World Council to U.S.: leave Iraq

Christian Century, Sept 20, 2003

THE MAIN governing body of the World Council of Churches, struggling with finances but buoyed by electing an African pastor as its top official, lost little of its feistiness toward Western powers at a pivotal conference in Geneva. The WCC's Central Committee called for the replacement of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq by United Nations personnel despite apparently slim chances for that to happen.

"It's very clear that to do this, the UN Security Council would have to take action against two of its permanent members, which is not likely," said Peter Weiderud, director of the WGC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. "But there is a need to look at the totality of the situation in Iraq."

Nevertheless, at the same time in Washington, the White House and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said they were planning to offer the UN a more prominent role in security operations in Iraq, where U.S. and British troops have continued to suffer casualties during the coalition's postwar occupation. Powell told reporters September 3 that diplomats at the UN would be approached with a draft resolution to share in Iraq political and economic transition.

The WCC statement, approved unanimously with two abstentions September 1, reiterated a previous stance that the invasion of Iraq was "immoral, ill advised and in breach of the principles of the UN charter." But the committee focused most of its attention on the postwar rebuilding of Iraq, calling for the UN Security Council "to insist on the establishment of a legitimate, sovereign, elected and inclusive government as early as possible and for the immediate and orderly withdrawal of the occupying forces."

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leader Clifton Kirkpatrick said he was "deeply grateful for this statement which gives some understanding of what we're to do next, because we have been so concerned with trying to stop the war."

The Central Committee also implied that the prosecution of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for war crimes could be an appropriate result of what it called the "illegal resort to war" on Iraq. But the statement also praised the Bush-urged UN lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq after 13 years and called for the cancellation of Iraq's debt.

The WCC affirmed the role of Iraq's churches in the reconstruction of Iraq and the interreligions cooperation that is being demonstrated there. It pledged the WCC's commitment to support those efforts.

In a leadership transition, the committee elected the WCC's first African general secretary, Sam Kobia of the Methodist Church in Kenya, who will take office in January. He succeeds Konrad Raiser of the Evangelical Church in Germany, who has served for 11 years.

The committee's 134 voting members present considered one other candidate besides Kobia--Lutheran Trond Bakkevig of the Church of Norway. Sources said Kobia got 78 votes to 52 for Bakkevig, with four abstentions. Kobia has been serving as staff director at the WCC and from 1999 to 2002 directed the 55-year-old ecumenical organization's social and theological programs.

One of the first to congratulate Kobia was the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Ishmael Noko, a Zimbabwean Kobia's special competence "lies in the area of peace and reconciliation" as well as in his "strong awareness of the dimensions of church life in the southern hemisphere, within the great diversity of the church universal," said Noko.

Kobia said Africa is likely to be "the center of Christianity in terms of numbers" this century, and as such will present new opportunities for broadening ecumenical borders. He cited Pentecostal churches known as the African Instituted Churches as interested in membership. But he said expanded interreligious contacts would also receive high priority.

It is a slimmer, tighter-budget World Council these days, however. Senior finance officials said in late August that expenditures were under control, largely through personnel cuts, although income continues to decline. "What you could have called one or two years ago a crisis is over," said Anders Gadegaard, vice-moderator of the WCC's finance committee, to reporters during the meeting.

A financial report for 2002 to the Central Committee showed that the income from contributions as a whole--41.9 million Swiss francs--was 800,000 Swiss francs less than budgeted and 3.2 million less than the previous year. Moderator of the finance committee, Bishop McKinley Young of the U.S., said that income was expected to decrease again in 2004, resulting in "a need for cost cutting measures to continue."

Officials announced September 2 that the WCC's 2006 General Assembly, an every-seven-years event to be held next in Brazil, will get only half the money allotted for the previous meeting, in Zimbabwe. The Brazil meeting will be two days shorter and have a third fewer delegates. It will also have a less expensive venue than previous gatherings.--Compiled from ENI