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Date
04 Dec 1998 20:09:02
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Ecumenical News International
ENI News Service
3 December 1998
Eighth assembly signals 'turning point' in life of World Council of
Churches
ENI-98-0548
By Stephen Brown
Harare, 3 December (ENI)--Opening the plenary session of the most important
ecumenical gathering of the last years of the century - the World Council
of Churches'
assembly - Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the
moderator of the WCC's central committee, described the event as "an
important signpost for our common ecumenical
journey and a turning point in the life of the WCC".
The assembly was an opportunity, he said, "to reaffirm and rearticulate our
common vision as we move towards the next millennium".
More than 900 delegates representing the 332 Protestant, Anglican and
Orthodox member churches of the WCC, along with more than 3 000 other
participants and
observers, are in the Zimbabwean capital Harare for the assembly, the
eighth since the
organisation was founded in Amsterdam 50 years ago. The assembly ends on 14
December.
The choice of Zimbabwe for the WCC's eighth assembly is particularly
significant because the WCC gave humanitarian aid in the 1970s to
Zimbabwean liberation movements then engaged in armed struggle against
white rule in what was then known as Rhodesia.
Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, was a key figure in the campaign to
end white minority rule.
Addressing the assembly, Zimbabwe's acting president, Simon Muzenda,
speaking on behalf of President Mugabe who is in Europe, paid tribute to
the aid given by the WCC.
He also thanked the WCC for its support for the campaign for the
cancellation of external
debt owed by the poorest African countries.
The assembly also comes at a particularly sensitive time in the life of the
WCC. Since the last WCC assembly, in 1991 in the Australian capital
Canberra, there has been
increasing tension between Orthodox and other member churches about the
role and activities of
the WCC.
A meeting of high-level representatives of the 15 Eastern Orthodox
self-governing churches, held in Thessaloniki in Greece from 29 April to 2
May, recommended that the Orthodox churches take part in the assembly but
"express their concerns" about the
WCC by not joining in various aspects of the assembly, including worship
services and common
prayers.
Asked at a press conference today about relations with Orthodox member
churches, the WCC's general secretary, Dr Konrad Raiser, said that he
regretted the
recommendations of the Thessaloniki meeting, but pointed out that "the
response of Orthodox
churches to the recommendations has been very different" and that the
recommendations had
"not been unanimously affirmed".
"We will see how Orthodox delegates participate in this assembly and I
think
we will be surprised," Dr Raiser said.
He said that the Orthodox churches "constitute a structural minority" in
the
WCC "over against the overwhelming majority of Protestant churches".
"They are not asking for an increased quota but to be recognised as one of
the two major Christian traditions represented in the WCC - Orthodox and
Protestant.
"They are asking to be heard and to have a possibility of truly influencing
the agenda of the WCC," Dr Raiser said.
"The Orthodox churches feel that the procedures by which the WCC organises
itself are shapedby an ethos and tradition of decision-making and
governance which are
foreign to their tradition." He said many other member churches shared
their feelings.
Dr Raiser was also questioned at the press conference about the issue of
human sexuality. Although the subject is not officially scheduled for
debate at the assembly,
the repeated denunciation of homosexuality by President Mugabe, and the
fact that
homosexual acts are illegal in Zimbabwe, has caused concern among some of
the WCC's member
churches, mostly in Europe and North America. There has also been
controversy over the fact that
a local homosexual organisation, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, is not able
to
participate in a special section of the assembly called the Padare (meeting
place).
Dr Raiser told the press conference that there would be 12 events organised
in the Padare relating to homosexuality but that GALZ had failed to secure
the necessary
endorsement of a member church to participate in the Padare.
However, members of GALZ would be present at the assembly as visitors, Dr
Raiser said. [693
words]
All articles (c) Ecumenical News International
Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and
provided ENI is acknowledged as the source.
Ecumenical News International
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E-Mail: eni@eni.ch
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