wfn.org | WCC Assembly Update

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

Please note that the first version contained an error.  This is the final
version of the Press Briefing.

World Council of Churches
Press Briefing
For Immediate Use
28 September 1998

Press Briefing - October 1998

WCC EIGHTH ASSEMBLY UPDATE

There are two months to go until the World Council of Churches (WCC)
Eighth Assembly, scheduled for 3-14 December at the University of
Zimbabwe, Harare. The theme of the Assembly is "Turn to God - Rejoice
in Hope".  In this, the 50th anniversary year of the WCC, an underlying
motif of the Assembly will be jubilee.

President Robert Mugabe is expected to attend the Opening Plenary
session of the Assembly on the afternoon of Thursday 3 December
following the opening worship service.

The preacher at the opening service will be Rev. Eunice Santana from
Puerto Rico.  Ms Santana is one of the eight Presidents of the WCC
elected at the last Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991.  She is a
member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and works for the
Puerto Rican National Ecumenical Movement.

The jubilee of the WCC will be celebrated in a multi-media event on the
afternoon of Sunday 13 December when one of the main speakers will
be Rev. Dr Philip Potter, third general secretary of the WCC (1972-84). 
Dr Potter is from Dominica in the West Indies and a member of the
Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.  He will speak
about the contribution of the WCC to the world community over the past
fifty years of its existence.

Presenter of the event will be Dr Pauline Webb, a prominent ecumenist
and broadcaster who was the first woman officer of the WCC.  Dr
Webb, a Methodist from the United Kingdom, was elected vice-moderator
of the WCC central committee in 1968.  In the celebration in Harare, she
will take Assembly participants on a journey through the WCC's history
with particular emphasis on the world and church context in which
previous assemblies took place.

The former president of Tanzania, His Excellency Mwalimu Dr Julius K.
Nyerere, previously announced as a speaker at the event is now unable
to attend due to the arrangement of the Burundi peace initiative
consultations in which he is involved.  Explorations are underway to
bring another leader from the region for this occasion to convey to the
Assembly a vision for Africa in the coming years and reflect on how the
churches might best express their solidarity with the peoples of Africa in
the Third Millennium. 

The Eighth Assembly will address a number of burning contemporary
issues including:

- The present situation of Africa and the role of common Christian
witness in this context.  An Africa plenary on Tuesday 8 December will
present a realistic image of Africa, both positive and negative.  It will
challenge the ecumenical movement to affirm Africa in this era of
globalisation which tends to exclude the continent.  The plenary is likely
to end with a dramatic act of commitment by all Africans present to work
for a better Africa and to say never again will Africa suffer humiliation. 
The Assembly is expected to make its own formal response to this act of
commitment. 

- An appeal in the spirit of the biblical jubilee to end the stranglehold of
international debt on impoverished people, especially in Africa.  This
appeal will take the form of an Assembly Statement which delegates will
be asked to consider and confirm.  The statement is likely to have as its
title "Let the Trumpet Sound".

- An ecumenical response to the challenges of globalisation.  A special
hearing on globalisation will take place on Wednesday 9 December and
there will be three seminars addressing critical issues of globalisation
within the context of the Padare (a Shona word meaning meeting place).
 One of these on Wednesday 9 December will be on the power of global
communication today.  It will be chaired by Mike Wooldridge, BBC South
Asia Correspondent and former BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent. 
The President of CNN International, Mr Chris Cramer, will be one of the
panellists.

- The ecumenical responsibility of churches with regard to human rights,
especially in this 50th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.  To mark this occasion, a special event is planned for
Human Rights Day (10 December) in the context of the Padare at which
the main speaker will be Mr. Thomas Hammarberg the former
Secretary-General of Amnesty International.  He is currently working in
the Swedish Foreign Ministry and has carried out missions on human
rights on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, who will
himself send a video message to the meeting.  A formal declaration of the
Assembly (to be agreed on at an earlier business session) will be issued
on Human Rights Day to mark the anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.  Later in the Assembly programme,
delegates will consider a Memorandum and Recommendations on
Ecumenical Policy on Human Rights.

- A women's festival just prior to the Assembly will present a declaration
of the ecumenical vision of women to the Assembly, building on the
Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, which ends
this year.  A Decade plenary session at the Assembly will assess the
impact of the Decade, affirm the positive changes that have taken place
in the life of the churches and challenge the churches to recognise
issues that need continued attention in the future.

- The status of Jerusalem.  The Assembly will be asked to consider a
Statement on the Status of Jerusalem in the light of the WCC's long
concern for this city and its inhabitants, as well as peace in the Middle
East.

- The formation of a forum of Christian churches and ecumenical
organisations.  The Assembly will be asked to react to a proposal
formulated by representatives from different groups of ecumenical
partners which will be presented to their various governing bodies. 
Although the WCC is the most comprehensive grouping of the world's
churches, a number of confessional and ecumenical bodies are not
members; among these is the Roman Catholic Church.  The proposed
forum is seen as a place for building significant, more inclusive
relationships.  Participation, not membership, is foreseen and the forum, if
eventually created, would provide opportunities for worship, exploration
of matters of common Christian concern and development of enhanced
mutual understanding.  The occasional gatherings of the forum are not
conceived of as decision-making, programme-initiating or
document-producing events.  However, they might lead to new forms of
cooperation.

Plenaries

THEME PLENARY

The first deliberative plenary session of the Assembly, on Friday 4
December, will concentrate on the Assembly theme, "Turn to God -
Rejoice in Hope".  Main speakers will be Rev. Prof. Wanda Deifelt, Prof.
Kosuke Koyama and Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos.

Prof. Wanda Deifelt is a Lutheran from Brazil and professor of
systematic theology at the seminary of the Evangelical Church of the
Lutheran Confession, Sao Leopoldo, Brazil.  She is a member of the
board of the WCC's Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland, and
attended the WCC's Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, in
Salvador, Bahia, in 1996.

Prof. Kosuke Koyama is from Japan and a member of the United Church
of Christ in Japan. He first came to public prominence with his 1974 book,
"Waterbuffalo Theology".  Prof. Koyama is a former dean of the South
East Asia Graduate School of Theology and editor of the South East Asia
Journal of Theology.  Until his retirement in 1996, he was professor of
Ecumenics and World Christianity at Union Theological Seminary in New
York City.

Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos is a member of the Greek Orthodox
Church.  He went to Albania in 1991 to contribute to the reconstruction
and reorganisation of the Albanian Orthodox Church.  In 1992 he became
Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania.  He was formerly acting
archbishop for the East African Diocese of the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Alexandria, and moderator of the WCC's Commission on
World Mission and Evangelism from 1983-1991.

DECADE PLENARY

On Monday 7 December, a plenary session will review the Ecumenical
Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women and consider challenges
arising from it.  Speakers for the plenary will be Metropolitan Ambrosius,
Rev. Lala Biasima, Rev. M. Deenabandhu, Ms Mukami McCrum, Ms
Despina Prassas and Rev. Bertrice Wood.

Metropolitan Ambrosius is a member of the Orthodox Church of Finland
and Metropolitan of the Diocese of Oulu.  He is a member of the WCC
central committee, and a former member of the Faith and Order
Commission (1983-91).

Rev. Lala Biasima is a member of the Eglise du Christ au Congo (Church
of Christ in Congo).  She is a theologian who has worked actively on
justice concerns including the issue of economic justice for women.

Rev. M. Deenabandhu, from India, is a Lutheran pastor and Dalit
theologian.  He is currently a doctoral student in Sathri, India.

Ms Mukami McCrum is Kenyan and now lives in Scotland where she is a
member of the Church of Scotland.

Ms Despina Prassas is a member of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, US
Diocese, and a student of theology.

Rev. Bertrice Wood, of the United Church of Christ, USA, was the
moderator of the Working Group on Women which planned and proposed
the Decade.

AFRICA PLENARY

On Tuesday 8 December there will be a plenary on Africa which will
present an overview of the current state of Africa and consider the
responsibility of the international community and world churches for the
future of the continent.  Speakers will be Dr Mercy Amba Oduyoye and
Rev. Barney Pityana.

Dr Mercy Amba Oduyoye is a Methodist from Ghana, a former WCC
deputy general secretary (1987-1994) and now a professor at the
University of Ghana. 

Rev. Barney Pityana, from South Africa, is an Anglican priest and
currently Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of South Africa. 
He is a former director of the WCC's Programme to Combat Racism
(1988-1992), and has also taught at the University of Cape Town.

COMMON UNDERSTANDING AND VISION PLENARY

"Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of
Churches
 (CUV)" is the title of a statement adopted by the Central Committee of the
WCC in September 1977.  It grew out of a study begun in 1989, and
draws on insights from many churches, organisations, groups and
individuals.  The full text of this statement weaves together
understandings that have emerged from fifty years of discussions within
the WCC of the unity of the church with an overview and analysis of the
contemporary challenges facing churches around the world in their life
and witness and in their relations with one another.  The CUV plenary
will enable delegates to discuss the future raison d'etre and work of the
WCC in the light of the CUV statement.  The Assembly is expected to
formulate a response to the statement and to reflect its own ecumenical
vision for the future in the final Assembly Message.

Orthodox

It is widely known that Orthodox member churches of the WCC have
raised a number of important concerns about their participation in the
WCC.  Earlier this year, a gathering of Orthodox churches recommended
limited participation in the Assembly.  It is understood that these
recommendations are being seen as recommendations to local churches
who are now considering their response.  Serious and intense work has
been done by the WCC general secretary and the moderator of the
central committee in the area of Orthodox concerns.  Ample space within
the context of the plenary discussions on Common Understanding and
Vision will be provided in the Assembly programme for the articulation of
Orthodox concerns.  It is expected that Orthodox participants'
involvement in the Assembly will vary from delegation to delegation.  It is
likely that a few Orthodox churches may reduce the number and
seniority of their delegates.  The Assembly is expected to affirm the
decisive importance of Orthodox participation in all aspects of the WCC's
life and witness and to recommend the setting up of a Mixed Theological
Commission after the Assembly to address all issues related to Orthodox
participation in the life of the WCC.

Hearings and Padare

In the first of two phases of Hearings, the Assembly will evaluate the
programmes and other activities the WCC has undertaken since the
previous assembly in 1991.  Then, in a second phase, six hearings
organised around broad areas of concern (Unity, Justice and Peace,
Moving Together, Learning, Witness, and Solidarity) will develop
mandates for the work of the WCC in the years to come.  The Assembly
will then consider what emerges from the hearings, as well as concerns
expressed within the Padare, and make its own decisions about future
policy and priorities.

The Padare is an integral part of the Assembly but does not form part of
the business agenda.  It is an opportunity for churches, ecumenical
organisations and others whose work impacts on and reflects WCC
concerns, to take part in a time of mutual exploration, learning and
discussion.  It will be a time for sharing experience, concerns and
wisdom with Assembly participants.  Over 250 offerings are scheduled
for the five days of the Padare (7-11 December).

**********
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 332, 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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