wfn.org | World Council of Churches marks 50th anniversary

[John Rollins <rollins@intac.com>]

98-2236
World Council of Churches marks 50th anniversary

by Edmund Doogue and Stephen Brown
     (ENI) The World Council of Churches officially
celebrated its 50th anniversary  with church services in
Amsterdam, site of the WCC's first assembly, and in
Geneva,  where the organization's headquarters are
located.
          The services were the first of several events
that will culminate in the WCC's  eighth assembly, in
Harare, Zimbabwe, in December.
          The formation of the WCC in 1948 was "an event
of epoch-making importance,"  Catholicos Aram I, a
leading figure in the Orthodox world and moderator of the
WCC's  central committee, told a congregation of 500 in
Amsterdam's Old Lutheran Church on  Sept. 19.
          The ecumenical movement, thanks to the "power
of the Holy Spirit" had broken  down a "partition"
dividing the churches, he said.
          In Geneva, on the following night, more than
1,500 people crowded into the  Protestant Cathedral of St
Pierre for an ecumenical service.
          Before the service, young people from the
city's churches gathered at the Ecumenical Centre, where
the WCC's headquarters are located. Others celebrating
the anniversary met at four churches in Geneva--Reformed,
Lutheran, Roman Catholic  and Old Catholic-before
processing to the cathedral in Geneva's historic old
town, where they were welcomed by a brass band of the
Salvation Army.
          During the service, Catholicos Aram said, "We
must work together for the unity  of the churches. We
cannot witness and survive as churches without
ecumenism."
          The WCC, he said, had responded concretely to
the needs, the aspirations, the  challenges and the
concerns of its member churches. "It is not an
organization, but a  family of churches," he said.
          The inaugural assembly of the WCC took place in
Amsterdam in 1948, but the  WCC's association with Geneva
reaches back even before its official foundation. A
plaque in the cathedral commemorates the first official
international ecumenical service  held after the Second
World War, a service that took place in Geneva's
cathedral in  February 1946.
          Those taking part in the 1946 service included
Dr.Geoffrey Fisher, the archbishop  of Canterbury,
theologian Martin Niemoller of the Evangelical Church in
Germany  (EKD), and Bishop Eivind Berggrav, the Primate
of Norway--whose countries had been  at war less than 12
months earlier.

New ecumenical networks
After celebrating the council's past, Konrad Raiser,
general secretary of the WCC,  appeared at a symposium to
talk about the future.
          It seems likely, he said, that in the first few
years of the next century--possibly in  the year 2001--
all the main Christian traditions would form a new
"network" to discuss  ways in which they can cooperate.
He confirmed that a proposal for the establishment of
the forum would be put to the WCC's assembly in Harare in
December.
          Asked by ENI whether the forum would be a new
ecumenical structure, Raiser  said the word "network" was
more correct. There would definitely not be a new
"structure" or "institution." The forum was intended to
provide a space, which could  overcome the barriers of
"institutional rigidity" which prevented dialogue at
present. "In  fact we have to seriously engage in de-
institutionalization," Raiser said.
          The move toward a forum or council of the main
Christian traditions has  gradually been gathering
momentum over the past three years, in part thanks to the
encouragement of Raiser, who is a German theologian and
specialist in ecumenism.
          The Roman Catholic Church--by far the world's
biggest church--and most  Pentecostal churches, which are
growing rapidly in many regions, particularly in Latin
America, are not members of the WCC. The proposed forum,
which would probably be  launched at an initial meeting
of about 200 officials, would enable much closer
communication and cooperation among all the main
churches. It would also give a major  boost to the global
ecumenical movement which some observers believe has been
caught  in an impasse in recent years.

Homosexuality not on official agenda
In response to questions, Raiser also said the WCC cannot
"close its eyes" to the  issue of homosexuality, one of
the most controversial issues facing many of the world's
churches. At the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops
in Canterbury in August this  year the issue dominated
media coverage and caused division among the
participating  bishops.
          Raiser said that he hoped the WCC's next
assembly, in Zimbabwe, would "open  the way" to explore
issues of personal and interpersonal morality, areas
which up to the  present had hardly been tackled in
ecumenical dialogue. His remarks indicate a growing
willingness by the WCC's leadership to face up to an
issue which the  organization has generally regarded as
too divisive for its member churches to allow a  robust
debate, and which is not on the official agenda for
discussion at the Harare  assembly.
          Sexual orientation is a particularly
controversial matter for the Harare assembly  because the
president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has condemned
homosexuality as  un-African. Most African churches also
reject homosexual practices, pointing out that  scripture
forbids them. Many churches in other regions,
particularly the Orthodox  churches, believe the issue
should not be discussed by ecumenical bodies such as the
WCC.
          At a press conference after the symposium,
Raiser told journalists that any further  action on the
homosexuality issue would depend on decisions by the
delegates at the  assembly. There was, he said, "no firm
proposal" for any action. "At least we are opening  up
the possibility. We now await the advice of the assembly
itself."