Note #9133 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06085 Feb. 14, 2006
WCC Assembly opens in Brazil
by Stephen Brown Ecumenical News International
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Interfaith dialogue is high on the agenda for leaders of the world's major Christian traditions as they gather in this port city in southern Brazil for the once-every-seven-years Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The meeting opens today (Feb. 14) amid an upsurge in tension in faith communities caused by Muslim protests of the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper five months ago.
When he delivers his main address on Feb. 15, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, the WCC general secretary, is expected to emphasize that the council must make interfaith dialogue a key priority for its work.
"While the 20th century was dominated by confrontations between ideologies, 'identity' is emerging as one of the characteristic divisive features of the 21st century," Kobia said in a statement issued before the 10-day Assembly.
Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya who took office as general secretary in January 2004, has repeatedly emphasized the need for churches to respond to a global shift in the "center of gravity" of Christianity, from the northern to the southern hemisphere.
Some observers consider this shift responsible, to a degree, for strains within some church traditions, such as the Anglican Communion, between adherents in the northern and southern hemispheres over issues such as homosexuality.
"The WCC has successfully provided a platform for churches to discuss critical differences in a responsible way," Kobia has said. "It must continue to enable the churches to confront their differences in dialogue, and to rediscover a common voice wherever possible."
Kobia also has called attention to the rapid expansion throughout the world of Pentecostal and charismatic spirituality, a part of Christianity that by and large does not belong to the WCC.
The WCC's more than 340 member churches are drawn predominantly from Protestant, Anglican and Christian Orthodox traditions. The Roman Catholic Church does not belong, but cooperates with the council in many areas. It is sending a delegation of observers to the Assembly, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
In addition to multireligious pluralism, the 4,000 participants in the Porto Alegre meeting are expected to focus on themes including economic justice and globalization.
The gathering marks the midpoint of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence: 2001-2010, an initiative launched at the last Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe. Kobia says it has taken on added urgency because of continuing conflict in Iraq and the war on terror.
The Porto Alegre gathering is also the first Assembly since the council adopted a new "decision-by-consensus" method of decision-making to replace a system of majority votes. This procedure was one of a number of proposals made by a commission set up to look at the participation of Orthodox churches in the WCC.
Many Orthodox church leaders had complained that, because their churches are a minority among member churches, they were marginalized by parliamentary procedures.
Previous WCC assemblies have convened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (1948); Evanston, IL (1954); New Delhi, India (1961); Uppsala, Sweden (1968); Nairobi, Kenya (1975); Vancouver, BC (1983); Canberra, Australia (1991); and Harare (1998).
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