wfn.org | WCC Approves Plan to Give Ecumenism

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25-September-1997 
97376 
 
    WCC Approves Plan to Give Ecumenism 
    a New Sense of Purpose 
 
    by Stephen Brown 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA--The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches has 
overwhelmingly approved a set of proposals aimed at giving the ecumenical 
movement, the WCC and its member churches a new sense of purpose in the 
run-up to the new millennium and to the WCC's 50th anniversary next year. 
 
    The proposals, contained in a policy statement entitled "Towards a 
Common Understanding and Vision [CUV] of the World Council of Churches," 
are intended to provide the WCC's 330 member churches -- drawn from 
Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican traditions on five continents -- with a 
clear statement of their areas of agreement and to inspire member churches 
and ecumenical partners to "recommit" themselves to the ecumenical 
movement. 
 
    According to Eunice Santana, one of the WCC's seven presidents, the 
focus of the policy statement is the "vision that the WCC itself is not the 
only ecumenical or the only world expression of the fellowship of churches, 
but is also at the service of the one ecumenical movement that transcends 
itself." 
 
    The statement will now be sent to WCC member churches and other 
ecumenical partners, and be forwarded to the WCC's Eighth Assembly, which 
takes place in Harare, Zimbabwe, in December 1998, for possible adoption by 
the Assembly as an "ecumenical charter" for the 21st century. 
 
    Explaining the need to restate the WCC's "common understanding and 
vision," the policy statement describes signs of a "weakening of ecumenical 
commitment, a growing distance between the WCC and its member churches, and 
of a widespread perception among the young generation that the ecumenical 
movement has lost its vitality." It also refers to the fact that some 
"member churches are experiencing internal conflicts and even the threat of 
schism because of their participation in the ecumenical fellowship," an 
indirect reference to opposition, in some Orthodox churches, to ecumenism. 
 
    As well as encouraging existing WCC member churches to play a greater 
role in the ecumenical movement, the statement is also intended to 
strengthen the WCC's relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, which is 
not a member of the WCC, and with those Evangelical and Pentecostal 
churches which are not WCC members. 
 
    According to WCC officials, it is hoped that a proposal on organizing 
an "ecumenical forum" between the WCC and other ecumenical partners will be 
brought to the WCC's Harare Assembly next year. 
 
    The Central Committee also approved a series of recommendations to 
restructure the WCC's institutions and decision-making structures in line 
with the CUV perspective, which observers believe will result in the WCC 
discontinuing some of its current programmatic activities, with a smaller 
and more flexible staff at its Geneva headquarters working in closer 
cooperation with the member churches. 
 
    The WCC's general secretary, Konrad Raiser, told journalists that the 
proposals would "change the style of work of the staff who need to become 
more responsive to member churches and to the ecumenical witness of the 
member churches." 
 
    The WCC, he said, need not necessarily be the "first, primary or 
central actor" in implementing programs, but should increasingly use the 
"resources available in member churches themselves." 
 
    But Raiser also stressed that the CUV document "explicitly recognizes 
that the WCC, even as the instrument of the fellowship of churches, does 
not only have a facilitating role, but also has a role to point the way 
forward [and] to be a prophetic voice." 
 
    The CUV process was launched after a meeting of the WCC Central 
Committee in Moscow in 1989, but it received a boost in February 1995 when 
the WCC's Executive Committee agreed that CUV process should culminate in 
an "ecumenical charter" for the 21st century that could be presented to the 
WCC's Eighth Assembly. The idea has also taken on an added urgency because 
of the WCC's recent financial difficulties. 
 
    However, a number of ideas for a radical shake-up of the WCC's 
institutions, contained in a draft paper circulated to member churches last 
November, have been dropped. These included the suggestion that the WCC's 
Assembly -- which takes place every seven years and is the organization's 
highest policy-making body -- should be discontinued in its present form, 
along with the largely ceremonial positions of WCC presidents. There are 
currently seven WCC presidents. 
 
    The debate on CUV exposed deep-seated differences among member churches 
concerning the nature of the WCC. The policy statement acknowledges that 
"it has become clear that within this `common understanding and vision' 
there are a number of points regarding the goal of the ecumenical movement 
 ... on which the churches do not yet agree." 
 
    Bishop Melvin Talbert of the United Methodist Church in the United 
States pointed out that the statement was headed "Towards a Common 
Understanding and Vision." 
 
    "This means we haven't arrived. When we will get there I don't think 
anyone is prepared to say," he said. 

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