wfn.org | Orthodox participation in WCC: meeting to propose next steps

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release PR-03-20
For Immediate Use
28 May 2003

Orthodox participation in WCC: meeting to propose next steps

The Steering Committee of a Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in
the World Council of Churches (WCC) will meet - in the place where Orthodox
challenges to the Council first came to light five years ago - to oversee the
implementation of its 2002 recommendations. 

The Steering Committee's 14 members - seven Orthodox and seven from other
member churches - will meet in Thessaloniki, Greece, 4-7 June. It will be
their first gathering since last August, when the WCC Central Committee
adopted the recommendations proposed by the Special Commission to improve
Orthodox participation in the WCC.

The Committee will receive reports, evaluate progress and propose the next
steps to be taken to implement:
- a consensus decision-making process;
- reform of the WCC's membership and representation system;
- a proposed framework regarding common prayer; 
- studies on the fundamental differences in the self-understanding of
Orthodox and Protestant churches.

These recommendations were the whole Council's response to long-standing
concerns that were strongly and openly expressed at a conference of
representatives from Eastern Orthodox churches in Thessaloniki in May 1998.
They were the fruit of three years of work by the Special Commission on
Orthodox Participation in the WCC. The Commission was created by the WCC's
eighth assembly (Harare, 1998), and was made up of an equal number of
representatives from Orthodox and other member churches.

According to WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, the implementation
of the recommendations may lead "to a change in our institutional culture, to
extension of the ecumenical table, to improvement in the way Christian
churches relate with one another and, finally, to renewal in their witness
and ministry". 

In Thessaloniki, the Steering Committee will analyze how member churches in
different regions have reacted so far to the work of the Special Commission.
It will also discuss possible future communication strategies to engage
member churches in further discussion.

The Committee fulfills - until the next WCC assembly - the role of a
"Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration" set up by the WCC
Central Committee to follow up the Special Commission's mandate and to advise
WCC governing bodies regarding Orthodox participation in the WCC. 

International Symposium

The Steering Committee meeting will be preceded by an international academic
symposium on "Orthodox theology and the future of ecumenical dialogue:
perspectives and problems".

Organized by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki's School of Theology
under the aegis of His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and All
Greece, the symposium will take place from 1-3 June. Besides local scholars,
the symposium will be attended by members of the WCC Steering Committee and
staff, as well as representatives of other churches and academic
institutions.

The symposium will address the new perspectives for Orthodox participation in
the WCC emerging from the work carried out by the Special Commission. It will
also discuss bilateral dialogue between Eastern and Oriental Orthodox
churches, and between those churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

The closing public lecture by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser
will address "The importance of the Orthodox contribution to the World
Council of Churches". 

Background information on the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in
the WCC is available at: 
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/index-e.html 

For additional information or to arrange interviews, please contact the Media
Relations Office at: +41 79 507 6363 (Thessaloniki) or +41 22 791 6135/6421
(Geneva).

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which
meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in
1948 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

World Council of Churches
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