wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Stewards at 2005 WCC 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 - 25/02/2005

YOUNG ADULT STEWARDS SEE GOD'S PRESENCE IN ECUMENISM

							By Walt Wiltschek
(*)

		   Free photos available, see below

In an age when many studies suggest younger generations are showing less
interest in denominational affiliations and church institutions, a group
of 27 young adults spent more than two weeks immersed in the work of one
of the world's largest ecumenical bodies, the World Council of Churches
(WCC).

They came to Geneva to serve as stewards for the WCC central committee
meeting after being selected through an application process. The stewards
engaged in a week of training and group-building, then assisted with a
variety of meeting duties: delivering messages, monitoring the meeting
room, running a video camera, and much, much more.

Why? The reasons vary. This was a diverse group, hailing from 20 countries
in literally every part of the globe. The one thing they share is an
interest in Christ at work in the church - the whole church. Each has a
story that brought them to this place; here are four of them:

> Sarah Kwon, South Korea

Sarah was drawn to Geneva by the same concept that draws many young people
to do any number of things: it was an opportunity to do something new.

She is majoring in industrial design at a Korean university, and her
father - a minister - suggested she do something special during the
vacation between terms at the school. He surfed the Internet and found on
the WCC website a call for stewards at an upcoming meeting.

"He thought, 'Why not sign up for that?,' and I thought it was a good
idea," Sarah says.

She says not many people from her part of the world are selected, because
good skills in English (the main working language of the WCC meeting) are
required. That wasn't a problem for Sarah, though, because she had studied
the language in the United States and spoke fluently.

So, the application went in.

"My personality is open to new environments and new people," Sarah says.
"I wanted to get to know other people as well as to volunteer at such a
great place and well known event. It was an opportunity to actually get to
know something from experience rather than reading about it from an
article. I wanted to give it a try."

She paid all her own expenses to come, and says it proved worthwhile.

The pre-meeting week of training with the other stewards was "something
you would never get to experience anywhere else," she says. "Everyone,
though from different denominations, had the same idea for coming here -
it was to serve God. That was the main point that kept us together, no
matter what tradition or denomination we came from."

Her hope now is that other Asians will learn about the stewards programme
and will apply and be selected. She expects they would enjoy doing
something completely new, too.

> Antti Siukonen, Finland

Antti lives and breathes ecumenism.

He is a fifth-year student at the state university in Helsinki, studying
theology and focusing on ecumenical studies. He has participated in an
ecumenical training programme organized by the Ecumenical Council of
Finland. And he works at the Helsinki Cathedral of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, with plans to be ordained in a few years.

Two years ago, he attended a New Year's gathering sponsored by the Taizé
community in France, with about 60,000 young adults attending. Antti says
that that event had a powerful effect on him.

"I know people from many churches, and I notice we're not that different
even though we have many ways of expressing our faith," he says. "Ecumenism is a natural response. As Christians, how can we be convincing in front
of people of our own church and people who are not Christians if we are
not all one, or at least striving to be one?"

He received information on the WCC stewards programme through a mailing
list, and he didn't have to think twice about applying. He contacted his
church's head office, got a recommendation letter from his bishop, and
soon was making plans to go to Geneva.

After arriving, it was everything he had hoped. He says he enjoyed the
training week before the central committee meeting, when stewards learned
to know each other better and studied key issues before the WCC.

"We had a miniature ecumenical setting, reflecting the same traits as the
WCC," he says. "We have experienced many differences in life, different
traditions, different expressions. We noticed that we may not agree on all
things, but we can still be together and try to understand each other."

He was encouraged by WCC general secretary Samuel Kobia's address to
central committee, when Kobia said that young people are not just the
church's future, but the present. "We need youth participating in
decision-making," Antti says.

The stewards underscored that point in their sharing with central
committee, a message Antti helped to craft. Saying, "God, in your grace,
LET YOUTH transform the world" - a play on next year's WCC assembly theme
- many of the stewards shared a few sentences of their vision for the WCC.

"We came together with our opinions and found a common statement," Antti
says. "It was a great opportunity to learn how to respect one another and
tolerate our differences."

> Becky Machnee, Canada

Why? It's a question Becky regularly likes to ask.

"I'm a very curious person," Becky says. "I like to understand people and
why they think differently than I do."

She has had ample opportunity to explore, as she herself has a diverse
background: her father was a Baptist minister, but her family later joined
the Evangelical Orthodox Church, then converted to the Orthodox Church in
America when she was 9. She went to a Pentecostal school, a Catholic high
school, and attended a Protestant youth group. She says faith and church
were always very important to her family.

Now, when not busy completing a business degree in Edmonton, Becky has
become heavily involved in her church's youth work. She serves as Canadian
representative to the youth desk at the Orthodox Church of America's
headquarters in New York, and is working with the Canadian Council of
Churches to plan a 2006 ecumenical youth festival in Toronto.

She has a long-standing interest in foreign affairs as well, and thought
she might one day work in that area for the Canadian government. "I was
unaware the church had similar (global) organizations," she says. But when
a staff member from the Orthodox Church told her about ecumenical
organizations beyond North America, her interest grew.

Two days before the WCC stewards programme application was due, that staff
member sent an e-mail encouraging her to apply. After a "flurry of
activity," her application was sent.

"I'm amazed sometimes how opportunities arise," she says. "I feel a
calling, though sometimes the goal of the calling isn't very clear. I
think if I were allowed, I'd become a priest. But doors keep opening, so I
figure I'm going on the right way. It's leading somewhere."

Once at the meeting, Becky says her biggest surprise was the attention the
WCC gives to social justice issues rather than a sole focus on theology.

"I somehow never connected the two," she says. "All of a sudden there's
this whole other area that's very important."

She hopes to carry that message back with her to Canada. Each steward is
to do a project related to ecumenism when he or she returns home, and
Becky says she would like to implement a "Changemakers" programme she
learned about through the Church of Norway. That programme seeks to
address inequalities between the global North and South, issues she says
many Canadians don't fully understand.

She's glad to leave Geneva with new areas of curiosity.

"Overall, it's been fantastic," she says. "It's been a real learning
experience."

> Penias Mulauzi, Zambia

Life has not always been easy for Penias, but it's a journey he has
travelled with faith.

Both of his parents died while he was growing up, but in those times when
he felt alone, "I found God," he says. Through several years of struggles
and raising funds, Penias was able to complete school through grade 12 and
was head boy there his final year. Still, he is currently unemployed, like
many other youth in his nation.

He finds opportunities, though, to volunteer for the Council of Churches
in Zambia, helping however he can. It's part of a passion he has "for
working for the expansion of God's kingdom".

Through that work, he became aware of the WCC, and on the WCC website he
saw an ad seeking stewards. He applied for both the central committee
meeting and the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, and was
selected for the former.

"I know I have a lot of potential," he says, "but I need a bit of exposure
to get myself involved."

In Geneva, he found an abundance of opportunities. Penias, a Presbyterian,
was among those who shared during the stewards' presentation to central
committee, and he says he received much affirmation for his presentation.
He has learned more about the global context of some issues affecting his
country and continent, like HIV/AIDS - issues that the church often
struggles to know how to respond to.

He has made friends from all over the world, too. And he says it has been
valuable "to see all the churches working as one" in this setting.

Those experiences have inspired him to make a difference when he returns
to Zambia. He says he wants to help some of those unemployed young people
by organizing ecumenical training programmes to teach them skills in
project management and other areas. That, he hopes, would give them a
healthy alternative to some of the destructive activities, like alcohol
and drugs, to which they otherwise often turn.

"This whole experience has brought out in me a part I did not know I
possessed," he says of his time in Geneva. "My prayer is that one day God
will answer my call to involve me in more than the stewards' programme."

"It's been a life-changing experience," he adds. "It's just been good."
[1753 words]

(*) Walt Wiltschek is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren
(USA) and editor of the churches' monthly magazine "Messenger".

Additional information on the WCC youth programme at
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/youth-e.html

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.