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“We are moving together. We are moving in faith. We are moving with a purpose and with shared values.” These were the words of the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, who in his address at the 2nd General Assembly of ACT Alliance stressed the significance of strengthening cooperation between the Council and the ACT Alliance which, he explained, have been linked by historical ties spanning many years.
The ACT Alliance assembly is held from 21-24 October in Punta Cana, The Dominican Republic.
Tveit stated that when the WCC met for its 1st Assembly in Amsterdam 1948, the same year as the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the WCC Assembly said that “we are committed to stay together”. When the 10th Assembly of the WCC met in Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2013, we said “we are committed to move together”.
“These messages are two sides of the same call and commitment. We can only move together as churches when we are united in our faith in the God of life, who created all to live in fellowship and who calls the church to be a sign and foretaste of the unity of life and humankind,” Tveit added.
Reflecting on the historical roots of ties between the WCC and the ACT Alliance, Tveit said, “100 years after the outbreak of the first war to be called a “world war”, caused enormous damage on many continents, the end of many empires but also a division of the many regions”.
“We also meet 100 years after the installation of Archbishop Nathan Söderblom in Uppsala, Sweden, who at Oslo in 1930 received the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in the initiatives to gather representatives from the churches in the world at the first assembly of Life and Work in Stockholm, 1925 – which later developed to become the World Council of Churches. And, I would add, that also became the ACT Alliance.”
Rev. Dr Cornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel, moderator of the ACT Alliance, affirmed these views. She said, “I am very grateful that the general secretary of the WCC made us all aware that both ACT and the WCC are legitimate children of what started in 1925 as the Life and Work movement. At that time, the people who formed this movement were highly involved in social and diaconal work: exactly what ACT members are doing”.
“Later, the Life and Work movement became one of the three pillars of the WCC. I am grateful that we share these roots and that we are sisters and brothers and have the same understanding of what is necessary in order to transform and heal the world,” said Füllkrug-Weitzel.
In his speech, Tveit also highlighted the importance of promoting the work on youth rights and their leading role in the ecumenical movement. He reminded the event participants that a growing part of the world population is formed by youth.
“In many countries of the world they represent an actual majority and are particularly in need of respect for their rights, to a safe environment, to education and to protection from abuse or violence”.
Tveit noted that youth often “represent the strongest sense of justice and the most committed and creative voices for peace. However, they are often not properly offered their rights, particularly not the girls; neither are they given their space to contribute to the work for justice and peace, not in the church nor in their societies in general”.
Tveit invited the assembly participants to take part in the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, a call issued by the WCC 10th Assembly in 2013.
Calling the WCC a fellowship and a sister institution to the ACT Alliance, Tveit said, “We are gathered here to join hands, to see how we can walk and work together,” said Tveit. He praised the added value that the ACT Alliance brings in the search for Christian unity: “Act Alliance represents as initiative and intention, as well as incitement and institutionalizing of this commitment, is an integrated part of this one ecumenical movement”.
Tveit reflected on the theme of the ACT Alliance Assembly “Join Hands” saying that the “diakonia of today requires that we act together with all people of good will, but also that we maintain a sense of serving the whole of creation”. He stated that diakonia is the common basis for which the WCC and the ACT Alliance can work together.
“The reports and the outcome of these and other moments of deeper reflections on the call to ecumenical and international diakonia, to our service together, shall continue to inspire and enlighten us through this meeting,” he said. “The diakonia we are promoting is honouring, protecting and promoting the rights of every human being,” Tveit added.
Full text of the WCC general secretary’s speech
