News
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.