wfn.org | WCC meets Orthodox grievances with sweeping changes

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Note #7411 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

03-September-2002
02335
    
WCC meets Orthodox grievances with sweeping changes  
  
by Jerry Van Marter  

Geneva - The main governing body of the World Council of Churches has approved sweeping changes in the way the world's largest ecumenical organization will worship and conduct its business in an attempt to accommodate differences between Protestant and Orthodox Christians.  

The WCC's central committee, which concluded its 10-day meeting here Tuesday, voted with little dissent to replace its parliamentary voting procedure with a consensus model of decision-making, a measure supported by Orthodox churches.  

The ecumenical body aims to more clearly delineate between "confessional" worship (formal liturgy identified with a particular church) and "inter-confessional" worship (which may blend liturgical elements of various traditions), and to create a permanent committee to give advice on issues before they appear on the agenda of the council.  

The central committee also voted to create two categories of participation, member churches and "churches in association with the WCC" who could send non-voting representatives to the WCC central committee and assembly.  

The changes, proposed by a special commission of the WCC, culminate a three-year effort to address concerns raised by the almost two dozen Orthodox member churches of the WCC who have long complained that the WCC is too dominated by Protestant theology and decision-making styles. 

Matters came to a head in the late 1990s when two Orthodox churches - those of Georgia and Bulgaria - withdrew from the WCC. Following a statement issued by 15 Orthodox churches in May 1998 at the conclusion of a high-level Orthodox meeting at Thessaloniki, the WCC at its 8th Assembly created the special commission to address their grievances.  

The consensus decision-making proposal had raised concerns that a handful of churches could block the WCC from taking action, a view expressed by the Rev. Fernando Enns of the Mennonite Church of Germany. "I'm afraid because this process could be abused," he said. "Some of us Protestants are afraid of you Orthodox. We need a period of trust-building so we can grow together, not just be together."  

The Rev. Gregor Henderson of the Uniting Church in Australia sought to allay such misgivings. "Our church went to [the consensus model] 10 years ago and I would never go back," he said. "The respectful listening and more Christian decision-making it has produced has been a gift." 

On the subject of the WCC's worship life - which was hotly debated when the special commission's report was released last week - the committee approved a "framework for common prayer" satisfying demands from Orthodox churches for a clear definition between "confessional" services, often involving formal, prescribed worship liturgy, and the more blended "inter-confessional" services favored by Protestants.  

A committee that reviewed the special commission report insisted that the framework was "not a prescription or even guidelines".  

Konrad Raiser, the WCC general secretary, addressed concerns that the framework might supersede the WCC's existing guidelines on such matters as inclusive language. "We are not vacating existing guidelines," Raiser insisted. "They are not touched by this."   

The proposal to create the non-voting (and financially non-contributing) "churches in association with the WCC" category arguably produced the most heated debate.   

Dean Anders Gadegaard of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark contended that "creating a whole new level of relationship is contrary to the whole spirit of the WCC, especially after the special commission worked so hard to address the grievances of the Orthodox churches to keep them as full members".  

But the Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America praised the proposal as "the art of the possible". Taken as a whole, he said, the "substantive changes in ethos and style" adopted today "will, I believe, persuade some churches to become full members rather than 'churches in association'".   
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