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MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE WCC AT PENTECOST 2010

>For immediate release: 18 May 2010

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of  Jesus Christ
so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift  of the
Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

In 2010, this year just as at the time of the first Pentecost, Christians
throughout the world, in their respective churches, will celebrate
Pentecost in hundreds of different languages and will sing hymns  in their
own languages giving praise to the Lord.

Jesus’ disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit that  first
Pentecost because they were waiting for it in trust. They were gathered
together waiting, confident in God’s promise.

On the morning of Pentecost, Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims  who had
come to celebrate the festival of new bread; amongst the faithful  was the
small group of humble friends of Jesus Christ the Risen One. And  the
promise is fulfilled: the Spirit comes down on them and makes them  into
witnesses, messengers, people convinced by their master’s  message of
love and truth. It becomes a time for the call to conversion, of  putting
into practice the gift received and commitment to the service of  brothers
and sisters.

Today, the call to conversion is more central than ever for every  person
who seeks to follow Jesus Christ and to discover meaning in life  through
serving those who suffer, whatever name their suffering may have.

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and  said to Peter
and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ ” (Acts
2:37b)

Many are waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is in today�� �s
world a small group of the humble who seek conversion, asking for
forgiveness for faults committed in the past, such as attacks on  God’s
gift of life through the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction.

Hope for conversion can be seen today in the steps some of the “g reat”
of this world have taken to repair past excesses of pride and domination.
Yes, everything is possible for the one who turns to Christ and,  in the
power of the Spirit, tries to change the plans of those who continue  to
believe that peace can be bought only under threat of nuclear weapons.

May the brave souls of this world, who have begun to reduce their  stocks of
nuclear arms, now continue boldly to make more resources available  for the
well-being of those populations who have been so devastated and  give more
resources to those peoples who live in the anguish of hunger and  the
violence of war, and who thirst to be able to share their knowledge.

We want to say “with God, all things are possible!”

But, of course we Christians, who have been baptized in the name  of Jesus
Christ, must not limit our insistence on the need for repentance  from the
official leaders of the nations or of other public persons. The  call for
repentance remains well-timed for every one of us, from every state,  age,
origin: repentance for our inconsistency between what we proclaim  and how
we behave; repentance for our little faith, for our compromises  to the
spirit of this world, for our inclination to be indifferent to justice,  to
solidarity, to sincere love and respect for every human person.  It is with
this deep spirit of repentance that we must await the coming and  dwelling
of the Spirit of God, in ourselves and in our local congregations.  Only
then shall we rediscover the face of our Resurrected Lord, the Kyrios,  and
be united with him, praying with humility and new dynamism: O, come,  Holy
Spirit! Transform the world!

May the Holy Spirit which came down at Pentecost fill you with light,  hope
and joy and give you the strength to glorify our Lord by serving  his world
with love.  We wish you all a very blessed feast of Pentecost.

The Presidents of the World Council of Churches
Archbishop DrAnastasiosof Tirana and All Albania, Orthodox Autocephalous
Church of Albania Mr John Taroanui Doom, Maohi Protestant Church  (French
Polynesia)Rev. Dr Simon Dossou, Methodist Church in Benin Rev. Dr  Soritua
Nababan, Protestant Christian Batak Church (Indonesia)Rev. Dr Ofelia
Ortega, Presbyterian-Reformed Church in CubaPatriarch Abune Paulos,
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Rev. Dr Bernice Powell Jackson,  United
Church of Christ (USA)Dr Mary Tanner, Church of England

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 Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

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