wfn.org | As WCC Central Committee Gathers

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10-September-1997 
97345 
 
    As WCC Central Committee Gathers, 
    Member Churches Urged to Accept More Responsibility 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA, Switzerland--The general secretary of the World Council of Churches 
(WCC) in Geneva, Konrad Raiser, has warned that -- as a result of 
political factors affecting aid and development budgets in some European 
countries -- the WCC's 330 member churches must be willing to accept more 
responsibility for the operations of the WCC. 
 
    Speaking to ENI shortly before the WCC's governing body, the Central 
Committee, meets in Geneva, Sept. 11-20, Raiser, a German theologian, said 
that in recent years taxpayers in some European countries had been 
indirectly funding the activities of the WCC. 
 
    He was referring to funding received in Geneva for WCC programs from 
major Christian aid agencies in Europe -- particularly Germany, Scandinavia 
and the Netherlands -- which receive strong financial support from their 
governments. 
 
    Raiser indicated that the World Council of Churches might need to 
rethink its operations -- with more emphasis on sharing responsibility with 
its member churches -- in the light of changes in many countries in 
government funding for aid and development. 
 
    Raiser's comments indicate that he sees the future WCC principally as a 
facilitator of projects, a meeting point and cooperation agency for the 
churches rather than as a major operator of large-scale projects. The issue 
is high on the agenda as the WCC prepares for its Eighth Assembly, to be 
held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in December 1998, and as it finalizes plans for a 
major "revisioning" of its work and structures. 
 
    There were, Raiser said, "many voices saying we need a strong World 
Council of Churches, warning the WCC not to cut back, not to relocate too 
many of its activities in cooperation with its partners. There is pressure 
for the WCC to maintain its viability. The question is what is the source 
of this strength? 
 
    "There is no doubt that over the past two decades much of this strength 
has been borrowed from the general public [in some European countries] 
which has been ready to provide funds for initiatives which the churches 
were willing to fund -- vicariously -- in the areas of human rights, 
education, health and development." 
 
    However, given the threats to the aid and development budgets in many 
countries, Raiser said that he thought "we will have to reappropriate the 
fact that the WCC's true strength lies in ... solidarity and sharing among 
the member churches. 
 
     "That means the member churches must be willing to take active 
co-responsibility for the Council and each other," he said. 
 
    Raiser pointed out that the last meeting of the Central Committee, in 
September 1996, had reaffirmed the need for churches to pay their 
membership fees to the WCC.  Many churches, including some of the biggest 
member churches, pay little or no membership fees to the organization. 
These fees pay largely for the operational costs of the organization, while 
its programs are funded by specific grants from churches and church 
agencies. 
 
    "These contributions can no longer be optional," he said. "They are 
part of the discipline of membership." 
 
    Raiser told ENI that the forthcoming meeting of the Central Committee 
would be particularly busy as, on top of its normal business, the meeting 
 
      would review the work of the WCC in the period since its election at 
the WCC's Seventh Assembly in Canberra, Australia, in 1991 
      discuss a draft document on "Common Understanding and Vision" of the 
WCC,  a process of rethinking the goals and structures of the World Council 
of Churches 
      deal with a major report from the subcommittee preparing for the 
WCC's Eighth Assembly. 
 
    The WCC's Assembly in Harare in December 1998 should, he said, 
"envisage and envision the ecumenical movement in the 21st century." 
 
    Asked about practical arrangements for the Harare Assembly, for which 
the dates have had to be changed to fit in with the academic calendar of 
the University of Zimbabwe, the site of the gathering, Raiser said initial 
agreement had been reached with the university for the Assembly to go ahead 
as planned. 
 
    "We have an agreement on the central points and that allows us to go 
ahead," Raiser said. "Obviously there are quite a number of specific, 
detailed questions remaining. We don't have an all-inclusive contract, but 
we never expected that to be finalized 15 months before the Assembly.  We 
are assured of the goodwill and support of the university, the public 
authorities and the churches [in Zimbabwe]." 
 
    Asked about another issue which had been raised at the last two 
meetings of the Central Committee -- the opposition to and condemnation of 
homosexuality by Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe -- Raiser said that 
with the approval of the officers of the WCC he had called a private 
meeting of 25 people, to be held in September after the Central Committee, 
to discuss issues connected with sexual orientation and strategies for 
dealing with this matter during the Harare Assembly. 
 
    Questioned further by ENI, Raiser agreed that for the churches 
discussion of homosexuality was "a minefield."  Within the WCC's 330 member 
churches there is deep division on this issue, with some -- mainly in 
Western Europe, North America and Australia -- accepting homosexual 
relationships, others stating firmly that such relationships are ruled out 
by scripture, and yet other churches preferring the issue not be discussed 
at all. 
 
    Raiser said that not discussing the issue was now "a nonoption. This 
issue is on our doorstep."  He pointed out that there was not only debate 
over the issue in relation to the Harare Assembly, but also the fact that 
many churches were facing difficult discussions within their own governing 
bodies about sexual orientation. 
 
    Admitting to some surprise at the strength of feeling the issue of 
sexual orientation provoked in discussions among Christians, Raiser 
stressed that as a fellowship of churches the WCC would not be able to 
formulate a theological or moral position on the matter. "The WCC would be 
the weakest body to formulate such a position," he said. "The genius of the 
WCC is to open up and maintain a space" for churches of different 
traditions to live side by side and to be challenged mutually on issues 
including sexuality, pluralism, poverty and exclusiveness. 
 
    Asked whether there was a risk, particularly because of the expected 
presence of a large contingent of  reporters, that sexuality could be seen 
as the main issue of the Harare Assembly, Raiser said, "It would be futile 
to deny that risk. So our responsibility is to minimize it. Not that we 
want to avoid difficult issues, but it would be a distortion of the agenda 
of the WCC if that were to become the central issue." 
 
    Asked by ENI whether some might see his calling of the private 
consultation as part of a move to force liberal views on the WCC'S 
membership, Raiser said that such criticism would be "totally wrong."  He 
stressed that as many shades of opinion as possible within the churches 
would be represented at the consultation, which would include members of 
some of the WCC's governing bodies, members of churches who have been 
involved in the debate on sexuality, some resources people and some WCC 
staff members. 
 
    "The purpose is not to arrive at a streamlined result, but to play 
through the configurations and the conflicts," he said. 
 
    Raiser told ENI that there were several separate aspects for churches 
to consider in the debate over sexual orientation -- the civil rights of 
homosexual people, the issue of differing cultural attitudes on sexuality, 
the moral aspects and the place of homosexual people in the life of the 
church and the ministry in particular. Unfortunately, he said, these 
aspects had often been confused in the past, and this had resulted in 
overheated debate. 
 
    He pointed out that as the WCC opposed discrimination on the basis of 
gender, race and physical ability, it would be difficult for the 
organization to ignore the fact that people were being discriminated 
against for their sexual orientation. 
 
    Raiser also said that there needed to be sensitivity to different 
church traditions, such as those of the Orthodox churches -- who make up a 
large section of WCC membership -- which had strongly opposed discussion of 
the issue.  Such feelings, he said, were "strongly rooted in the culture of 
Orthodox people, and we need to respect that conviction."  The Orthodox 
viewpoint would be represented at the consultation, he said. 
 
    He added that he hoped the consultation would help find ways to turn 
the "explosive nature" of the debate into a positive contribution to 
discussion at the Harare Assembly. 

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