Presbyterian Voices for Justice 

by Edmund Doogue, Ecumenical News International

POTSDAM, Germany -- 31-January-2001 -- Dr. Konrad Raiser, a leading German ecumenist and general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), has signaled further shake-ups for the world's biggest inter-church organization and for ecumenism at all levels.

In his report to the WCC's 158-member central committee, which is meeting until 6 February in this German city near Berlin, Dr. Raiser hinted that more flexible methods of dialogue and co-operation were needed to boost church relations in the 21st century, rather than concentrating on traditional church disputes over theological and liturgical differences.

Dr. Raiser also implied that radical rethinking of ecclesiology -- the doctrine of the nature of the church -- was urgently needed. He was referring to major differences between, on the one hand, most Protestant churches, and, on the other, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, regarding the very nature of their churches.

Dr. Raiser's report reflected not only the difficulties facing his organization as it co-ordinates dialogue and international co-operation for its 337 member churches, but the major challenges to inter-church relations world-wide.

During the Cold War, the WCC and related organizations such as the Conference of European Churches focused much of their energy on promoting links between Christians on both sides of the Iron Curtain. With the disappearance of that task, other challenges have appeared for the WCC and ecumenical agencies. The Orthodox churches from the former Soviet bloc, which are long-time members of the WCC, have become more critical of the organization; at the same time, in many parts of the world there has been more interest in local issues and rising skepticism about the effectiveness of large institutions. Many mainstream churches in the West also face falling membership and financial support, and because of this many of them have difficulty funding the WCC and ecumenism in general.

The WCC has in the past few years undergone a major reform, called Common Understanding and Vision, to make it more effective, but Dr. Raiser's report underlined what has become apparent to many -- that the WCC faces more major reforms. In 1998 the WCC's general assembly asked for a special commission to be set up to explore complaints by Orthodox member churches that the WCC is dominated by Western, Protestant structures and attitudes. The commission is now in place and its findings are likely to lead to major changes to the WCC's constitution and governing bodies.

In his report today, Dr. Raiser held out as a model a relatively new ecumenical initiative, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, set up last year by an unusually wide and diverse range of organizations, including the WCC, various world communions, church agencies, regional ecumenical organizations and other agencies, including Catholic bodies.

The alliance was in part inspired by the success of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and of Jubilee 2000, the campaign which drew widespread support in the 1990s for the cancellation of the debts of poor countries. Jubilee 2000 surprised many people by forcing the worldÆs rich, industrialized countries to take steps to forgive the debts of impoverished nations.

In a clear message to his central committee that this was the way ahead, Dr. Raiser stressed that "in many way, the project of the alliance is a response to a new situation created by the process of globalization. In order to address global structures and processes of decision-making, the ecumenical partners have to go beyond the limitations of their particular constituencies and their established ways of working, and seek to create an effective framework of co-operation and mutual support. The alliance represents the endeavor to create an open ecumenical space in which all partners in the ecumenical movement can participate equally."

Dr. Raiser said that in many ways the alliance had departed from the "institutional logic of most of the ecumenical organizations based on formal membership of churches or communities, and instead seeks to encourage voluntary participation based on the commitment to certain issues."

Dr. Raiser pointed to several major issues in contemporary Christianity which need drastic attention before major progress on church relations can be achieved. He mentioned statements published last year by the world's two biggest churches, the Roman Catholic Church (not a WCC member) and the Russian Orthodox Church (a WCC member) "who both consider their own communion to be the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church as established by our Lord and Savior himself."

Then he referred to a contrasting tendency -- denominationalism -- among Protestant churches which "have no basic difficulty in recognizing each other as churches," but become attached to "denominational autonomy" and perhaps less sense of being part of the wider church.

Dr. Raiser's report suggested that he was worried that ecumenism might become merely co-operation between churches at the lowest common level, devoid of authentic Christian community. "Does the fellowship of churches in [the WCC] have any significance beyond its pragmatic value of furthering co-operation? Are we really a fellowship of churches? In what sense can we continue to speak of a 'fellowship of churches' as long as the ecclesial quality of the separated communities [churches] is uncertain?"

But, seeming to draw inspiration from both Protestant and Orthodox theology, he added that it seemed a new vision, of "an ecumenical space for an inclusive community, local and global, has began to crystallize." With the help of the special commission, this vision could be spelt out more fully to revitalize the World Council of Churches.