wfn.org | World Council of Churches celebrates 50 Years, charts future

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

The Episcopal Church
http://www.dfms.org/contents.html
Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>
98-2275

by James Solheim

	(ENS) Almost a thousand delegates from over 300 members of 
the World Council of Churches (WCC) met in Zimbabwe for nearly two 
weeks to celebrate the ecumenical organization's 50th 
anniversary-and to chart what they hoped would be a new course 
for a new millenium.
	African drums and exuberant songs welcomed jet-lagged 
delegates to the opening service at the University of Harare 
December 3 where WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser praised the 
decision to hold the Eighth Assembly in Harare, despite an 
unsettled political environment in the country and threatened 
boycotts by some Orthodox churches unhappy with the organization.
	"How wonderful and significant to hear the words of Jesus 
here, in mother Africa, where they take on a unique rhythm and 
flavor; in mother Africa, so easily forgotten and ignored by the 
powerful when convenient, so unknown by so many, so exploited and 
stepped upon by others, but also so beloved by so many of us. 
Here, in this continent, in Africa, where Jesus received asylum 
and protection as an infant 2000 years ago," said the Rev. Eunice 
Santana of Puerto Rico, one of the presidents of the WCC, in her 
opening sermon. Sounding the Jubilee theme of the assembly, she 
asked, "Now all the international debts are being carefully 
counted, but where was the human accounting when colonialism 
crushed the people?"
	The nature of the challenge facing the WCC as it seeks to 
redefine its role was apparent from comments by its top leaders at 
the opening plenary. "Institutional ecumenism is in crisis," said 
Catholicos Aram I of Lebanon, moderator of the Central Committee. 
"Much of our constituency is disillusioned with the institutional 
expressions of the ecumenical movement. especially the youth who 
do not want to become prisoners of structures."
	The moderator said that "unless the churches re-own the 
ecumenical movement and re-articulate clearly its vision by making 
it relevant to the life of the people, [it] may lose its vitality, 
its sense of purpose." Looking back over history he said that "we 
have both much to rejoice in and much to repent over" but he is 
convinced that the WCC has steadily moved towards "a real 
partnership." But he reminded delegates that the organization "is 
an instrument and not a goal in itself. It serves the churches in 
their common task of taking the Gospel into the world and in their 
common calling to grow together in obedience to the command of 
Jesus Christ."
	Aram also confronted one of the more vexing issues facing 
the assembly and the future of the WCC-the role of the Orthodox 
members. While they have played a vital role, "they have not 
integrated themselves fully into the total life and witness of the 
council," he observed, largely because of "Protestant theology 
which continues to dominate the council's theological language, 
thinking and methodologies." Unless the WCC takes Orthodox 
concerns seriously, "I fear that the Orthodox participation will 
steadily dwindle."
	Prior to the assembly Orthodox leaders had warned that 
continued participation would depend on what Russian Patriarch 
Alexy II of Russia called "total reconstruction" of the WCC. 
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who holds 
the position of "first among equals" among Orthodox leaders, sent 
a letter to the assembly charging that "a series of liberal, 
theological and moral positions" had been adopted since the 1991 
assembly in Canberra, "by a variety of member churches, mainly of 
the Northern hemisphere." 
	Later the assembly endorsed a three-year commission to study 
the participation of the Orthodox. 	
	Raiser also confronted the issue, asking whether 
"membership" is the only arrangement or even the most appropriate 
form of taking part in the ecumenical movement. He asked the 
assembly to consider the formation of a Forum of Christian 
Churches and Ecumenical Organizations in which "participation is 
more important than membership." Such a forum, which could 
include Roman Catholics and a wide range of evangelical churches, 
would offer a space to discuss common challenges facing the 
ecumenical movement and make decisions on ways to cooperate. "The 
WCC would participate in the forum alongside other partners, 
without claiming any privileged place."
	Raiser has pushed hard for the Forum because of his 
conviction that the "organized ecumenical movement," including 
the WCC, represents "only one segment of world Christianity." The 
assembly approved a plan that could culminate in a forum at 
Pentecost 2001.

Common understanding and vision?
	Plenary debate on the document Towards a Common 
Understanding and Vision (CUV), which grew out of a study begun in 
1989 and was adopted by the Central Committee in 1997, exposed 
widely divergent opinions on the future of the WCC. 
Pointing out that many churches had not participated in the 
CUV process of self-examination, Dr. Agnes Abuom of Kenya asked, 
"What does it mean to talk about Christian unity when we churches 
are breaking up? What does it mean in a broken world?"
The Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America 
(which is linked to the Russian Orthodox Church) said that the WCC 
was formed in 1948 to deal primarily with issues linked to the 
16th century Protestant Reformation. "The churches of the East 
were not and are not part of this story. The Reformation is not 
our story," he said. "Its theological debates and presuppositions 
are not our theological debates and presuppositions."
After several comments by Orthodox delegates who sought to 
distance themselves from the WCC, an obviously exasperated 
delegate from the Church of England, the Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, 
said that the debate was "really about power." She added, "At 
the risk of sounding na<ve, what is the problem here? It seems the 
road we have gone down is, My church is bigger than yours, or, I 
have more money than you, or, My church has this long and 
important tradition." She pointed out that the Decade Festival 
ending the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, 
which preceded the assembly, said the opposite, that "Your story 
is my story." She concluded, "If we're going to listen to each 
other, we cannot do it from a distance. That means walking side by 
side with me, even if you are uncomfortable."

An experiment in conversation
In an experiment unique to a WCC assembly, delegates were 
offered a dazzling array of opportunities to discuss issues and 
activities in small groups called padares, based on a traditional 
Shona "meeting place." The goal, according to Raiser, was "to 
make visible the richness and health of the life of the 
churches."
	Almost 600 exhibits, presentations, performances and 
discussions were offered in scattered locations across the large 
campus of the university. "This is not a place for resolutions, 
but for the free exchange of ideas-and sometimes they will be 
controversial," said Raiser in his introduction. Eleven of the 
padares dealt with the issue of homosexuality, for example--the 
only time the issue appeared on the agenda. Members of an advisory 
committee moved among the padares in an attempt to "maintain the 
open spirit" and to report back to the WCC planning committees.
	Reactions of delegates varied widely. Some reported that no 
one showed up for padares, and in some cases the leaders didn't 
show up. Others complained about accessibility, especially on such 
a large campus, one that was not lighted during the evening 
sessions.
	The session on unity issues seemed to draw the most 
participants, but workshops on globalization and debt were also 
quite popular. "It is particularly unfortunate for some Third 
World organizations who have spent many thousands of dollars 
bringing personnel and materials to Harare, only to find that 
their presentation has been lost in the confusion and dispersal of 
the display locations," said the Rev. Ron O'Grady, a retired 
ecumenical staff official. 
	
African setting is key
	"The decision to go to Harare for the Eighth Assembly 
expressed our determination that the ecumenical fellowship of 
churches would not weaken its solidarity with African churches and 
people as they search for new foundations upon which to affirm 
their identity and reconstruct viable forms of community life," 
said Raiser in his report to the assembly.
	Several prominent guests spoke directly to the WCC's support 
for liberation movements in Africa. President Robert Mugabe of 
Zimbabwe made a passionate appeal to member churches to help end 
what he called "a global conspiracy against poor nations," in a 
world dominated by "bullies."
	He cited the debt burden and international trade practices 
as major factors in wrecking the economies of poor nations. The 
current debt stands at $379 for every man, woman and child on the 
continent, higher in Zimbabwe. "Where are men and women of 
prophetic witness, our seers and our moral and spiritual 
liberators?" Mugabe asked. He challenged the WCC to "lead in 
calling the world back to sane and human goals that edify God's 
image," to use its "moral authority to appeal to the powerful 
nations of the West to agree to write off the debts of Third World 
nations."
	Mugabe paid a glowing tribute to the WCC for its 
"courageous gesture" in 1969 when it supported Zimbabwe's 
struggle against colonialism and established a controversial 
Program to Combat Racism and a special fund to channel 
humanitarian support to liberation organizations. He also scolded 
some churches for their acceptance of a "colonial ethos" among 
missionaries, arguing that they had played midwife to colonialism, 
"succumbing or voluntarily surrendering God to the racism of 
colonial structures." Yet he pointed out that other churches 
spoke against the excesses of colonial rule and "paid dearly for 
their conscience" by deportation or death.
	Mugabe is in the middle of a struggle to claim land from 
white farmers whose property has been protected since the new 
nation was formed in 1980 from former Rhodesia. In efforts to 
reassure Great Britain that the farmers would be justly 
compensated, he bristled at charges in the British press that 
accused him of "larceny, tyranny, brutality and racism." 
	Although he did not address the issue of homosexuality in 
his speech, Mugabe has made frequent vitriolic attacks on gays, 
calling them "worse than pigs." As he left the plenary, he was 
asked for a comment by a Dutch journalist and suggested that the 
church should take a role "to cure them from their diseased way 
of life.. This is the church, this is the organization that can 
purge them."

Mandela thanks WCC for support
	It was the surprise appearance of Nelson Mandela, president 
of South Africa, that produced an infusion of new energy at a 
special plenary celebrating the WCC's 50th anniversary. 
Accompanied by Mugabe, Mandela received a tumultuous welcome, and 
in his address made a passionate appeal to the WCC to give the 
same support to the struggle for the development of democracy in 
Africa that it gave to liberation movements.
In expressing gratitude to the churches, he praised the WCC 
for "activating the conscience of the world for peace and on 
behalf of the poor, the disadvantaged and the dispossessed." 
Citing the Program to Combat Racism and the special fund to 
support liberation movements, he said, "Your support exemplified 
in the most concrete way the contribution that religion has made 
to our liberation, from the days when religious bodies took 
responsibility for the education of the oppressed because it was 
denied to us by our rulers, to support for our liberation 
struggle." He said that the people of southern Africa and the 
whole continent regard the WCC as "champion of the oppressed and 
exploited." 
	Mandela said that "the name of the WCC struck fear in the 
hearts of those who ruled our country during the inhuman days of 
apartheid. To mention your name was to incur the wrath of the 
authorities. To indicate support for your views was to be labeled 
an enemy of the state."
	Development is the challenge of the new millenium, Mandela 
argued. "My own continent of Africa dreams of an African 
renaissance in which, through reconstruction and development, we 
will overcome the legacy of a devastating past and ensure that 
peace, human rights, democracy, growth and development are a 
living reality for all Africans." 
	When the WCC moved "to the risk of active engagement in the 
struggle to end oppression," it broke new ground and now it was 
time "to show that same engagement in the new and more difficult 
struggle for development and the entrenchment of democracy."
	In its closing days, the assembly confirmed its commitment 
to Africa, rejecting negative views of the continent and stressing 
in a statement that "the emphasis should be positive, leaving 
behind the notes of fatalism, despair and helplessness which tend 
to characterize some attitudes and responses."
	To underscore the danger of speaking the truth to power, a 
group of delegates urged the WCC not to be a party to a conspiracy 
of silence on genocide "being perpetrated by the Islamic 
fundamentalist regime in Khartoum against the people of southern 
Sudan." They spoke in response to a sermon by Roman Catholic 
Bishop Paride Taban of the Sudan who offered an eyewitness account 
of bombing raids. A week after he spoke, he was the object of a 
bombing raid himself. The WCC sent a strong letter to Sudan's 
foreign minister, saying that "it is strongly suspected that 
units of the Sudanese army were responsible for this atrocious 
act. According to some reports we have received, the attack was in 
retribution for a sermon Bishop Paride preached in a public 
stadium here in Harare at the special invitation of the WCC. It 
urged the minister "to take immediate measures to ensure his 
absolute personal security and identify and bring to justice the 
perpetrators of this terrible act."
 
Role of women and youth
	Most delegates seemed to support a letter from the Decade 
Festival calling on the assembly to condemn violence against women 
as a sin. The Rev. Deenabandhu Manchala of India, one of the 
panelists in the plenary, asked, "Does the church wish to remain 
custodian of a culture of violence or a catalyst to a culture of 
life? We must stop seeing violence against women as a women's 
problem."
The decade should not have been perceived as a threat by any 
church, said Metropolitan Ambrosius of the Orthodox Church of 
Finland. But several Orthodox delegates complained about what they 
saw as a radical feminist agenda. While affirming the call for 
human and social rights for women, "So long as other WCC churches 
advocated an agenda calling for all churches to ordain women and 
to accept inclusive language, the eucharistic unity that is a 
dream will never come true," warned the Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin of 
the Russian Orthodox Church.
	An attempt to provide adequate representation of women and 
youth on the 150-member Central Committee exposed some deep 
fissures. Bishop Melvin Talbert of the United Methodist Church, 
moderator of the nominations committee, expressed deep frustration 
in trying to achieve a balance, calling the slate "unacceptable." 
Dr. Marion Best of the United Church of Canada said in response, 
"I feel a very deep disappointment, fast rising to a high level 
of anger. When the Ecumenical Decade in Solidarity with Women was 
launched, I tried to support it, I met with church leaders, and 
now the percentage of women on the Central Committee is less than 
it was at Canberra. I don't know if I want to be part of the WCC 
if it doesn't change."
	Talbert said that some churches had "found various 
reasons" to decline a request to include more women on the list 
they sent to the committee and some men had "emphatically stated 
that no woman would replace them." When the assembly considered 
the final slate, it brushed aside attempts to nominate men to 
replace women, including one from the Armenian Apostolic Church. A 
quarter of the churches at the assembly is represented exclusively 
by male delegations. The WCC has attempted to have a minimum of 40 
percent women among the delegations but the goal is difficult when 
Orthodox delegations are over 85 percent male.
	Women moved close to the 40 percent goal on the final slate 
for Central Committee. Pamela P. Chinnis, president of the House 
of Deputies and leader of the Episcopal Church delegation at the 
assembly, was one of two Anglicans from North America elected to 
the committee. She also served on the critical business committee 
at the assembly, responsible for daily operations.
The same issues of balance plagued the election of 
presidents for the WCC. The assembly rejected a proposal to have 
the Central Committee appoint the presidents, requiring the 
nominations committee to scramble to prepare a slate for 
consideration on the closing day. 
	The presidents are chosen on a regional basis. Africa will 
be represented by Agnes Abuom of the Anglican Church of Kenya; 
Asia--Moon Kyu Kang of the Presbyterian Church of Korea; Europe--
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Ephesus and Bishop Eberhardt Renz of 
the Evangelical Church in Germany; Latin America/Caribbean--Bishop 
Frederico Pagura of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina; 
Middle East--Mar Ignatius Zakka Iwas of the Syrian Orthodox 
Church; North America--Kathryn Bannister of the United Methodist 
Church; and Bishop Jabez Bryce of the Anglican Church in 
Aotearoa/New Zealand and Polynesia.
	The assembly re-elected Aram I as moderator, and chose as 
vice-moderators Justice Sophia Adinyira, an Anglican from the 
Province of West Africa, and Marion Best of Canada.
	The issue of homosexuality emerged during a debate in the 
closing plenary on a resolution on human rights. "Our support for 
human rights will ring increasingly hollow until we speak out 
against violence done to our gay and lesbian brothers and 
sisters," said Dr. Paul Sherry, president of the United Church of 
Christ in the U.S. "Our silence in the midst of this violence is 
deafening."
	When the program guidelines committee identified the issue 
of human sexuality as one of seven areas for WCC work in the 
future, Russian Orthodox delegate Vladimir Shmaliy warned that 
"any move to develop a homosexual agenda would severely 
jeopardize Orthodox participation in the WCC." His move to delete 
the issue from the report was soundly defeated.
	The other six issues identified by the committee were: 
worship and spirituality, inclusive community, non-violence and 
reconciliation, globalization, debt cancellation, and creative 
ways to accomplish the WCC's work with less budget and staff.

Among the major resolutions the WCC called for:

*	debt cancellation for impoverished nations, debt reduction for 
middle-income nations, and international economic reforms to 
prevent recurrence of debt;
*	alternative responses to activities of transnational 
corporations and other international financial institutions, 
and restrictions on the unlimited flow of capital that produces 
"instant profits and equally instant disasters" for the rich 
and poor;
*	a decision on the status of Jerusalem that includes Jews, 
Muslims and Christians for whom the city is holy and by the two 
peoples who call it home, the Israelis and Palestinians.
*	condemnation of the use of children in warfare, calling for an 
immediate moratorium on their recruitment.

A message of hope
	Despite some strong objections to an early draft, on its 
closing day the assembly issued a message of hope, "Being 
together under the cross in Africa." Emphasizing the theme of the 
assembly, "Turn to God-Rejoice in Hope," it said, "As we have 
turned once again to God, we have been able to rejoice in hope. We 
invite you to share with us the vision which we have been able to 
express together and which, we pray, will become a part of a 
common life and witness."
	"We are challenged by the vision of a church, the people of 
God on the way together, confronting all divisions of race, 
gender, age or culture, striving to realize justice and peace, 
upholding the integrity of creation," the message said in one 
clause. "We journey together as a people with resurrection faith. 
In the midst of exclusion and despair, we embrace, in joy and 
hope, the promise of life in all its fullness. We journey together 
as a people of prayer. In the midst of confusion and loss of 
identity, we discern God's signs of God's purpose being fulfilled 
and expect the coming of God's reign."
Episcopal Church participants react
In a brief interview with delegates and visitors at the 
assembly from the Episcopal Church, there was unanimous agreement 
about the hospitality of the people of Zimbabwe and the exciting 
variety of worship. The Rev. Patrick Mauney, director of Anglican 
and Global Relations, expressed surprise that the people he 
encountered spoke so openly of politics in Zimbabwe.
	The Rev. David Perry, the church's ecumenical officer, said 
that the formation of a commission to address the concerns of the 
Orthodox members of the WCC was "very positive, a signal that we 
are still together in the search for a common vision. We kept the 
conversation going."
	Richard Parkins of Episcopal Migration Ministries said that 
"the setting and participation of Africans gave it a sense of 
reality, especially in dealing with issues such as international 
debt."
	The youngest member of the delegation, 22-year-old Aldo 
Rincon of the Dominican Republic, said that it seemed "difficult 
for youth leaders to make their mark at the assembly." He found 
some of the talk by WCC leaders about youth participation 
"superficial," and felt that the assembly blocked any efforts to 
make substantial changes. 
	Perry is encouraged that the assembly made a clear 
commitment to meet the needs of member churches and take what he 
called "some big steps forward," even though they were not always 
evident in such a complicated meeting. "Instead of self-
destructing, as some were predicting, the delegates laid the 
foundation for a common vision. As Anglicans we will provide 
whatever leadership we can to implement that vision."
 
--James Solheim is director of the Office of News and Information 
for the Episcopal Church and covered the assembly for ENS.