Message for Pentecost from the Presidents of the World Council of Churches
Diocesan Press Service. May 5, 1968 [65-2]
"A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT"
"A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you: and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you." Ezekiel 36:26-27
The Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches will meet this summer at Uppsala, Sweden, July 4 - 20. Its theme will be the triumphant promise, "Behold I make all things new" (Rev. 5:21). As Presidents of the World Council of Churches, on this day of Pentecost, we ask you to pray with us for the Spirit of God, who alone can make things new.
The New Testament promise of renewal is rooted in the Old Testament. The prophet Ezekiel proclaimed it to the exiles in Babylon. But he warned them that their return to the land of their fathers would not automatically ensure the creative renewal of their national life. The greed and injustice of the past must first be purged. In place of their hard hearts, they would need a new heart and a new spirit, which God alone could give them. God had promised to give them his own Spirit, that the dry bones of their common life might take flesh again and they might live as his people in harmony and at peace.
Christians believe that on the day of Pentecost, this prophecy began to be fulfilled. On that day the Spirit of God was given to the followers of Jesus. A new community was born of those who in every age have sought in their life together to practice the love of God. We thank God that the Spirit is active in the Church; but we also ask his pardon, that by the faults and divisions of Christians, the work of the Spirit has so often been hindered. If the dry bones are to live, our hearts of stone must be converted.
We thank God, too, that we have seen the Spirit of God at work in the world, renewing society from within and transforming the relationships of men and of nations. The Spirit who makes all things new is active today in the common effort of men for justice and for peace, for education and for development. He is active as well in all scientific and technological advance insofar as it enables us to begin to supply the material needs of men and thus prepare the ground for a world community.
We call you, therefore, the people of God, to pray for the renewal and unity of the Church, and also for the renewal and unity of the world. Our task is not only to pray. In Ezekiel's message the transformation of society was to be the evidence of conversion. If God has given us a new heart and a new spirit, he expects of us prayers in our churches and deeds in the world. Let this day of Pentecost be a day of renewal of our personal life; but let it also be a day of commitment for each congregation of God's people to loving and practical action for the renewal of society.
The Presidents of the World Council of Churches
Honorary president: J. H. Oldham -- St. Leonards-on-Sea, United Kingdom
The Archbishop of Canterbury -- London
Archbishop Iakovos -- New York
Dr. Francis Ibiam -- Enugu, Nigeria
Principal David G. Moses -- Nagpur, India
Charles Parlin - New York
Dr. Martin Niemoeller-- Wiesbaden, Germany