Note #9167 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06129 Feb. 23, 2006
Young Presbyterian at WCC Assembly sees no conflict between faith, social action
Emily Welty says council experience is 'geography embedded in faces and stories'
by Jerry L. Van Marter
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil - Emily Welty wasn't thinking about being a young-adult steward for the ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC). She was just looking for a job.
Welty, a Presbyterian from Three Rivers, MI, a graduate of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related College of Wooster in Ohio, recently earned her Masters degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University in Washington, DC.
"I have been interested in the WCC for a while," Welty told the Presbyterian News Service during a break from her steward's duties in the Assembly's book and souvenir store. "After finishing my Master's, I was surfing the Web looking for job opportunities, and went to the WCC site and saw they were still accepting applications for stewards. It was the last minute, but I was accepted."
Welty, who works for the Association for Conflict Resolution in Washington, is also youth director of Takoma Park (MD) Presbyterian Church. She is the only PC(USA) steward among more than 100 assisting at the Assembly in a variety of ways. "I worked in a bookstore in high school," she said. "I guess that's my qualification."
Welty, who has traveled extensively, said she is "amazed at the interaction between people of such diverse backgrounds, in so many ways." Her best friend at the Assembly is a young woman from Syria. "I will never see that place, or any other, the same," she said. "At a place like this, geography becomes embodied in faces and stories. It's like the United Nations, only less political."
Welty said she became interested in the WCC when she was living in South Africa and doing academic research on the role of religion played in apartheid and churches' efforts to end it. She believes curches can model all kinds of behavior that can help in conflict situations. "I'm delighted to see the WCC using consensus decision-making," she said. "It is setting an example that consensus-building can work in groups of four or 400 or 4,000 people."
The Takoma Park church is very socially conscious, Welty said, and she has been encouraged to see how theology and social action have been integrated by Christians all over the world. One value of the WCC, she said, "is that those of us whose faith is borne out of our concern for social justice share that with people all over the world.
"I know the connection between faith and social action is true for me," she said, "but to see it in so many other people, from everywhere in the world, is beautiful."
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