wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Committee urges continued PC(USA) support of WCC

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Note #7733 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Committee urges continued PC(USA) support of WCC
GA03043

Committee urges continued PC(USA) support of WCC

by John Filiatreau

DENVER, May 26 - The General Assembly Committee on Catholicity and Ecumenical
relations voted Monday to recommend a continuation at approximately the
current levels of PC(USA) financial support for the World Council of Churches
(WCC).

	The committee approved a recommendation "that the PC(USA) shall seek
to sustain the level of its support, both financial and in human resources,
to the work of the WCC." The vote was 52-3, with three abstentions. An
alternate measure that would have limited PC(USA) support to "one million
dollars USA," without specifying whether that was an annual figure, was
defeated.

	However, the committee voted to append to the measure several
questions from an alternative resolution it had voted down. The questions,
and opposition to the WCC-support measure, mostly had to do with the WCC's
financial operations.

	The questions included the following: "Why do so few churches choose
to be a part of the World Council? Why do so many member churches choose not
to support the World Council financially?  Is the World Council perceived by
many churches in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, etc., as an
essentially Eurocentric or Western institution?"

	The committee approved six different recommendations having to do
with the WCC. The first four were largely unopposed. They recommend that the
Assembly:

	* "Affirm, with gratitude to God, the achievements of the World
Council of Churches";

	* Express appreciation to WCC staff for the openness with which they
responded to a PC(USA) review of the council's operations;

	* Express appreciation of the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk
of the PC(USA), for "his significant contributions to ecumenism  within
North America and around the world."

	* Urge that the PC(USA) "continue to strongly advocate for the WCC's
historic commitment to the greater participation of women, youth and
indigenous people in the life of the council." This provision was amended to
require that PC(USA) officials report to future Assemblies on progress made
in this regard.

	The remaining two items called on the Assembly to:

	* Urge PC(USA) members and officials who participate in the work of
the WCC to "exercise their fiduciary responsibility and insist on work plans
and budgeting that keep expenditures and revenues balanced."

	* Declare its intent to sustain the level of PC(USA) support for the
WCC "while also urging our partner churches to seek every possible way of
increasing their support."

	The committee heard a report from a PC(USA) review "of councils and
other ecumenical alliances" to which the church belongs. The series of
reviews was requested by the 2000 and 2001 Assemblies. The first report of
such a review, of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, was received by
last year's Assembly.

	The review team was led by the Rev. John Bartholomew, a member of the
General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical Relations. The review was generally
positive, crediting the WCC with several accomplishments, including being
instrumental in the ending of apartheid in South Africa, affecting world
culture through its Decade of Solidarity with Women, and producing a document
on ecumenism, "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry," that Bartholomew called "the
top such document of the 20th century."

	The PC(USA) contribution to the WCC budget was about $1.2 million in
2001 and about 1.3 million in 2002. The 2002 contribution amounted to less
than 1 percent of the PC(USA) mission budget.

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