Actions Roundup from WCC Central Committee
Episcopal News Service. August 9, 1984 [84158]
GENEVA (DPS, Aug. 9) -- The World Council of Churches enters the latter half of the decade with a new chief staff officer and guidelines for its work in the wake of the Council's Sixth Assembly last year in Vancouver.
Meeting at the Ecumenical Center here July 9-18, the 158-member central committee elected The Rev. Emilio Castro, a 57 year old Uruguayan, as the fourth World Council of Churches general secretary, and outlined ways to implement assembly priorities on justice, peace and the integrity of creation; women; spirituality; and Gospel and culture.
When Castro takes office next January, he will succeed the Rev. Philip Potter, 62, who is retiring after 12 years as general secretary. Both men are ordained Methodists and both headed the Council's world mission and evangelism commission before becoming general secretary.
Paying homage to Potter's leadership, Castro spoke of his own hopes for the Council: "This house has become a symbol of hope, of solidarity for all the outcasts or marginals of the world. If I speak from the depth of my Latin American experience, I will render testimony to the reality of the support of the prayer, of the understanding, that this house, under your leadership, has provided for those that, very often, were also misunderstood, not only by the police but also by the church authorities... Under your leadership, ... this house has been able to provide a support and to rally around those who were persecuted for the sake of justice. May God give me the strength to keep faithful to that heritage."
Commenting on the election, The Church Times of London said: "Castro is a Methodist and Methodism at its best means a passion for mission in a context no smaller than the Kingdom of God. That great tradition, which was born within Anglicanism and ought never to have been divorced from it, will help the WCC in its evidently sincere and largely effective attempts to overcome the polarisation between spirituality and social action.
"Castro has attained a fine and multilingual scholarship after a working-class boyhood and although he has been exiled from his native Uruguay since 1973, he typifies the Latin American energy which is (together with African devotion) now the chief instrument used by the Holy Spirit to pour out the Pentecostal gifts. Under his leadership, the second half of the 1980's may well see not only more theological agreement but also more outgoing cooperation in the wide field indicated by the WCC's post-Vancouver theme, Confessing the Apostolic Faith Today."
Castro was elected on the morning of the fourth day of the committee meeting; most of the rest of the committee's working time was taken up with shaping broad directions under which the new general secretary and the rest of the staff will work during his five year term.
The committee approved two world conferences to be held in the late 1980's -- on faith and order, probably in 1988, and on justice, peace and the integrity of creation (JPIC), possibly in 1989.
The faith and order gathering would be the fifth such. The first met in Lausanne in 1927. It would deal in large measure with three current worldwide faith and order emphases -- reaction in various parts of the church to the 1982 World Council of Churches' theological convergence text on baptism, Eucharist, and ministry (BEM), how the 20th century Church confesses the faith which comes from its first centuries, and links between the unity of the Church and the renewal of human community.
The other conference is part of a series of proposals for work on the issue for the next several years. The proposed meeting would be a "forum for sharing ecumenical covenant by serving as a focal point in the conciliar process of covenanting for justice and peace."
A statement on Namibia and a study document on recent developments in southern Africa also emerged from the meeting. The first, passed unanimously, "deplores and condemns" South African harassment of church people and/or property and adds "deep appreciation for the courageous witness" of the leadership of the council of churches there. It also appeals to the World Council members "to unmask and condemn South Africa's intensified campaign of diplomatic deception" over Namibia, renew their commitment to Namibian self-determination, and press for mandatory sanctions against South Africa. The appeal is addressed especially to European and North American church members whose governments have not implemented UN Security Council Resolution 435, which calls for such sanctions.
The 22-page document on southern Africa was commended to member churches for study and action. The central committee drew particular attention to five areas: "South Africa's accords with Mozambique and Angola which have created the "misleading and dangerous impression" that South Africa is embarked on a policy of peace, the "fraudulent and racist" South African constitutional changes which exclude black people, continuing "oppression" suffered by blacks under apartheid, forced removals of blacks, and criticism by South African churches of these developments.
In discussion, committee members raised concerns about the U.S. policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa, and increased difficulties faced by refugees from South Africa. In response to questions about the Program to Combat Racism "special fund," a staff member said contributions to it fluctuate and have declined from a 1980 high, but that southern Africa liberation movements continue to receive half its annual grants (which were approved by the Council's executive committee earlier this month and are to be announced in September after members have been formally notified).
The committee voted to meet next year in Buenos Aires, assuming satisfactory arrangements can be made, which is likely. The dates are to be either 8-19 September or 21 July-1 August. It also approved World Council of Churches' participation in two UN-designated periods -- International Youth Year (1985) and the conclusion of the Women's Decade (next July).
Also approved were a series of recommendations meant to increase women's participation in church and council activities, and a set of initiatives in the area of "learning for ecumenical participation." A 1985 budget of 36.8 million Swiss francs was approved, as was the construction of a fourth wing of the Ecumenical Center, here, which houses the World Council of Churches', the Lutheran World Federation, Conference of European Churches, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and other church organizations.