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World Council of Churches - Feature
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For immediate release - 14/05/2005

PENTECOSTALS PARTICIPATE IN EXPANDED WORLD MISSION CONFERENCE

By Theodore Gill (*)

Free photos available at
www.mission2005.org

Dialogue between Pentecostals and others active in the ecumenical movement
is still in an early stage of development as the constellation of
participants expands.

"I think there will be a time when my church may join the World Council of
Churches," says Dr Yong-Gi Hong, a Pentecostal scholar and senior mission
executive of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in the Republic of Korea. "There
are already Pentecostal member churches, and my church is a full member of
the national council in Korea."

Degrees of participation in the ecumenical movement surfaced as topics in
group discussions and press briefings at the 13th Conference on World
Mission and Evangelism. Of the approximately 650 conference delegates
appointed by their churches and mission agencies, 40 are Roman Catholic
and 15 Pentecostal. Additional advisors and observers have come from these
bodies and from evangelical communions and mission alliances that are not
formal members of the World Council of Churches.

The Catholic Church and several Pentecostal and evangelical bodies
participate in the international Faith and Order Commission that is
coordinated through the WCC, and cooperate in a number of particular
projects and ecumenical committees. However, the prospect of full
membership in the Council raises questions that have not yet been settled
by all parties.

"The Catholic understanding of the doctrine of the church, of ecclesiology, makes complete mutual accountability complicated," comments Bishop Brian
Farrell of the Vatican's council on Christian unity, leader of the
Catholic delegation to the Athens mission conference.

The Rev. Dr Opoku Odinyah, rector of the Pentecostal University College in
Ghana and an advisor to the conference, adds that "there would have to be
change" before his Church of Pentecost could seriously consider full WCC
membership. Even Orthodox churches that have been Council members for
decades have posed fundamental questions of ecclesiology in the recent
work of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the WCC.

Hong describes the main source of reluctance on the part of Pentecostals
as an aversion to "hyper-institutionalism". "In our tradition, charisms -
the gifts of the Holy Spirit - are to be found at the local level," he
continues. "If we are to work in ecumenical organizations beyond the local
community, we must find the proper way to balance the Spirit and the
system."

Professor Michael Kinnamon, a Protestant theologian at Eden Theological
Seminary in the USA, observes that this conference has been characterized
primarily by "expanding participation" in comparison to preceding
conferences. As a result, the findings of previous gatherings are being
reviewed and challenged. "I think we should embrace expansion as a
positive phenomenon," says Kinnamon. "At the same time, we have to
recognize that it complicates things. We are revisiting some subjects.
Other important matters, most notably interfaith dialogue, are noticeable
by their absence from the agenda. This conference has not reached the
place where it can deal with them. It will take time for our new relationships to mature."

Letting go of prejudice

Conference discussions and press briefings dealing with Pentecostalism
have demonstrated the clash of worldviews in dialogues between Pentecostals and other churches. Suspicions linger. Speakers have had to defend
Pentecostal churches and missionaries against charges of aggression,
proselytism, irrationalism, charlatanism and posing "a threat to a
reconciled world".

Mission theologian Dr Kirsteen Kim, who lectures at the University of
Birmingham in the UK and who describes herself as "an evangelical who has
been touched by the charismatic movement", responds, "Most churches that
have grown have been accused of aggression at one point or another. But
Pentecostalism has one great strength that helps it to avoid posing a
threat to others. Most of the evangelism is spontaneous, it is not part of
a plan, it is not achieved through a human strategy. It is the fruit of
the Holy Spirit."

Odinyah says, "There are charlatans in any group. But in fact, Pentecostals encourage people to be very practical and real. Unfortunately, some do go
to the extreme side." Conversations at the conference have begun to
explore commonalities among varying traditions of Christianity, old and
new, for better and worse. Odinyah speaks of conference participants
letting go of prejudices and "learning to have respect for one another".

What do Pentecostal communities have to offer the 21st-century ecumenical
movement? For Kim, it is a renewed and profound sense of "a power beyond
ourselves". Hong supports her response, "Christians need to learn to rely
more deeply on the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit." Odinyah argues,
"Pentecostalism brings back spirit to Christianity. You find this in the
way we worship, in our music, in our prayers. Emotion is very important
for human beings, but it has been separated by many people from their
Christianity."

The Athens world mission conference has been an early chapter in this
story of expanding participation in the ecumenical movement. The next
chapter will be written as the WCC convenes its 9th Assembly at Porto
Alegre, Brazil in February 2006. The history of Christian mission is a
work in progress. [864 words]

(*) Theodore Gill is senior editor of WCC Publications in Geneva and a
minister ordained by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Free high resolution photos to accompany this story are available at:
http://cwme.wcc-coe.org/High_resolution.884.0.html

Conference website: www.mission2005.org

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