wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Churches' feedback greatly needed, committee says

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

>For immediate release - 18/07/2008 14:16:02

CHURCHES' FEEDBACK GREATLY NEEDED, COMMITTEE SAYS

A key committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) is
calling ecumenical partners, including its 349 member churches,
for more feedback on two crucial matters of concern facing the
church and the WCC. 

Meeting in Germany at the beginning of July, the WCC Permanent
Committee on Consensus and Collaboration is calling on member
churches to provide more feedback on the proposal for an
“expanded assembly” (or “expanded space”) and the theological
understanding of the church (or “ecclesiology”), one of the most
contentious points in any ecumenical dialogue. 

The Committee, established at the WCC’s 9th assembly (Porto
Alegre, 2006), is the successor of the Special Commission on
Orthodox Participation in the WCC. Created in 1998, the Special
Commission proposed a wide-ranging reform of WCC decision-making
processes, ethos and prayer life, succeeding in dispelling
misperceptions between families of churches. 

The idea of an expanded assembly, born at the WCC’s 9th assembly
and currently being discussed within the WCC and among ecumenical
partners, would be implemented at the next WCC assembly in 2013.
The aim of an expanded assembly is to accommodate a wider
spectrum of participants than the WCC member churches, including
other ecumenical bodies such as the Christian World Communions.
The "ethos of fellowship and consensus" should be maintained
while taking into consideration the participation of Orthodox
churches that are not represented in other ecumenical
organizations, whatever form the 2013 assembly finally takes.

A second key issue on the WCC agenda is the discussion about the
doctrine of the church (or ecclesiology), a theological topic of
particular importance within the fellowship of the WCC where
churches of the Reformation, post-Reformation and Orthodox
churches coexist and collaborate despite their diverging
understandings of the church.

The Porto Alegre assembly submitted to the churches two major
documents which explore the state of current reflection within
the Council on this subject: "The Nature and Mission of the
Church" and "Called to be the One Church". Members of the
Committee expressed "some disappointment" at the low number of
responses to date and suggested a number of ways in which
churches' responses may be encouraged. 

The Committee reaffirmed seeking unity as the goal of the WCC,
even more so when the ecumenical movement, created to overcome
the fragmentation of the churches, has itself "become fragmented"
as it is "subject to centrifugal forces". 

Asserting that "profoundly spiritual changes" would be
achievable if the consensus model of decision making were fully
embraced, the Committee recommended undertaking "all efforts" in
this regard, so as to transform every aspect of the Council's
organizational culture into a "culture of consensus". 

The second meeting of the Permanent Committee on Consensus and
Collaboration took place in Hofgeismar, Germany, from 4-8 July
2008. The meeting was co-moderated by Metropolitan Gennadios of
Sassima of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Most Rev. Bernard
Ntahoturi of the Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi. It
was hosted by Bishop Dr. Martin Hein, head of the Evangelical
Church in Kurhessen-Waldeck. An eight-page report of the meeting
will be considered by the WCC Executive Committee at its next
meeting in Lübeck, Germany, from 23-26 September 2008. 

Special Commission on Orthodox Participation at the WCC:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3658

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.