wfn.org | Worship and Spirituality

[Sheila MESA <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
17 September 1997

CENTRAL COMMITTEE     No.   8

CHURCH LEADERS WASH ONE ANOTHER S FEET:
"THROUGH TOUCH WE ARE CALLED TO SAY,  WE LOVE YOU "

Some had tears in their eyes while others smiled shyly and exchanged
self-conscious glances.

Members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee,
advisers and staff were a study in contrast as they filed out of the
meeting hall chanting the ancient confession of faith, "Ubi caritas et amor,
Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est" ("Where there is charity and love, God is surely
there").

They were young and old, men and women, metropolitans and general
secretaries, clergy and laity.  Some wore western business suits, others
clerical garb, still others the traditional garments of myriad cultures from
around the world.  Together they walked in procession to wash-basins
on the floor of the Ecumenical Centre reception hall to engage in one of
the church s most ancient and most uncommon ceremonies: the washing
of feet.

They sat in chairs around small circles and removed socks and shoes. 
They dipped their feet into the basins as others washed and dried them
with small towels.

"We do it, simply, because Jesus told us to," said Jean Vanier, founder
of l Arche, a community of men and women with physical and mental
disabilities, who was invited to address the Central Committee s session
on Worship and Spirituality, Wednesday (September 17). 

Although foot-washing is no longer widely practised in the modern
church, Vanier suggested that Jesus assigned as much importance to
the ceremony described in John 13:1-7 as to the Lord s Supper (or
Eucharist).  If many modern Christians are embarrassed by the rite, he
pointed out, so were Jesus  disciples when he insisted on washing their
feet.

"I wonder how we in the modern church would react if Jesus came to
us and offered to . . . wash the toilets," Vanier said, alluding to the task
Mahatma Gandhi assigned to himself in his ashram.

Vanier said he had spent the last 33 years among disabled persons who
are unable to communicate verbally.  Touch, he said, is their main avenue
of communication -- and a ceremony involving touch has great power. 
"Through touch we are called to say,  We love you, we appreciate you . .
. you are beautiful and precious to God'."

Earlier, Vanier told the Committee how the brokenness of the disabled
persons with whom he lives has enabled him to discover -- and heal --
his own brokenness.  "I must discover how to own my inner pain, my
anguish and my violence (so I can) move from a destructive energy to a
constructive energy," he said.  To accomplish that, "I need Jesus."

"At the heart of the church," he declared, "people who are disabled are
indispensable . . . and should be honoured."  Vanier said he experienced
his calling to work among persons with learning disabilities when he
realised that the mandate of the gospel " was not a question of giving
food to the poor but of eating with them."

In a panel discussion following Vanier s comments, Rev. Wesley
Granberg-Michaelson, (Reformed Church in America), compared the
brokenness of individuals with the brokenness of the church.  "Can we
share our brokenness with one another?" he asked.  "Can we share the
pains of our divisions openly with one another?"

Bishop Zacharias Mar Theophilus (Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar,
India) thanked Vanier for stressing the call of the church to express
God s love and to be of service to others.  "People s reactions to the
deaths of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana," he said, "points out how
much the world thirsts for love, for a spirit of diakonia."

Following a period of discussion, the Central Committee members and
others attending the meeting prayerfully made their way together to
participate in the foot-washing ceremony.  "It is true that today we
cannot all eat around the same table of the broken bread, transformed
into the body of Christ," said the litany prepared for the service. 
(Differences in the traditions of Protestant and Orthodox members of the
WCC have precluded common eucharistic services at World Council
gatherings.) The litany continued: "but we can come together around the
same table with the poor and the weak."

The litany concluded: "We know that the Eucharist, the washing of the
feet of wounded people, the broken body of Christ, bring unity in love
and welcome your presence in our brokenness."

**********
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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