Episcopal News Service: Press Release # 75436

Mrs. Wedel Elected a World Council President

Diocesan Press Service. December 8, 1975 [75436]

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) for the first time elected two women -- including a U.S. Episcopalian -- and a Russian as presidents.

The two women elected to the WCC's six-member presidium are Dr. Cynthia Wedel, an Episcopalian, and a psychologist of Alexandria, Va., and former president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and Annie Baeta Jiagge, a Presbyterian, and an Appeals Court Justice of Ghana.

Metropolitan Nikodim, Orthodox Archbishop of Leningrad, was elected as one of the presidents in spite of efforts by several delegates to enter a candidate to oppose the Russian church leader.

The other new presidents, who are the top officers and spokesmen for the 286- member Council of Anglican, Orthodox, Old Catholic, and Protestant communions, representing 500 million people, were : Archbishop Olof Sundby, primate of the Lutheran Church of Sweden; the Rev. J. Miguez-Bonino, a leading Argentine Methodist theologian and president of a Buenos Aires seminary; and Tahibonar Simatupang of the Indonesian Christian Church and president of the Indonesian Council of Churches.

The Assembly also elected new members to the WCC 136-member Central Committee, which decides policy in the seven-year intervals between General Assemblies. The six presidents are automatically members of that body.

The Central Committee includes 58 members from Third World nations, 56 from North America and Western Europe, and 21 members from Soviet-bloc countries.

The Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches -- the first-ever on African soil -- got off to a joyful and colorful start Sunday afternoon, November 23, when 2,000 Christian leaders and visitors from all parts of the world massed in the flower and fountain-filled plaza of the Kenyatta Conference Centre. To the accompaniment of African singing and drumming they moved into the Great Hall for a Litany of the Word, contemporary hymns, prayers for peace in Angola and the Middle East, for the Church and its renewal -- and for the Fifth Assembly itself.

The homily was delivered by the Rev. Seth Nomenyo of the Evangelical Church of Togo, who asserted, "We are here to say that in the world's night we hear, we see, we notice something, and that over and above our confessional divisions we are one in what we hear, see, and notice -- and that we want to speak and act as a result. "

The keynote address was made by Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, a United Presbyterian, and a professor of theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif., who said that Jesus Christ divides as well as frees and unites. He said that the Fifth Assembly's theme -- "Jesus Christ Frees and Unites " -- must also include the claim that Jesus is a divider. "As Jesus liberates us," he said, "we are required to face the potential divisions that liberation brings, so that we can move towards a truer unity than would otherwise be possible." Commitment to Jesus, he said, divides Christians from the majority of the human family who make no such commitment.

Dr. Brown also stressed that Jesus is the unifier and that those who respond to him have the task of demonstrating that they are sufficiently free to go beyond their divisions and to begin to embody the unity to which Jesus calls. This, he said, will require confession and repentance before God -- and one another.

Dr. M. M. Thomas of Bangalore, a layman of the Mar Thoma Church of India, and retiring chairman of the WCC's Central Committee, said in his report that a new theological understanding of the relation between the Church and the world has been achieved during the past seven years since the Assembly met in Uppsala.

He said that for the first time the poor, the marginal, the oppressed "have ceased to be external objects for observation and have become internal realities of the Council. The presence within the church of people of different cultures, ideologies, and religious backgrounds, all of whom are becoming aware of their unique identity, is beginning to produce different understandings of Jesus Christ and of the form of the church. "

Dr. Philip A. Potter, in his first report as General Secretary of the WCC to an Assembly, called on member churches to build a covenant relationship at all levels of their life and work together. "The time has come for us really to work out ways in which there can be a genuine chain of partnership in obedience between the people of God in each place and in all places, " he said.

He said that such ecumenism is the only way the churches can be "liberated for community, for truly charismatic fellowship."

Dr. Potter, a Methodist minister from the West Indies, has headed the WCC staff since 1972.

Dr. Potter read a message from Pope Paul VI in which the Pontiff said, "We trust that the efforts which the Catholic Church has made and will continue to make to promote the ecumenical movement and, wherever possible, to collaborate with the World Council of Churches will continue and grow even greater with God's help. "

Roman Catholic -WCC cooperation was quite visible at the Nairobi assembly in the 16 delegated observers named by a unit of the Vatican, through a report of the Joint Working Group for the Assembly, and the participation of 10 advisors and other Catholics in the Assembly proceedings.

The Joint Working Group left in abeyance the question of Roman Catholic membership in the WCC but suggested that both parties "remain open to unexpected possibilities " and face the future with "renewed commitment."

Dr. Potter also presented messages from leaders of Orthodox churches, Including Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the world's Eastern Orthodox Christians; Patriarch Pimen, head of the Russian Orthodox Church; and Patriarch Abuna Theophilos of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The themes of freedom and unity underscored in the three messages related closely to the Assembly's theme.

Prime Minister Michael N. Manley of Jamaica in an address to the Assembly made a strong plea for churches to encourage and support "participatory democracy." To remain silent, he said, where there is injustice and domination is to be "willing accomplices and co-partners in the crime against religion and humanity. "

The Prime Minister's address was the second occasion on which a head of government gave a major talk at a WCC Assembly, the first being in 1968, when President Kenneth Kaunda of Zamibia addressed the Fourth Assembly in Uppsala.

An indication of wide interest in evangelism among the delegates at the WCC Assembly was that, of six sections studying issues and drafting reports, the most popular topic was "Confessing Christ Today," the section where evangelism concerns were lodged.

The evangelism document which was adopted by the Assembly said, "We deplore widespread, cheap conversions without consequences," emphasizing that true Christianity requires church members to apply the principles of their faith to world problems. It goes on to deplore "conversions without witness to Christ," and "a superficial Gospel preaching, an empty Gospel without a call into personal and communal discipleship. "

The document notes that "evangelization of the world starts at the level of the congregation. "

The report on education is critical of schooling which alienates persons from the culture which bred them. It calls for greater participation by lay persons in the control of education. "Theological education," the document says, "belongs to the whole people of God in the equipping of them for ministry. "

The Council approved a plan to support liberation efforts around the world and to fight sex discrimination and racism. The document will be distributed to the member churches whose combined membership is 500 million persons.

"Racism," the report says, "is today as acute as ever because of its institutional penetration." The churches were urged to "re-examine their use of human and material resources so that they can effectively support liberation efforts. " South Africa was singled out as a nation deserving "continued priority" in the fight against racism.

On sex discrimination, the report said, "The liberation of women will be taken seriously when it is linked with the liberation of all oppressed people. "

It said further that "inclusive imagery and language about God and the people of God is crucial to the self-identity and faith of women. A variety of both masculine and feminine images of God need to be used in order to reflect the depth of the mystery of God, who transcends all human metaphors."

The document as adopted addressed a broad range of human rights -- self-determination, cultural identity, decision-making within the community, dissent, personal dignity, religious freedom, and basic guarantees for life.

Dr. Charles Birch, professor of biology at the University of Sydney and vice chairman of the WCC 's Church and Society Committee, became the first natural scientist to give a major address at a WCC Assembly, when he delivered his paper on "Creation, Technology and Human Survival. "

A Methodist layman, Dr. Birch warned that "science and technology will not always be able to pull a technological rabbit out of the hat to save us in the last minute."

In conclusion he said, "If we are to break the poverty barrier for almost two-thirds of the earth's people, if we are to continue to inhabit the earth, there has to be a revolution in the relationship of human beings to the earth and of human beings to each other. The churches of the world have now to choose whether or not they become part of

Fifteen new churches were accepted into the WCC by the Fifth Assembly, eight as full members and seven as associate members, bringing the total membership in the 27-year-old ecumenical body to 286 churches in more than 90 countries on all six continents. Each of the new member churches was authorized to name at least one delegate to the current Assembly, and each new associate member to name a fraternal delegate.

NOTE : In addition to the photographs enclosed (see next page for captions) the following photographs are available from the DPS office on request:

Dr. Cynthia Wedel

Dr. Robert McAfee Brown delivering the keynote address

Dr. M.M. Thomas of India giving his report

Dr. Philip A. Potter, WCC General Secretary, making his address

Prime Minister Michael N. Manley of Jamaica speaking to the Assembly

Presentation of a drama, "Muntu, " by Joe de Graft

Three speakers at session on women