wfn.org | Delegates look back, ahead following WCC assembly

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 21, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally((615)742-5470(Nashville,
Tenn.     {750}

By Tim Tanton*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The World Council of Churches' Eighth Assembly
is over, and now the real work begins: transforming the decisions into
action and telling the people in the pews what happened.

For United Methodist delegates and visitors attending the assembly in
Harare, Zimbabwe, there will be a lot to tell.  The assembly adopted
positions on key concerns, such as human rights, and elected several
United Methodists to leadership positions for the WCC's next period of
work.

For two weeks every seven years, the diverse members of the WCC meet to
explore where they stand in common on issues facing all churches.  The
assembly and its various committees synthesize a multitude of voices and
viewpoints into policy statements that provide guidance for the WCC's
Central Committee and staff during the next seven years.

More than 4,500 people, including 980 delegates, attended the Dec. 3-14
assembly at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.  The delegates
produced strongly worded statements affirming human rights, calling for
the cancellation of debts borne by impoverished countries, advocating
the rights of women, addressing problems related to globalization and
marking out common ground on the ecumenical vision of the WCC's members.

Even before the assembly began, it was clear that unity and
inclusiveness would represent challenges for the delegates, and those
topics surfaced throughout the assembly's hearings, open forums and
business sessions.  Women, youth and indigenous people all pushed for
more involvement in leadership, but the greatest pressure for influence
came from the Orthodox churches, which have become increasingly
disenchanted with the WCC. Confronting the Orthodox concerns was
probably the most fundamental task of the assembly.

"High points that I see are just a deep commitment on everybody's part
to recreate a World Council of Churches that is vital and serves all its
members and continues into the future, and nearly universal affirmation
for that desire across the board," said the Rev. Bruce Robbins, general
secretary of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns and a newly elected member of the WCC's Central
Committee. "I think the fears of disruption by Orthodox concerns and
social issues such as human sexuality did not materialize.

"For North Americans, we learned at deeper levels of our understanding
the gravity of the debt issue and how not only an economic and social
but a religious commitment is needed on our parts to respond to these
economic disparities in the world.  To know that these struggling
countries export capital more than anything else is an abomination."

It is also urgent for the United Methodist Church to study the
globalization issues, Robbins continued.  "Globalization has an effect
on our understanding of ourselves," especially in light of the work of
the denomination's Connectional Process Team, which is mapping out a
transformational direction for the church as the new millenium
approaches.

Unity concerns

Going into the assembly, the delegates had the challenge of working
through concerns voiced by Orthodox leaders during the preceding months
- concerns about the lack of Orthodox influence and the perception that
the WCC was dominated by a Western, Protestant perspective.

His Holiness Aram I, moderator of the WCC, gave voice to those concerns
in his report to the assembly on Dec. 4.  He expressed the hope that the
council would find a way to create more space for the Orthodox.

The result was a decision to form a commission that will explore the
Orthodox concerns.  Half of the members will be chosen by the Orthodox
and the other half will be named by the WCC's Executive Committee.

"I think we've got the mechanism to keep developing better relations
with the Orthodox," said Bishop Roy I. Sano, head of the Los Angeles
Area and a United Methodist delegate.

However, during the assembly the Bulgarian Orthodox Church formally
announced that it was withdrawing membership from the WCC, and the
Russian Orthodox said they were putting their participation in the
council's Central Committee on hold.

The re-election of Aram I to the top post of moderator was seen as a
commitment by the Central Committee toward drawing more closely
together.

A forum for wider dialogue

The delegates also took action to increase the dialogue among WCC
members and churches and groups outside the council.  The creation of a
forum of Christian churches and ecumenical organizations would create a
wider setting for discussion with Roman Catholics, Pentecostals,
evangelicals, Christian world communions and regional ecumenical
organizations - participants that are unable to join the WCC. The
council would be a partner but not a sponsor of the forum.

A committee will be established under the leadership of the WCC's
Executive Committee and general secretary, and it will make a proposal
to the Central Committee regarding the forum. The Roman Catholic Church
and the evangelical community will be contacted in the process.

Sano was among the delegates who voted for exploring the idea of a
forum.

"For me, the forum ought to be a gathering of Orthodox, Roman Catholics,
Protestants, Pentecostals, evangelicals, independent churches to share
together what they want to do in the 21st century," he said.  It would
be a place for the churches to inform and be corrected by each other, he
said. 

In the first century of the second millennium, the Roman Catholic and
Orthodox churches split.  Later, the Protestants and Roman Catholics
split.  "Wouldn't it be wonderful if in the first year of the new
century and the new millenium, we didn't have a split to announce, and
we were conferencing with one another?" Sano said.

The unity of the body of Christ is important to Sano, who describes the
body as "dismembered" today. "That's why I'm so committed to ecumenism
because we are re-membering the dismembered body of Christ."

The issue of the forum divided WCC delegates. Some feared that such a
forum would detract from the assembly itself.  However, Sano said, if
any member churches loosened their ties with the council in favor of the
safer setting of the forum, that would be a "betrayal of trust."

Bishop Sharon Rader,  a United Methodist delegate from Wisconsin, voted
against the forum proposal.  The WCC is at a point in its history when
power is shifting from the countries and churches of the North to those
of the South, she noted. She worries that the forum would become an
alternative way of being together that would allow North to continue to
have power.

"I hope that it does not become a replacement for the assembly," she
added. "I worry that we're setting up two parallel processes."

Sexuality issues

Questions related to human sexuality did not take center stage at the
assembly.  Issues of gay and lesbian involvement in the life of the
church were discussed during the "Padare" hearings, which took their
name from the Shona word for "meeting place," and were dealt with
briefly in a report by the Program Guidelines Committee.

"It is clear that issues surrounding the understanding of human
sexuality have divided and continue to dive some churches," the
committee said. "It is seen as a cause of disunity on the one hand and
as a cause of discrimination and injustice on the other. An ecumenical
approach to issues of human sexuality would need to take into account
Christian anthropology . . . which could draw out biblical witness, the
relationship between ethics and culture, undertaken in a way which would
allow sufficient space for Christian women and men to explore the issues
while creating and deepening mutual trust."

Gleanings

Bishop Ruediger Minor, head of the United Methodist Church in Russia and
a delegate, used the assembly as a chance to meet with his counterparts
in the Russian Orthodox Church, which has often had strained relations
with Protestant denominations in that country. The conference provided a
new motivation to establish contacts, he said. "I hope they will not be
over (after the assembly ends), and I hope that we may continue some
unofficial, low-key conversations."

"I will leave this place with a new conviction that there is possibility
for conversation," he said.

Among the many issues that the assembly tackled, Sano singled out the
debt cancellation statement and the commitment to Africa.

"I was particularly happy with some of the things they were saying about
the debt crisis," he said.  The document dealing with debt cancellation
was "responsible" and "comprehensive."  "It didn't just blame the West."

^From the standpoint of the Council of Bishops' Africa initiative and
commitment to children in poverty, "This as really given us a lot more
feel for the realities," he said.

The human rights and debt cancellation statements are items that the
delegates can take home to their local churches and work around, said
Anne Marshall, a United Methodist delegate and associate general
secretary of the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious
Concerns.

For the Rev. Edgar De Jesus, a United Methodist delegate from the
Philippines, the assembly presented a chance to see the richness of
African culture and worship without the filter of the media. Upon
returning home, he planned to share the assembly's actions on
globalization, human rights and justice. "But more important, I will
share with them the importance of the World Council as a venue, a place
where all Christians can gather as a family."

A high point for United Methodist delegate Thelma Johnson was the
festival marking the end of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in
Solidarity With Women.

"The good thing about this assembly is that we come together from so
many places and hear for the first time the things that are happening in
those places," Johnson said. "I wouldn't trade this, being with people
from other countries, for anything."
# # #
*Tanton is news editor of United Methodist News Service. 

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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