wfn.org | At 50-year milestone, WCC has cause to celebrate

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Nov. 2, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York    {638}

NOTE: This is a sidebar to UMNS #637.				  

By United Methodist News Service

The budding ecumenical movement of the early 20th century culminated in
a unified response to the spiritual, social and political turmoil of the
post-World War II period.

After the World Council of Churches was inaugurated in 1948, its focus
continued on such programs as services to prisoners of war and refugees,
church reconstruction and the restoration of relationships between
churches estranged by war.

But post-war recovery was not the primary motivating factor for the new
organization. 

"The founders of the World Council of Churches felt the disunity of the
church was a scandal if not a sin," explained Betty Thompson, a United
Methodist and former WCC communications officer.

In fact, the official founding on Aug. 23, 1948, in Amsterdam was meant
as a call for the churches to make visible the unity that Jesus Christ
had prayed for.

But, Thompson pointed out, the call is no longer universally heard. 

"As the 20th century comes to an end, Christian unity is no longer a
priority for many churches," she explained. "The very success of the
world council and other ecumenical bodies is partly responsible for this
indifference. What was meant to be a way station on the road to unity
has become the destination." 

However, there remains much cause for celebration. The past 50 years,
for example, have brought hundreds of church unions, the independence of
former "mission churches" and an end to hostilities between Roman
Catholics and other Christians.

"Today, the World Council of Churches is much more diverse and complex
than it was in 1948," Thompson said. "There were no women leaders and
few women participants then. There were few from Asia, Africa and Latin
America. It was largely male, white, western." 

Jan Love, a United Methodist and WCC Central Committee member, saw that
diversity celebrated when she attended a special anniversary service
Sept. 20 at the Protestant Cathedral of St. Pierre in Geneva, where the
council's offices are based. She found the service, planned by local
Swiss churches, and the accompanying forum on human rights "a
wonderfully meaningful celebration" of the council's work.

That work, according to Thompson, continued despite outside criticism. 

"From the beginning, it (WCC) opposed racism in all its forms. It took
much abuse for its Programme to Combat Racism," she said. "It was called
communist for its identification with liberation movements. But
apartheid has ended. And the council remained in touch with churches
under communist rule."

Taking stock of the WCC's accomplishments and its goals for the next
century will be more meaningful in an African setting such as Zimbabwe
than by taking a nostalgic trip back to Amsterdam, according to Love. 

"The world is so importantly different in so many ways 50 years later,"
she said, " a lot of us wanted not only to see where we've been, but
also where we'll go."

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/