WCC NEWS:Recommendations for advancing toward Christian unity

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World Council of Churches - News

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADVANCING TOWARD CHRISTIAN UNITY

For immediate release: 26 January 2012

Representatives of a broad range of Christian churches and organizations
met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 14 to 19 January to complete a report
and make recommendations for significant advances toward Christian unity
and inter-religious cooperation.

The Continuation Committee on Ecumenism in the 21st Century
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=ad7c884bf7a61bda3d6f ) came into 
being
following the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2006.
It will submit its report to the diverse bodies its members represent
during the build-up to the 10th Assembly of the WCC at Busan, Korea in
2013.

The committee’s membership was designed to include participants drawn not
only from the WCC but also from the Roman Catholic Church,  global
Christian confessional communions, regional ecumenical organizations,
national councils of churches, specialized ministries, youth movements and
renewal movements, as well as members of Pentecostal, charismatic and
evangelical communities.

Their recommendations are aimed at suggesting concrete patterns, through
which Christians may explore “constructive ways of living out our unity
even in the face of the challenge of engaging the theological and ethical
issues that threaten to divide.”

In a time of worldwide cultural upheaval, the report aims to motivate world
Christianity to pursue the biblical calling to unity in Christ (John
17:21) and to promote abundant life for all (John 10:10). This common
vocation ranges from actions undertaken in the global context to those of
congregations and their associates on the local level.

The group acknowledges, “The ecumenical movement has its centre in the
Triune God and not in us nor our own efforts, plans and desires.”

To enable dialogue and cooperation among Christians, the committee
recommends that the WCC “take on a convening role as a gift to churches
and ecumenical partners”, while noting that this convening role “is
exercized in recognition of and within the limits set by the 1950 Toronto
Statement (Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=e7be580eeada4874ed06 
), which
clarifies that the WCC is not a church nor a super-church.”

Those who are active in the ecumenical movement are advised to take into
account today’s “financial constraints” and to discover creative
ways of “staying focused and coherent while encouraging churches to
invest in the vision and work, and finding resources to sustain the
life-giving impact of the ecumenical movement.”

The report calls on Christians to reflect on the implications for churches,
ministries and mission programmes of the ongoing shift in the demographic
centre of Christianity from the northern hemisphere to the global South.

During their meeting in Addis Ababa, members of the committee met formally
with leaders of two national churches: the patriarch of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the president of the Ethiopian Evangelical
Church Mekane Yesus.

Patriarch Abune Paulos, who currently serves as a president of the WCC,
encouraged the committee to “be bold” in its recommendations and
recalled important contributions made by the ecumenical movement during
times of tribulation and triumph for churches in such places as Ethiopia
and South Africa.

Read also:

Churches pray for Christian unity (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=016b17627cbbc3735966
) (WCC press release of 25 January 2012)

Continuation Committee on Ecumenism in the 21st Century (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=8023d5a5c442fe5fb8ce )

WCC programme on Inter-religious dialogue and cooperation
(Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=66dedcf76ed87227de66 )


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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