WCC Section Reports Provide Grist for Ecumenical Agenda
Episcopal News Service. February 28, 1991 [91053]
Participants at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly meeting in Canberra, Australia, were divided into four sections and asked to reflect on the theme "Come, Holy Spirit, Renew the Whole Creation." Their reports, officially adopted by the assembly in the closing plenary sessions, provided what one observer called "theological grist for the ecumenical movement's agenda for years to come."
The first of the reports, on the subtheme "Giver of Life, Sustain Your Creation," contained sections dealing with the theology of creation, an ethic of economy and ecology, and a reflection on the church as "covenanting for the life of all creation."
The text urged a major WCC study of "our understanding of creation and its biblical foundations," including "a commitment to the healing of creation and the restoration of relationships that build harmony, wholeness, and the kingdom of God." The report called for a "reordering of personal and corporate lifestyles, relationships, and the overall economic system."
Among specific strategies it hoped would overcome the "basic constraints of our time to a realization of social justice and ecologically responsible human behavior," the report urged local self-empowerment, reform of the international economic order, rethinking economics, the human rights framework of the United Nations, democracy and good government, conscientization, education, and spirituality.
There is an "urgent need for a new type of mission, not into foreign lands, but into foreign structures" in the economic, social, and political arenas that "do not at all conform to Christian moral standards," the report asserted.
After strenuous internal debate, the section abandoned the suggestion that human beings were not at the center of creation. The final statement affirmed that the "special aspect of the image of God in human beings is to reflect God's providence for the created world, to care for it and to serve as its protector."
Asian participants wanted the emphasis on the ecological crisis to be balanced with strong references to global inequity and justice.
It is the responsibility of free people to help those who are not yet free, section two's report said. "We as people who have received the gift of freedom cannot cease to struggle for the release of those who are captive to unjust social and economic systems," it asserted.
The church too often tends to limit the work of the Holy Spirit to exclusively internal, personal experience, the report said. "Liberation by the Spirit empowers us to understand the world from the perspective of the vulnerable," it continued.
Christians should talk with those in power at all levels on the issues of justice, peace, and creation as a way of helping those "who are struggling to be free from oppression, despair, and destruction," according to the report.
The report addressed what it called "contradictions and imbalances prevailing in the world economic system" and welcomed efforts by the churches to address issues such as the international debt crisis.
On the issue of racial justice, the report called racism "one of the terrible sins of humankind." It asked members to be alert to the potential dangers of increased racial tension as a result of the current migrations of people to escape wars, famine, drought, and other disasters. It called attention to the increased "ethnicity" in Europe, undercurrents of racism in the Middle East conflict, and the struggles of Australia's Aborigines for recognition of their history, culture, and land rights. In commenting on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to the New World, it called for repudiation of any celebration of colonization.
The report described the print and electronic media as "powerful tools of hidden control" and stressed the importance of educating people to be discerning listeners, viewers, and readers.
There is still a need to discuss the roles and relationships between women and men in our communities, the report said. It recommended continued study of family and health issues, literacy, and the continued participation of women in ordained ministries, where possible.
Dialogue with people of other faiths might help Christians in Africa and Asia who feel threatened by the expansion of Islam, the report noted.
Christians are divided from each other by "history, doctrine, culture, class, gender, and wealth" and yet are "already united by our common baptism" and the search for "unity of faith, life, and witness," the report of section three said.
Among its recommendations, the section report called for "further reflection and action locally on relevant issues," such as issues related to the community of women and men. It also called for a program of "ecumenical training to enable the churches to equip women and men, lay and ordained, for partnership ministry in local congregations."
The WCC should also help its members establish "priorities for sharing that recognize the special gifts of marginalized groups" such as women, young people, indigenous peoples, and the "differently abled," the report asserted.
The report recommended "appropriate ways" to promote dialogue among Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders and how they might cooperate in the search for peace and justice in the Middle East.
The report challenged "hidden ideologies," such as patriarchy, economic materialism, achievement-oriented individualism, uncritical affirmation of secularization, and modernization, that "aggressively break up the liberative values of the Two-Thirds World." Christians must expose the contradictions of such ideologies and the realities of people's lives and challenge proponents of such ideologies with "the biblical criteria of God's preferential option for the marginalized and for the well-being of creation," the report continued.
Pentecostals and charismatics should be viewed as "part of the historical development of the Christian church and its rich diversity," the report contended. It urged that Pentecostal theologians be included on the WCC's Faith and Order Commission and sometimes lead worship at WCC meetings.
"Worship relates to evangelism, spirituality, social justice, human values, issues of creation, unity and peace as it celebrates salvation," the report from section four said.
The report "recognizes the place of Christian lifestyle, spiritual discipline, holiness, a spirituality of active non-violence, personal and common prayer, worship, art and icons." It urged publication of an ecumenical worship book of hymns, prayers, and liturgical orders to explore various forms of "ecumenical spirituality."
Different movements in the church challenge it to be more open, and, the report suggested, the WCC should encourage continued conversation with such movements and organizations.
The WCC should strengthen programs to combat racism and other forms of "social, economic, political, and religious oppression" and add to its list concern for the "differently abled," the report continued.
The report endorsed the "Sabbath principle" and said that churches "need to recover the notion of sacred time, not for the sake of God alone, but for the well-being of all people." It paid tribute to the role of women through the ages "whose responses to the Holy Spirit constitute a great gift to the churches." It added that the family is "the appropriate space for spiritual formation, prayer, and spirituality."
The way to demonstrate God's inclusive love is to address divisions of language, race, sex, caste, and economic status, the report argued. Making peace was described as "another manifestation of spirituality."