
those whom commercial lenders consider too high a risk. 
 
    He also said the WCC had made "new and promising" contacts with 
evangelical, Pentecostal and African-instituted churches. 
 
    On WCC staffing, Raiser said 53 people had left during the last year 
and he expected to have only 233 people on staff by January 1998.  This 
includes around 200 "core" staff plus consultants, interns and others on 
short-term contracts.  Some staff had left voluntarily, but others had gone 
"as a consequence of the painful process of consolidating budgets."  Raiser 
said following instructions given by the Central Committee last year, a new 
program and management structure for the WCC would be presented. 
 
    The plan was in line with the current Common Understanding and Vision 
process which sought, as Raiser termed it, "an ecumenical charter for the 
21st century."  Among other things, it is proposed that the current five 
WCC work groups be merged into one comprehensive and flexible whole. 
 
    On finance, Raiser said further measures taken since last year to deal 
with the financial crisis now meant the situation had been "consolidated," 
though at a "considerably reduced level."  Also, the future was not assured 
so long as member churches and their agencies refused to support the 
Council financially.  He pointed out that despite past appeals, still 
almost 50 percent of member churches do not contribute financially.  Dr 
Raiser stressed that membership "includes obligations" and that 
contributions "have to become part of the discipline of membership." 
 
    Raiser admitted some of the decrease in income for projects was due to 
a redirection of public funding by the governments of countries such as 
Germany and The Netherlands in the areas of development, human rights, 
health and education, etc.  However, rather than lamenting this situation, 
he said the WCC should "rediscover the true source of the strength of the 
ecumenical movement," which was "sharing and solidarity." 

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