wfn.org | United Methodists bring diversity to WCC Central Committee

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

Dec. 11, 1998  Contact: Tim Tanton*(615) 742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
(731)

By Tim Tanton*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - A diverse group of United Methodists will be
helping guide the World Council of Churches in the next seven years.

The WCC delegates approved four United Methodist nominees among a slate
of 150 people who will sit on the ecumenical organization's Central
Committee until the next assembly. The committee guides the work of the
WCC.

The United Methodists elected Dec. 10 are:

* Lois Dauway, assistant general secretary of the United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries and head of its Section of Christian Social
Responsibility in New York.
* Richard Grounds, professor at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and
a member of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious
Concerns.  
* Beate Kraus, a seminary student from Aue, Saxony, in Germany.
* The Rev. Bruce Robbins, general secretary of the United Methodist
Commissionon Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns in New York.
 
Going off the Central Committee are the Rev. Kathryn Bannister, of
Bison, Kan., the Rev. Jan Love, of Columbia, S.C., and Bishop Melvin G.
Talbert of the San Francisco Area. 

The WCC represents more than 330 churches and is involved in a wide
range of ecumenical ministries. More than 4,500 people - including
delegates, visitors and observers - are in Harare for the WCC's Eighth
Assembly, which ends Dec. 14. The gatherings are held every seven years.

As head of the Nominations Committee, Talbert presented the slate of
officers at the WCC's Dec. 10 business session. Some  nominations drew
criticism from delegates who wanted more youth and indigenous nominees,
but Talbert put the responsibility right back on the assembly.

"The reality is we can only put names (on the slate) that you give us,"
he said. "...You can't make us get blood out of a turnip. We can't do it
without you."

The slate of nominees was 39.4 percent women (the WCC goal had been 50
percent); 14.7 percent young people (the goal was 25 percent); 24.6
percent Orthodox; and 43.3 percent lay people.

The slate had originally been scheduled for presentation Dec. 8, but
Talbert said he had found the percentage of women, then 33.3 percent,
unacceptable. Though the final slate had a higher number of women, it
still fell short of the 50 percent goal.

"We cannot and will not meet those goals until all regions and all
member churches" make the commitment to do so, he told the delegates.
"Your Nominations Committee labored hard and long, and we have given it
our best."

Talbert said the Nominations Committee had approached the delegations in
good faith in search of female leaders who could go on the slate. Some
of the delegations accommodated the committee, while others said that
they would not remove their male nominees.

For the delegations that helped the committee, Talbert expressed thanks.
"You represent a model for what can be done when we commit ourselves to
doing what we say."

The United Methodist delegation played a key role in trying to help the
WCC meet its goals for diversity on the committee. The church's four new
members include two women, three lay people, two ethnic minorities
(Dauway, an African-American, and Grounds, a Native American), one
indigenous person (Grounds) and one youth (Kraus). Kraus further
diversifies the United Methodist representation by being from outside
North America.

"That's not bad with four people," said Bishop William Boyd Grove, chair
of the 33-member United Methodist delegation. The United Methodist
Church believes in diversity and inclusiveness, and the WCC's
Nominations Committee looks to the denomination for that, he said. "I'm
very proud of that." 

The United Methodist delegates spent hours discussing their nominees,
trying to get the right balance of candidates. 

"It was a very difficult task for a number of reasons," Grove said.
Those included the need for inclusiveness, pressure from other churches
to reduce the number of United Methodist seats on the committee, and the
fact that other delegations, such as the Orthodox, had less diversity in
their nominees.

"The pain of it comes from the fact that ... we have more than four
needs, more than four pressures," the bishop said. "That's what causes
us to have a real struggle."

Methodist churches hold 10 percent of the Central Committee seats. The
rest of the seats are held by the Anglicans (10 percent); Baptist (4.7);
Free, Pentecostal and African Instituted (6.7); Lutheran (8.6); Orthodox
(24.6); Reformed (22.0); United and Uniting (6.7); and others (6.7).

For Robbins, joining the Central Committee is in some ways the
culmination of a journey that began in 1975, when he was a youth steward
at the WCC's assembly in Nairobi, Kenya.

"It was that experience that really set my course in ministry," he said.
"The glimpse of the Body of Christ that came through to me in that
assembly thrilled me."

As a pastor in Vermont and later as an executive with the Commission on
Christian Unity, Robbins stayed active in the WCC, attending the
assemblies in Vancouver, Canada, and Canberra, Australia, in addition to
being an observer at Central Committee meetings.

"I'm pretty fascinated by the side of the World Council that tries to
figure out who we are as a church," he said. The evolution of the WCC
and the relationships with its members, such as the Orthodox, is an area
of interest for him. 

He also brings to the Central Committee an interest in ecclesiology and
ethics, or attempting to put together the social justice and theological
sides of the WCC. Those sides, though intertwined, tend to get
polarized, he said. "I don't think the World Council should ever put out
a statement that's not based on our faith commitments."

Dauway worked for the National Council of Churches for more than 11
years. Like Robbins, her first WCC assembly was in Nairobi, which she
attended as an accredited visitor. Though she's been involved in the
organization and ecumenical work for a long time, she noted that "I'm
going to be on a real learning curve."

She takes to the Central Committee a strong commitment for justice for
women and to the global mission. She also wants to be a voice for people
who aren't represented on the committee, such as people with
handicapping conditions, she said.

Kraus' interests include mission work and the cancellation of foreign
debts borne by poor countries. "Especially in mission and witness, I
will be active, because this is the place where my heart is," she said.
She plans on being the pastor of a church in east Germany after she
graduates from seminary in another year and a half.

The WCC must spread the word of Jesus Christ in a more effective way and
not fight within itself, Kraus said, "because people won't believe the
message."  

Love leaves the Central Committee after 23 years, having joined it as a
youth delegate at the age of 23. She has held a United Methodist seat
for four WCC assemblies and has served three Central Committee terms.
"It's somebody else's turn," she said.

"It's been a great privilege, a great honor, and an extraordinary church
to represent," she said.

#  #  #

*Tanton is news editor for United Methodist News Service.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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