wfn.org | WCC: What kind of ecumenism do churches need?

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Central Committee moderator calls for a common vision of the church

GENEVA, 27 August 1999 (lwi) "In a wide-ranging report that emphasized the
characteristic of the world's largest ecumenical body as a fellowship of
churches, a council of, for and with the churches, the Moderator of the
World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee has called for a common
vision of what the church is lest the ecumenical movement suffers setbacks
and remains a closed circle.

"We need an ecumenism that comes out of its closed circuit, releases us
from our confines and opens the churches towards each other, towards the
world, towards the future and towards God," His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos
of Cilicia told the 158-member governing body of the WCC meeting at the
ecumenical center here from 26 August to 3 September 1999.

In his report on 26 August to the new committee, elected at the 8th
Assembly of the WCC in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1998, Aram I pointed out that
all the issues and challenges that the churches and the ecumenical movement
are facing in different contexts and different forms are basically related
to the self-understanding of the church. "If the ecumenical movement is
really concerned about its credibility and relevance, it must wrestle with
this pivotal issue seriously," he said.

Focusing on the "responsive" nature of the church, the WCC moderator
underscored that the church as an integral part of society cannot remain
aloof, indifferent and unaffected in the face of the changes that are
taking place in society. The church, he added, must search constantly for
more relevant modes of being church as well new models and forms of
self-articulation.

Aram I, who at the onset pointed out that the current Central Committee
meeting is important in its calling to determine the Council's
post-Assembly agenda and direction, expressed hope that in addressing
issues that concern the WCC and its relations with the Orthodox churches,
the Special Commission called for by the Assembly can also deal with
broader questions pertaining to relations between the Council and its
member churches. The churches, he underlined, "are the owners of the
Council, they must become active players and not remain simply spectators."

Addressing a press conference after delivering his report, the WCC
moderator clarified that the special commission mandated to address the
Orthodox-WCC relations at the assembly had not begun its work but it is
expected that it would begin meeting before the end of this year. Some
(Orthodox) WCC member churches have in the past expressed their growing
dissatisfaction with regard to some of the Council's activities and certain
tendencies in some of its Protestant member churches.  .  Reiterating that
in Harare, the WCC affirmed its commitment not only to "stay together" but
also "to grow together", Aram I, currently on his second seven-year term as
the Central Committee Moderator, underlined that these statements should
not be taken as mere slogans but should be understood as a firm commitment
to the common witness and visible unity of the churches.

He singled out the "process of growing together" shared by the WCC and the
Roman Catholic Church and noted that although the latter partner is not yet
a member of the Council, the increasing collaboration between Geneva and
the Vatican and the growing ecumenical partnership on the regional and
national levels between the members of the two world Christian bodies,
"will significantly help deepen and widen our global ecumenical fellowship."

On the legacy of the 20th century for the ecumenical movement, His
Holiness, underlined that this was the last meeting of the Central
Committee this century. He said the main problems and challenges facing the
ecumenical movement include unresolved issues such as ethnicity; an
emergence of new value systems in which power has become the absolute
criterion of human life; and a dialogue or conflict between civilizations
through which world religions and cultures in many parts of the world have
become sources of tension and conflicts.

With the foregoing challenges, is it possible as the Harare Assembly in its
theme proclaimed that "we rejoice in hope" in a world dominated by poverty,
injustice, nuclear threat and ecological crisis? the WCC Moderator posed.

"We will rejoice in hope," was the ready answer Aram I provided to this
question as he reminded the churches of their calling to make God's love
visible to "our neighbor", giving bread to the poor, justice to the victim
of injustice and by becoming peacemakers.

After Harare, he said, the ecumenical movement cannot and will not be the
same. The WCC moderator foresees a new type of ecumenism already emerging,
one which is self-critical and responsive; "an ecumenism which reaches out
to the people of God." He added that the "aggressiveness, negativism and
pessimism, which have become visible features of our ecumenical life in the
last decade must be dominated by hope and patience, by mutual understanding
and solidarity."

The WCC is a fellowship of more than 330 churches in more than 100
countries from virtually all Christian traditions. About 50 of the 128
member churches of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) are also members of
the WCC. The WCC staff is headed by general secretary Konrad Raiser from
the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/