wfn.org | Facing change and financial difficulties, WCC governing body to meet

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7402 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

23-August-2002
02319
  
Facing change and financial difficulties, WCC governing body to meet   

by Ecumenical News International

(Editor's note: Jerry L. Van Marter of the Presbyterian News Service will be in Geneva to help Ecumenical News International cover the WCC Central Committee meeting.)
  
GENEVA - Sweeping changes to the World Council of Churches (WCC) - the world's largest ecumenical body - are to be discussed by the organization's main governing body, the central committee, when it meets in Geneva next week.  

The 158-member central committee that meets Aug. 26-Sept. 3 will have before it what may be controversial proposals centering on the future decision-making process of the organization.  

The proposals come from a special commission set up to deal with deep-seated grievances of the WCC's Orthodox member churches, including claims that WCC activities and programs are too dominated by Protestant approaches.

The meeting will also grapple with the thorny issue of WCC finances after the disclosure that the WCC's general reserves are exhausted following a deficit in 2001 of some CHF (Swiss Francs)6.6 million (U.S. $4.39 million) - CHF 5 million more than expected.  

The WCC has reported it is now encountering cash-flow problems and that WCC leaders have decided to take out a mortgage on its headquarters in Geneva to be paid off from investment earnings in future years.  

The central committee meets every 12 to 18 months. 

It is likely to debate the United States-led "War on Terrorism" and the threat of a U.S. military attack against Iraq after a meeting this month in New York co?sponsored by the WCC said that the "War on Terrorism" threatened "genuine peace and justice."  

The meeting will also hear reports from Konrad Raiser, WCC general secretary, and from Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who is moderator of the central committee.  

The committee will set up a search committee to propose a successor to Raiser who will retire next year after almost 11years as general secretary.  

On Sunday (Aug. 25), the day before the official opening of the meeting, there will be an ecumenical service in the cathedral of the nearby city of Lausanne to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first World Conference on Faith and Order that took place in that city in 1927.  

That conference was the first large?scale inter-confessional meeting to deal with the theological differences between churches and helped lead to the foundation of the WCC in 1948.   
On Tuesday (Aug. 27) the meeting is scheduled to discuss the situation of churches in Asia and on Wednesday (Aug. 28) to receive a report on the need for member churches to tackle racism in their own ranks and in the wider society.  

However it is the report of the special commission on Orthodox participation to be presented on Thursday (Aug. 29) that may be the most controversial item on the central committee's agenda.  

In recent years many Orthodox have been highly critical of the WCC, believing it to be too influenced by what they see as Western liberal Protestant views on inclusive language, the ordination of women and sexuality.   

Two Orthodox churches have already left the WCC, and any further moves by Orthodox churches to withdraw from the organization could seriously jeopardize the WCC's claim to be an inclusive ecumenical body.   

The WCC's 342 member churches include all mainstream traditions - Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox - with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church, which works in co-operation with the WCC.
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