wfn.org | Churches Pledge to Make Gays an Issue at World Council Assembly

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12-November-1998 
98316 
 
    Churches Pledge to Make Gays an Issue 
    at World Council Assembly 
 
    by Douglas Todd 
    Religion News Service 
 
WASHINGTON--Two major North American Christian denominations - one from 
Canada and one from the U.S. - will be at the center of an expected typhoon 
of controversy over homosexuality at the upcoming World Council of Churches 
Assembly in Zimbabwe. 
 
    The United Church of Canada and United Church of Christ, which are 
among the few Christian denominations in the world that ordain sexually 
active gays and lesbians, will be raising the stormy topic of homosexuality 
in a country where President Robert Mugabe has criticized the WCC for 
allowing any sort of discussion of the issue. 
 
    Mugabe, a Christian, recently said homosexuals were lower than jungle 
animals.  "Will not God punish us for such practices?" he said.  Homosexual 
acts are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment in Zimbabwe. 
 
    Marion Best, a former moderator of the United Church of Canada and a 
current member of the World Council of Churches executive committee, said 
she worries homosexuality could create an even bigger explosion in Zimbabwe 
than it did at the recent once-a-decade Lambeth meeting in England of 800 
Anglican bishops. 
 
    The WCC, which meets every seven years, represents 400 million 
Christians from more than 300 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox 
denominations. 
 
    United Church of Canada staff member David Hallman admits he's anxious 
as he prepares to lead a contentious workshop on homosexuality when the WCC 
gathers in early December at the University of Harare. 
 
    The Ontario-based United Church of Canada staff member - who is openly 
gay - has had to worry about both his personal safety and his chances of 
entering the politically volatile, mostly-Christian African nation. 
 
    Mugabe, elected leader of Zimbabwe in 1980 after the once white-ruled 
country changed its name from the colonial Rhodesia, is under pressure from 
many Christians in his country to cancel the WCC meeting.  "Mugabe accuses 
the WCC of bringing Western decadent values to Africa," Hallman said. 
 
    So far the WCC has been able to sign what some consider a fragile 
memorandum of agreement with the Zimbabwe government.  It's meant to ensure 
that none of the WCC assembly's 4,000 participants, including hundreds from 
Canada and the U.S., will be detained or harassed in Zimbabwe for either 
being homosexual or speaking up about it. 
 
    Still, the subject of homosexuality is not being permitted on the 
official agenda of the WCC assembly - in part because of opposition by 
Mugabe, but also because, as Best said, most of the African and Asian 
church leaders as well as representatives from Orthodox denominations in 
the WCC are deeply opposed to homosexuality, saying it is condemned in the 
Bible. 
 
    Instead of being discussed at WCC plenary meetings, homosexuality will 
be the focus of workshops, called pedares.  Two years ago the United Church 
of Canada - the largest Protestant 
denomination in Canada, with 800,000 members - asked the United Church of 
Christ, one of the United States' most liberal mainline Protestant 
denominations, for help in running the two workshops.  One will be on human 
rights and homosexuals, the other on educating church members about 
homosexuals. 
 
    The North American denominations have also convinced the 
Congregationalist Church of South Africa and the United Congregational 
Church of Southern Africa to participate in the workshops. 
 
    The two African denominations are among the few on that continent to 
express tolerant attitudes to homosexuals. 
 
    As at Lambeth, Best expects there will be a showdown at the assembly 
between more liberal Western church leaders and more conservative 
Christians from Africa and Asia.  They will be joined in opposition to 
enhanced homosexual rights by Orthodox Christians from countries such as 
Russia and Greece. 
 
    Hallman, who works as an ecology specialist for both the United Church 
of Canada and the World Council of Churches, said the WCC has received 
warnings that the 4,000-person assembly will be disrupted by 
anti-homosexual militants, some of whom are Christians. 
 
    "I'm very nervous, and my partner, who isn't going, is even more 
nervous for me," said Hallman.  "But I feel it's an obligation for me as a 
United Church person to deal constructively and spiritually with this 
issue.  It's important for people to see we are real human beings." 
 
    The WCC's general secretary, the Rev. Konrad Raiser, said Sept. 19 the 
organization cannot "close its eyes" to the issue of homosexuality. 
 
    In answer to questions at a symposium - "Faith in the City: Fifty Years 
of the World Council of Churches in a Secularized Western Context" - held 
in Amsterdam to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the WCC 
in the Dutch city, Raiser described the issue as a challenge to the 
ecumenical movement. 
 
    His remarks were seen as indicating a growing willingness by the WCC's 
leadership to face up to an issue which the organization has generally 
regarded as too divisive for its member churches to tackle in open debate. 
 
    Hallman said Mugabe shut down an earlier conference in Harare that 
included participation by the banned gay-rights group, Gays and Lesbians of 
Zimbabwe.  The group has expressed interest in taking part in the WCC 
event. 
 
    Canadian Senator Lois Wilson, a former moderator of the United Church 
of Canada and former president of the WCC, will chair one of the workshops 
on homosexual rights. 
 
    Outspoken United Church Moderator Bill Phipps and Canadian Anglican 
Primate Michael Peers, both of whom have said they favor homosexuals taking 
a greater role in church life, will also attend the assembly and monitor 
the workshops on homosexuality. 
 
    But both Best and Hallman said they worry the homosexuality controversy 
will overshadow equally important issues at the WCC assembly. 
 
    These include how to respond to Third World debt, persecution of 
Christians in Muslim-led and Asian countries, global warming, dialogue over 
the relationship between science and religion, the churches' response to 
the AIDS crisis and a host of theological concerns over what it means to be 
a Christian in a pluralistic world. 
 
    With the strain growing with the WCC between Western Protestants and 
the Orthodox churches, as well as between Western church leaders and 
African and Asian denominations, Best believes the future of the WCC will 
be determined in Zimbabwe. 
 
    As for the homosexuality debate, Hallman insists he is not trying to 
cause controversy by leading a workshop on the subject.  "If homosexuality 
becomes a huge issue at the assembly," he said, "it will not be because we 
made it one, but because the opposition did." 

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