wfn.org | WCC NEWS: HH Aram I opens last meeting of Central Committee

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World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 15/02/2005

HEALING TRANSFORMS, EMPOWERS AND RECONCILES, MODERATOR SAYS

Free photos available, see below
Ninety years ago, the Ottoman empire began to kill the Armenians within
its borders. Systematic genocide took up to a million and a half Armenian
lives. By 1923, almost the whole Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey
had disappeared.

"The past haunts the victims," Catholicos Aram I told the central
committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) today, using the painful
story of his own people as an example. "We cannot free ourselves from the
past unless that past is duly recognized," Aram I said, in the last report
of his term as moderator of the committee.

The moderator, who is Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church (see of
Cilicia), called the church worldwide to rediscover healing as a comprehensive ministry that transforms, empowers and reconciles. "God's mission
calls for a healing church in the midst of a broken, fragmented and
alienated world."

Healing must include "addressing the root causes of injustice" alongside
medical treatment and faith-healing, Aram I said. "The healing power of
God is at work where and when the church provides care to the sick and
expresses its solidarity with the oppressed."

The WCC central committee this year gathers under the overall theme of
"Healing and reconciliation", anticipating the upcoming Conference on
World Mission and Evangelism in Athens, Greece, 9-16 May. The theme for
that conference invokes the Holy Spirit to "come, heal and reconcile", and
reminds the churches that they are called in Christ "to be reconciling and
healing communities".

Reconciliation with God means reconciling with one another and the whole
creation, building bridges across religious, social and cultural divides,
Aram I said. It means more than political agreement: "It is a change of
consciousness, transformation of attitudes, healing of memories."

Acknowledging unpalatable truths is the necessary first step. "Guilt must
be admitted; truth must be told", Aram I said. Recognition and confession
open the way to forgiveness. This does not mean forgetting the past, but
seeing it "in a different way", while looking forward with "new faith,
hope and vision".

Through recognition, confession and forgiveness, both victim and perpetrator can "liberate themselves from the bitterness of the past" and, by
looking for "restorative and transformative justice", commit themselves to
"life together in peace with justice".

God's healing power transforms the ambiguity of human power, moving the
world from power that is absolute, centralized, violent and self-sufficient to power that is vulnerable, accountable, non-violent and shared.

In the conclusion of a rich and theologically profound report, Aram I
outlined six tasks as continuing priorities for the ecumenical movement
and the WCC in the years ahead:

- exploring what it means to "be church";
- caring for life in all its forms;
- addressing contemporary ethical issues;
- viewing ecology as a moral, theological, and spiritual question;
- promoting reconciliation as a key element in mission; and
- challenging the dominant concepts and practices of power.

The WCC central committee meeting continues until February 22. This is its
last session before the ninth assembly of the Council, which meets in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, in February 2006, with the theme "God, in your
grace, transform the world".

The text of the full report, free high resolution pictures and additional
information about the WCC central committee meeting are available at:
www.oikoumene.org > Central Committee

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 120 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, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.