'Radical changes' for WCC - World Council of Churches

Christian Century, Sept 25, 1996

SOME OF THE basic structural principles and even the future identity of the World Council of Churches are being questioned as the organization reviews its vision and structure in the lead-up to its 50th anniversary in 1998. The WCC, which has 330 member churches, is facing major financial problems, and these are giving an added urgency to the review process.

The review will result in a new "common understanding and vision" (CUV) for the WCC, which could be adopted at its eighth assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1998. The process is intended to result in a renewed vision for the life and work of the WCC into the 21st century.

One of the most sensitive issues to be raised in CUV discussions is the "quota" system which attempts to ensure a balance in WCC committees and structures between clergy and laypeople and women and men, and to see to it that youth and people from different regions of the world are represented. Peter Lodberg, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, told a meeting on CW in Geneva on September 15 that the quotas are "breaking our system." He suggested that it might be better to "stress the importance of competence, and not if people are old or young, bishop or lay."

Janice Love, from the United Methodist Church in the U.S., told the meeting, held during a ten-day gathering of the WCC's Central Committee, that she disagreed "wholeheartedly" with Lodberg. "In the 1960s the widening participation of Africa and Asia and Latin America and the youth movements saved the life of the council as a renewal movement," she maintained. "The participation of women in the 1980s saved the movement to make it relevant for its time."

Barbara Bazett, of the Canadian Society of Friends (Quakers), described quotas as "essential." "We have not reached the point where we can do without them and still be representative," she said. "Look at the disciples; they were not all that competent."

Mac Charles Jones, of the National Baptist Convention of America and an executive with the National Council of Churches, argued that one doesn't "have to trade competence and balances." There are "competent people all over the world," he added, warning that cutting down structures "usually means that those who are the poorest and most marginalized are the ones who get cut out." He called for "processes to allow more inclusiveness."

Concerning the WCC's future, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America, told the meeting that the WCC is "hopelessly enmeshed in meetings of governing structures," with people "continually coming together to make decisions which are neither clear nor well implemented." Granberg-Michaelson said he supports the idea of a meeting of church leaders, "but not to make decisions. If we come together just to do business, it will kill the vision."

Granberg-Michaelson, who is also a former WCC staff member, pointed out that neither the Roman Catholic Church nor many of the fast-growing, independent, Pentecostal and evangelical churches are WCC members. A primary purpose of the WCC in the future should be to "deepen" the fellowship between different Christian traditions, including those that are not part of the WCC, he said. "Broadening--and even giving up the identity of the WCC for the sake of that unity--should be the purpose." He also suggested that the WCC's headquarters in Geneva (with a current staff of more than 250) might in future have a "flexible staff far smaller in number," with "perhaps 50 in Geneva."

Peter Lodberg also called for a "coherent system of cooperation" between the WCC, national and regional councils of churches around the world, and other Christian world bodies--a plea echoed by Heinz Ruegger of the Swiss Protestant Church Federation and by other Central Committee members.

Cristina Bosenberg, of the Evangelical Church of the River Plate, Argentina, questioned the trends in CUV discussion as a whole. Speaking after a meeting of Latin American members of the Central Committee, she warned that the WCC might be "adopting ideologies uncritically" and questioned whether the proposed changes in the WCC were coming from "powerful churches and their funding agencies." The WCC should not make "rash and uncritical reactions," she said.

In a report to a meeting of the WCC's Central Committee September 12, the council's general secretary, Konrad Raiser, called for radical changes in the organization's structure. Focusing on the WCC's financial situation, Raiser predicted that traditional income from churches and church bodies would decline further and indicated that no substantial increases could be foreseen. There is little prospect of "immediate relief" by finding new sources of income, he added.

Raiser informed the 156-member Central Committee that the WCC's ability to respond to its "basic mandate" is not in jeopardy. However, its income is no longer sufficient to maintain its present level of activities. Possibilities for savings through further staff reductions within the existing WCC structure have been "virtually exhausted." To regain financial viability, Raiser said, the WCC would have to implement "basic changes" before its Harare assembly.