wfn.org | WCC Assembly Wrap-Up, Part One

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Contact: Carol Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2227

132NCC12/18/98   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Part One of Two: Being Transmitted in Two Files)

"TOGETHER, UNDER THE CROSS IN AFRICA,"
WCC'S EIGHTH ASSEMBLY COMES TO A CLOSE

*******************************************************
Editor's Note: This news release represents a modest 
edit of the wrap-up prepared by the World Council of 
Churches.  The WCC's daily stories and photos from the 
Assembly are available on the Web at http://www.wcc-
coe.org.  Accompanying stories by the National Council 
of Churches News Service seek to augment - not 
duplicate - the WCC's dispatches.  For more 
information, contact NCC News: 212-870-2227.
*******************************************************

HARARE, Zimbabwe ---- The Eighth Assembly of the 
World Council of Churches adjourned on Monday (December 
14) after member churches renewed their half-century 
commitment "to stay together" and delegates promised to 
remain in solidarity with their African hosts.

More than 5,000 delegates, observers, advisers, 
stewards, visitors and journalists descended on the 
campus of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare December 
3-14 to compose what one local newspaper described as 
"a mini-world."

As expected, tensions between Orthodox and other 
delegations were evident during pointed and 
occasionally angry debates, but Orthodox delegations 
participated Sunday night (December 13) in a service of 
recommitment to the WCC.

In many respects, said WCC General Secretary 
Konrad Raiser, the Assembly confounded both friends and 
critics of the Council.  "Despite earlier indications 
that the Assembly might expose weaknesses of the WCC 
and fears that the Council might break up," Raiser 
said, "delegates showed maturity during discussions, 
even in areas of conflict."

The delegates heard from three legendary African 
leaders.  President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and 
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe credited the World 
Council of Churches for helping them to cast off 
oppressive apartheid regimes. The Right Rev. Paride 
Taban, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Torit, Sudan, urged 
the Assembly on December 5 to help stop the slaughter 
in Southern Sudan and was apparently the target of a 
retaliatory bombing in the town of Narus, South Sudan, 
several days later.

The delegates elected a 150-person Central 
Committee to preside over the Council until the next 
Assembly in 2005, participated in hearings to set 
directions for the Council in the next seven years, and 
issued statements on a variety of public issues, 
including the global debt crisis and human rights. They 
also turned down a proposed amendment to the WCC 
Constitution that would have given the power to elect 
WCC presidents to the Central Committee, retaining it 
for themselves.

The Assembly gave its backing to the creation of a 
"Forum of Christian Churches and Ecumenical 
Organizations" which could extend the WCC's ecumenical 
outreach far beyond its 339 member churches.

The proposed forum could bring to the ecumenical 
table nearly all of the mainline Christian churches, 
including many that are not WCC members, such as the 
Roman Catholic Church and major Pentecostal and 
Evangelical churches. The forum could also include 
regional ecumenical organizations, Christian world 
communions and international ecumenical organizations.

Delegates and visitors participated in more than 
600 contributions to a five-day "Padare" ("Meeting 
Place" in the Shona language) in which subjects ranged 
from Evangelical-Orthodox dialogue to ministry among 
the world's uprooted people to human sexuality.  
Delegates attended two days of hearings to evaluate the 
past seven years of WCC work and to make suggestions 
for future emphases.

SOLIDARITY WITH AFRICA

The Assembly rededicated the Council to "the 
African dream and agenda for the 21st century."  A 
statement adopted on Saturday (December 12) said that 
the WCC had already "sought to engage creatively and in 
solidarity with Africa and to stimulate a new way of 
looking at Africa."

"We are proud in seeing a vision of the journey of 
hope of African churches for the development of the 
continent for the 21st century," the WCC said.  "We are 
determined to work out this vision that promises life 
with dignity for the African people."

This vision, it said:

  Called the churches and Africa to work together and 
creatively "to be in solidarity with one another, to 
accompany those among us with burdens too heavy to 
carry alone."
  Compelled the churches and Africa to work to 
eliminate "the barriers and walls that divide and 
enslave us."
  Provided ways "to reconcile broken relationships and 
heal wounds inflicted by violent ways of resolving 
misunderstandings and conflict."

Such a vision could be realized "if Africans agree 
to work together in the spirit of pan-Africanism, and 
manage their human and natural resources responsibly 
and ethically, together and in partnership with one 
another and with Nature."

ORTHODOX AND THE WCC

The World Council of Churches will set up a 
commission on the participation of the Orthodox 
churches, whose membership has recently been troubled 
by dissatisfaction among some Orthodox over what they 
regard as difficulties in making their tradition's 
voice heard within the otherwise Protestant body.

The Assembly decided on Saturday (December 12) to 
set up the commission, which will take at least three 
years on its task. Half the members will be determined 
by the Orthodox churches and half by the executive 
committee of the WCC, after consultations with other 
member churches.

The Rev. Paul Oestreicher (Church of England) told 
his fellow delegates that the Russian Orthodox Church 
was "undergoing a turbulent time of inner crisis. 
However, its immense spiritual wealth, its deep 
spirituality, are factors we should learn from.  More 
martyrs have died for it than any other church and we 
must express our deep love for the church and all it 
has stood for in history."

On the participation of the Orthodox churches 
during the Assembly, General Secretary Raiser said 
although the scaling back of participation by some 
Orthodox delegations in the Assembly, they had shown a 
willingness to talk and to engage in dialogue. The 
decision to set up a commission on the participation of 
churches in the WCC is one indication of wanting to 
find ways to reach better understanding. The Assembly 
has clarified the agenda, which was now realistic, 
Raiser said, and most Orthodox churches were eager to 
be involved.

MANDELA AND MUGABE ADDRESS ASSEMBLY

President Nelson Mandela of South Africa called on 
the WCC to be engaged in the entrenchment of democracy, 
so helping the fulfillment "of the dreams of African 
renaissance."  His surprise visit on Sunday (December 
13) was seen to have heightened the significance of the 
WCC as he used the occasion to bid its member churches 
farewell before he relinquishes the leadership of his 
country next year.

In the past few months, President Mandela has been 
visiting selected countries and institutions for such 
farewells. "It is because of the values you promote and 
what you have stood for that I set aside whatever I was 
engaged in, to come and join you," he told a capacity 
audience at the University of Zimbabwe's Great Hall. 
"As my public life draws to a close, I feel privileged 
to share my dreams and my thoughts with you."

His Deputy President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, had been 
expected at the WCC's 50th anniversary celebration. The 
surprise turn of events, with Mandela accompanied by 
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, brought all events 
at the campus to a standstill. Assembly participants 
thronged his passage when he entered the hall to have a 
closer glimpse of Africa's most charismatic leader. The 
scene was repeated on his departure by crowds estimated 
at more than 3,500 inside and outside the hall.

A few days earlier (December 8), President Mugabe 
had made a passionate appeal to WCC churches to help to 
end what he termed "a global conspiracy against poor 
nations." He said that the global order today belonged 
to the strong and heartless, a world dominated "by 
bullies." He went on to paint a bleak picture of "a 
conservative world where rich nations tumble upon poor 
ones with disgusting impunity," adding: "We call it a 
global village in spite of the blatant inequalities of 
its villagers."

Calling for the WCC's support, he named the debt 
burden, unequal terms of international trade 
accompanied by depressed commodity prices, and lately 
speculative capital as among major factors wrecking 
economies of poor nations and which require the 
attention of the international community. Africa's 
total debt stood at US$227.2 billion, $379 for every 
man, woman and child in Africa.  Zimbabwe's debt stood 
at US$5,005 million, $447 per person.

ARCHBISHOP TABAN CALLS ON CHURCHES TO INTERCEDE IN 
SUDAN

The churches should intercede with the 
international community to stop the slaughter in 
Southern Sudan, Roman Catholic Bishop Paride Taban of 
Torit, Sudan, told the Assembly (December 5). He said 
he witnessed two blitz-style bombing raids by Khartoum 
on centers where there was no military presence. 
Referring to the no-fly zone imposed on Iraq to protect 
the Kurds, he had said: "Our people ask, `Are we not 
worth human life to be protected from the Sudanese air 
force by the imposition of a no-fly zone?'"

His call was backed up (December 10) by a meeting 
of Assembly delegates and visitors from Southern Sudan, 
who urged the WCC not to be party to a conspiracy of 
silence on genocide "being perpetrated by the Islamic 
fundamentalist regime in Khartoum against the people of 
Southern Sudan."

A week later, a bombing raid was reported to have 
killed six people and to have damaged a cathedral and 
school served by Bishop Taban. A letter from the WCC to 
the foreign minister in Khartoum, Mustafa Ismail Usman, 
said that according to its information, 14 bombs 
exploded in Narus town square. In addition to the 
deaths, 14 people were reported seriously wounded.

The letter (December 12) told the minister that 
the WCC was shocked by the bombing. "Without judging 
the motivation until more facts are known, we in any 
case condemn in the strongest possible terms this act 
of violence apparently directed at Bishop Paride. We 
urge you to take immediate measures to ensure his 
absolute personal security, and to identify and bring 
to justice the perpetrators of this terrible act."

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