wfn.org | WCC addresses issues of inclusiveness, but work remains,

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delegates say

Dec. 21, 1998        Contact: Tim Tanton((615)742-5470(Nashville, Tenn.
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NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) -- A key theme throughout the World Council of
Churches' Eighth Assembly was inclusiveness - a clearly stated aim of
involving women, youth and indigenous people in the leadership of the
ecumenical organization.

The United Methodist Church's delegation embodied that principle. Twenty
of its 33 original members were women, though one female delegate who
didn't make it was replaced by a male proxy delegate at the assembly.
Eleven of its members were "youth delegates," that is, under age 30. And
at least four were indigenous people.

"We have really worked at being more inclusive in our selections," said
delegate Thelma Johnson of Cincinnati, a member of the United Methodist
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns. In contrast
to the primarily male Orthodox delegation, she noted that the United
Methodist group had more women than men, more lay members than clergy.

However, despite the church's positive marks for its diverse delegation,
the WCC still has work to do in terms of involving women, youth and
indigenous people more fully, delegates said.

The United Methodist delegation provided key leaders from those three
categories during the Eighth Assembly.

* The Rev. Kathryn Bannister of Bison, Kan., was named president of the
North American region. At 29, she is  the only president under 30 and
one of only two women named to the eight-member presidium.

* Richard Grounds, a professor at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma,
was one of four United Methodists named to the WCC's 150-member Central
Committee. He was the only indigenous person from North America named to
that important board. Grounds, a Native American of Seminole and Euchee
background, serves on the denomination's Commission on Christian Unity
and Interreligious Concerns. He did his doctoral work at Princeton
Theological Seminary and studied the history of the missionary movement
and the rise of the modern ecumenical movement.

* United Methodist delegates Lois Dauway of New York and Beate Kraus of
Germany were also elected to the Central Committee, helping raise the
committee's representation of women slightly. Dauway is assistant
general secretary and head of the Section of Christian Social
Responsibility for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Kraus is a seminary student in Aue, Saxony, Germany. Dauway also is
African American, and Kraus was a youth delegate.

* Two United Methodist youth delegates, Courtney Goto and Stefanie Gray,
worked on key committees during the assembly. Goto, of New York, was on
the Policy Reference Committee II and had a hand in drafting and
presenting a statement calling for the cancellation of debts borne by
impoverished countries. She also serves on the United Methodist Board of
Church and Society. Gray, of Evanston, Ill., was on the Policy Reference
Committee I and serves on the churchwide General Council on Ministries.

The United Methodist Church was one of two denominations that had 33
delegates at the assembly - the largest representation of any church.
More than 100 other United Methodists attended as observers, advisers
and accredited visitors.

"It's really wonderful to sit in this delegation and see the diversity
that's represented," Grounds said.

Delegates noted that the WCC still has a long way to go in terms of
attaining a Central Committee that is 50 percent female, in addition to
having stronger representation of young people and indigenous people in
leadership.

"As were many, I was disappointed with the lack of progress on the full
inclusion of women, exemplified by the Central Committee being only 39
percent women and the presidium containing only two women," said the
Rev. Bruce Robbins, a newly elected Central Committee member and general
secretary of the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns. The presidium comprises eight regional
presidents.

"I also think that the future of the World Council of Churches depends
on greater youth involvement than presently exists, and I am committed
to finding ways to increase that involvement," he said.

While the United Methodist delegation put forward a slate of Central
Committee nominees that was 50 percent female, other denominations
failed to do so. United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, who headed the
WCC's Nominations Committee, chided the membership for not offering more
women as candidates. The Central Committee ended up being 39.4 percent
female.

Indigenous representation

The new Central Committee has 10 indigenous people, including four from
the Pacific, three from Asia, two from Latin America and one from North
America.

"This was the first time that the participation of indigenous peoples
not just in presence but in leadership was clearly articulated and
successfully developed, so that there are numbers of indigenous people
on the Central Committee and even an indigenous person on the Executive
Committee," Robbins said. Having indigenous people at the top level of
leadership "is a huge step," he said. 

However, indigenous people at the assembly would like to have seen more
visibility for issues facing their communities and more representation
on the 150-member Central Committee.

"We certainly would have liked to have seen broader representation,"
Grounds said. For indigenous people, it's particularly important to have
representatives who have connections to indigenous communities and
understand their issues, he said. The treatment of indigenous people is
"a primary indicator of how things are going for the rest of us."

"I'm going to take some disappointment home with me," said Betty
Admussen, a United Methodist delegate from Kansas City, Mo., and a
Native American of Eastern Shawnee background. For example, she said,
land issues are great among indigenous people around the world, and "I
don't think the church is hearing this."

However, she said she was happy about statements on human rights and
peace and justice adopted by the Eighth Assembly. She also felt good
about a "Padare" session, or hearing, on indigenous people's issues,
which she helped lead.

The indigenous people's caucus issued an appeal, "Why Are We Still
Waiting?", calling for a "radical change of heart in the churches." The
caucus issued a seven-point challenge to the WCC and its members. The
caucus urged the WCC to reaffirm a statement adopted at the Canberra,
Australia, assembly in 1991, concerning indigenous people and land
rights; and to promote equal participation of indigenous people in
decision making throughout the churches.

Anne Marshall, associate general secretary with the Commission on
Christian Unity and a Muscogee, helped draft the document. Despite talk
about an inclusive church community, indigenous people were invisible or
at least ignored during the assembly, she said.

"It's almost the end of the millenium, and yet we still don't fully
engage ourselves with indigenous peoples," Marshall said. "Everybody
says they want to be sensitive. I think we need to be intentional of how
we are going to move beyond words."

Marshall described two steps that the WCC should take with regard to
indigenous people. First, it should address indigenous people's issues
with a full-time staff person instead of an outside consultant. Second,
it should set a percentage of its committee seats for indigenous people.

The assembly did afford an opportunity to meet indigenous people from
all over the world and to see their diverse gifts, Marshall noted.
Despite the assembly, the indigenous people will still be back, fighting
for land issues and more participation, she said. "We're not giving up
and we're not going away."

Young voices

The election of Bannister as North American president represented a
triumph for the youth delegates at the assembly. She became only the
second youth (under 30) delegate elected a regional president.

"The presidents issue has been a long struggle," Bannister said a few
days before the election. The youth representatives felt that if the
assembly decided to continue with more than one president, then at least
one of those should be a young person.

Bannister has been active in the WCC since the Canberra assembly,
serving for the past seven years on the Central Committee and leading
the planning committee for the pre-assembly youth event in Harare.

Some "long-timers" don't see the need for youth involvement in the WCC's
structure, Bannister noted. But "unless we are present in the
structures, we don't get heard."

People see the presidents as symbols of the WCC, said Molly Vetter, 22,
a delegate and student at Claremont School of Theology in California.
"The face we put forward ought to include youth."

"Having a regional president who's a youth makes more of a statement
because it recognizes that young people can do the work that needs to be
done," Gray said.

Many youth delegates described the assembly as a great opportunity for
learning and meeting people from around the world, but they also voiced
frustration at some of the WCC's processes.

"I've been disappointed in the way it sometimes seems things here at the
WCC get caught in the institutionality," Vetter said. Some of the high
points for her were the small-group Bible study sessions, where
participants could interact more easily across age and cultural lines,
and the worship services, where ecumenism was put into practice.

Vetter found people hospitable and willing to listen. However, she said
it was sometimes frustrating because some of the programs designed for
the youth were more to fit them into the existing system than to allow
the youth to express themselves.

"I think because we're all young, we have a certain advantage in that
we're not already entrenched in tradition," she said. The young people
also have "a certain naivete" that can be an advantage, she said.

Vetter said she planned on preaching about the assembly upon her return
home. "It'll certainly change the way I think of my faith in the
future," she said.

"It's a tough position to be in, to be advocating for a certain group of
people, like young people, and it's hard to be hammering at the same
consciousness issues, but it's necessary," said Gray, 24.

"I have a lot of issues that I'm concerned about," she said. But the
youth in the WCC "aren't in the place where they can just be comfortably
talking about other issues and not be educating" people about young
people, she said.

At times, it seemed, people's expectations of young people weren't high,
Gray said. Despite a feeling of tokenism, she noted that being on the
delegation was a good experience.

"This is a pivotal moment in my faith journey," said Gray, who is
attending Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston. "If I
don't use this experience, I will have done a disservice to this
delegation and to the church."

Youth delegates had a lot of room to take leadership in the committees,
said Goto, 28. While she felt that she was heard and taken seriously in
the committee, she was concerned that youth were not taken seriously in
other ways. For example, the WCC didn't reach its goal of nominating
youth to the Central Committee. 

And dealing with the attitudes of individual people was frustrating at
times, she said. In addition to addressing sexual harassment, the WCC
should consider doing training on ageism and racism at the assembly, she
said. People understand the attitudes and actions that define sexual
harassment, but they are less aware of what constitutes ageism, she
said.

Another youth delegate, Marcus Thorne of Georgia, noted the challenge
the WCC faces in coming up with statements that are unobjectionable to
its diverse membership. He wanted to see the WCC go further in its
statements about issues such as human rights and women's rights. "At
best, the WCC can affirm truisms, things which nobody can disagree
with," he said. The truisms, however, may be as far as the WCC can go,
he said.

Thorne, 24, completed his urban studies and planning degree at MIT in
Boston last year and is considering getting a joint divinity degree at
Garrett and journalism degree at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Like many of the delegates, Thorne spoke of the opportunity that the
assembly afforded.

"I definitely see the hand of God on my life as I've been in this place,
and most of all, that's what I want to share with people, that God was
here with me." 

United Methodist News Service
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