wfn.org | Churches Recommit Themselves to The WCC

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30-December-1998 
98429 
 
    Churches Recommit Themselves to The 
    WCC at Worship Celebration 
 
    by Jerry Van Marter 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
HARARE, Zimbabwe-The member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 
today  recommitted themselves to the ecumenical movement in a worship 
service that attracted a standing room-only crowd in the worship tent on 
the University of Zimbabwe campus, the site of the organization's eighth 
assembly. 
 
    Speculation that Orthodox representatives might boycott the 
Recommitment Service to express their displeasure with the pace of reforms 
in the WCC apparently failed to materialize. Officials of the Russian 
Orthodox Church - one of the churches most critical of liberalism within 
the WCC - were present at the service. Asked by ENI if all the WCC's 
Orthodox churches were present at the service, a leading Orthodox official 
said: "As far as I know." 
 
    The service consisted mainly of hymns and prayers, though the highlight 
was clearly the exchanging of crosses between heads of the member churches. 
Ushers then fanned out around the tent distributing small wire crosses to 
all the worshippers. 
 
    Worshippers from each region of the world rose in turn and, after the 
singing of a hymn native to the region, recited a prayer of thanksgiving. 
Different parts of the liturgy were also led by 
representatives from the different regions. 
 
    The concluding commitment, which launches the WCC's second 
half-century, states: "Because Christ has chosen us to be friends, because 
Christ has appointed us to bear fruit that will last, because Christ has 
commanded us to love one another, with God's help we are confident to say: 
We intend to stay together. We respond to the prayer of Jesus Christ that 
all may be one in order that the world may believe [John 17:21].  We are 
restless to grow together in unity."  

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