WCC meets Orthodox discontent with policy changes

Christian Century, Sept 11, 2002

In an attempt to accommodate differences between Protestant and Orthodox Christians, the main governing body of the World Council of Churches has approved sweeping changes in the way the world's largest ecumenical organization will worship and conduct its business.

The WCC's central committee, which concluded a ten-day meeting in Geneva on September 3, voted with little dissent to replace its parliamentary voting procedure with a consensus model of decision-making, a measure supported by Orthodox churches.

To meet worship concerns, the ecumenical body decided--after a vigorous debate--that it will delineate more dearly between "confessional" worship (formal liturgy identified with a particular church) and "interconfessional" worship (which may blend liturgical elements of various traditions).

The next day, however, Lutheran Bishop Margot Kaessmann of Germany, a member of the 158-member central committee since 1983, resigned in protest. "It is a question of my own credibility with regards to how my church understands ministry and the church, including the ordination of women," Kaessmann said. She said it would be "no longer possible to celebrate ecumenical worship" at WCC events.

The central committee also voted to create two categories of participation: member churches and "churches in association with the WCC" that could send nonvoting representatives to the WCC central committee and assembly. The WCC will also establish a permanent committee to give advice on issues before they appear on the council agenda.

The changes, proposed by a special commission of the WCC, culminated a three-year effort to address unhappiness by the WCC's almost two dozen Orthodox bodies that have long complained that the organization is dominated by Protestant theology and decision-making styles. Matters came to a head in the late 1990s when two Orthodox churches--those of Georgia and Bulgaria--withdrew from the WCC. Following a statement issued by 15 Orthodox churches in May 1998 at the conclusion of a high-level Orthodox meeting at Thessaloniki, the WCC at its eighth Assembly created the special commission.

The consensus decision-making proposal has some worried that a handful of churches could block the WCC from taking action--a view expressed by Fernando Enns of the Mennonite Church of Germany. "I'm afraid, because this process could be abused," he said. "Some of us Protestants are afraid of you Orthodox. We need a period of trust-building so we can grow together, not just be together." But Gregor Henderson of the Uniting Church in Australia sought to allay the misgivings. "Our church went to [the consensus model] ten years ago and I would never go back," he said. "The respectful listening and more Christian decision-making it has produced has been a gift."

On the WCC'S worship life--hotly debated when the special commission's report was released early in the meeting--the committee approved a "framework for common prayer" that met demands from Orthodox churches for a clear definition between "confessional" services, often involving formal, prescribed worship liturgy, and the more blended services favored by Protestants.

Konrad Raiser, the WCC general secretary, spoke to fears that the framework might supersede the ecumenical body's existing guidelines on such matters as inclusive language. "We are not vacating existing guidelines," Raiser insisted. "They are not touched by this."

The proposal to create an "in association" category for nonvoting (and financially noncontributing) churches produced perhaps the most heated debate. Dean Anders Gadegaard of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark contended that "creating a whole new level of relationship is contrary to the spirit of the WCC, especially after the special commission worked so hard to address the grievances of the Orthodox churches to keep them as full members."

But ecumenical veteran Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America praised the proposal as exemplifying "the art of the possible." Taken as a whole, he said, the "substantive changes in ethos and style" adopted in Geneva "will, I believe, persuade some churches to become full members rather than `churches in association.'" --ENI