wfn.org | WCC Central Committee - Raiser, p.2

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Finance

Turning to finance, Raiser said bluntly that with a decline of
nearly 50% between 1991 and 1997 (CHF 117m to a projected CHF
60m), "income is no longer sufficient to maintain the present
level of activities of the WCC". 

In the last two years the WCC has suffered from unfavourable
exchange rates and losses on investments and forward currency
contracts.  Member church contributions remained relatively
stable, though only 60% of member churches contributed in 1995. 
Traditional income from churches or church agencies will decline
further and no substantial increases are foreseen, Raiser said.

For him the lesson is clear: "WCC budgets must be reduced to the
level of realistically anticipated income." The 1998 Assembly
will then have to decide on future directions.

Referring to recent job losses of almost 20%, Raiser said the
projected budget deficit for 1997 is just below CHF 1m, "and the
possibilities for staff reductions... have been virtually
exhausted", while reserves for meeting shortfalls no longer
exist.

Warning that "the infrastructure of the WCC will have to be
flexible enough to be adjusted to the level of internal income,"
Raiser added that effective management and cost control will
become "a higher priority".

With 237 full-time equivalents currently on the payroll (down
from 270 in 1992 and 250 in 1995) further cuts are planned,
Raiser said.  There will be 190 full-time equivalents next year,
"but even this number may have to be further adjusted depending
on income available".

Future

Raiser believes the WCC has an important role to play in the
future, but it will be different from the past. Indicating that
he will stand for re-election as general secretary by this
meeting of the Central Committee (his first term ends 31 December
1997), Raiser said building a new shape for the WCC will require
a "shared conviction among the member churches about the future
role of the Council," hence the importance of the current Common
Understanding and Vision process.

Referring to the Eighth Assembly theme - "Turn to God - Rejoice
in Hope" -Raiser said "few could anticipate that the invitation
to 'conversion' might so soon be addressed to the WCC itself".

"We have probably reached the end of a road that began some
thirty years ago....  But the expectations, habits and
institutional arrangements into which we have comfortably settled
during this period are rapidly becoming barriers to the way
forward....  The Harare Assembly must, therefore, be an occasion
not only for reassessment and recommitment, but also for lifting
the ecumenical movement to a qualitatively new level, looking
forward to the 21st century."

"The essence of the Council is not the relationship of the
churches to the WCC as an organised institution, but their
relationship to one another," Raiser emphasised. "It is the
churches that are working towards koinonia in faith, life and
witness, using the WCC as an instrument for this purpose."

Yet most member churches see the WCC as a "service organisation". 
That only just over half the member churches pay anything to the
WCC is one indication of the level of commitment, Raiser said.

Whilst no longer the centre of the ecumenical movement, the WCC
"is the only existing organization which can safeguard the
coherence of ecumenical efforts on all levels" and acts as a
catalyst for relationships between churches, he suggested.

The future WCC should be an "enabler, coordinator, communicator,
convener and sometimes mediator" and, in view of its widely
representative nature, the voice of the churches on the
international scene.

"The WCC stands at a crossroads," Raiser concluded.  "Painful as
it is, the financial crisis has perhaps come at the right moment. 
Crisis, we are told, means both danger and opportunity.  Let us
then seize the opportunities offered to us and shape them
constructively."

                                                                      

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now
330, in more than 100 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
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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