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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 344 by UMNS on Sept. 23, 1997 at 16:23 Eastern (3926 characters).

CONTACT:	Linda Bloom					   532(10-71B){344}
		New York (212) 870-3803			     Sept. 23, 1997

Methodists are optimistic
about future of world council

				by United Methodist News Service

	United Methodists who attended the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Central
Committee meeting are optimistic about that organization's future.
	The committee, which met Sept. 11-19 in Geneva, adopted a final report
entitled "Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of
Churches," which is considered a blueprint for the WCC's structure and
ecumenical role in the next century.
	The report -- eight years in the making -- includes a new focus on the WCC as
a "fellowship of churches," with a greater emphasis on relationships and less
on programmatic activities.
	Jan Love of Columbia, S.C., a United Methodist and central committee member,
called the meeting the most important in the past five or six years. She said
she believes the WCC's financial problems and the restructuring were addressed
"with a lot of good creative energy" and added that the council now could cope
better "with what will be a smaller resource base into the foreseeable
future."
	The Rev. Kathy Bannister of Bison, Kan., also a committee member, reported
the committee had a "good spirit" about the new direction, which will be
submitted for consideration to delegates at the WCC's Eighth Assembly in
December 1998, in Harare, Zimbabwe.
	Committee member Ari de Carlvaho of Minneapolis, agreed "there is hope that
things will continue for the WCC," but noted that "uncertainty" exists over
which programs will survive the restructure.
	One underlying tension is the question over continuing participation of
Orthodox members, particularly after the Georgian Orthodox Church withdrew its
membership recently.
	De Carlvaho, Bannister and Love all lauded the report of central committee
moderator Aram I, Catholicos of Cilicia, in addressing that tension. Aram
acknowledged that Orthodox churches have become less enthusiastic because
their traditions have not been fully integrated into the WCC. But he called
for participation by all, urging members to have the "humility to recognize
our limitations and shortcomings."
	He also pointed out that the ecumenical movement has taught "how to tolerate
our divergences and even live with tensions."
	Love said that for Orthodox members, such as the Russian Orthodox, who are
"experiencing severe inner turmoil," there is no doubt that a long-term
relationship with the WCC "is in question."
	However, she added, other Orthodox -- including the Greeks, Coptics and
Rumanians -- give every indication of remaining within the council.
	De Carlvaho, a youth member for the United Methodist Church for the past six
years, also said he hopes to see more progress in youth representation,
particularly on council staff. As a whole, he noted, WCC members "still have a
tendency of not taking youth too seriously."	
	Other United Methodists attending the meeting were Bishop Melvin Talbert of
Sacramento, Calif., also a central committee member; the Rev. Bruce Robbins,
general secretary, United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and
Interreligious Concerns, and Bishop William Boyd Grove, ecumenical officer for
the United Methodist Council of Bishops.
	In other business, the central committee:
	* participated in a foot-washing ceremony that Bannister said impacted the
group "in a very profound way." It was led by Jean Vanier, founder of l'Arche,
a community of men and women with physical and mental disabilities.
	* issued statements on Nigeria, the Sudan, the Holy Land and Iraq.
	* heard a report from 75 teams sent by the WCC to most of its 330 member
churches under the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women,
which stressed that the overriding concerns are violence against women and
their vulnerability to poverty and racism.
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