World Council Assembly: Comment and Recommendation
Episcopal News Service. August 25, 1983 [83156]
NEW YORK (DPS,Aug.25) -- Although resolutions condemning various acts of military aggression around the world garnered the most press attention from the recently-concluded Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, many observers are already saying that it was in areas of theology and faith that this assembly will leave its greatest mark on the Churches.
Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia in late July and early August, the Council's highest governing body elected officers for the coming years and sent to its 300 member Churches a series of reports for study, reflection and response. (EDs: See DPS 83147 and 83148 for Assembly details)
In the Episcopal Church, such response will come through the General Convention which is expected to take up these matters in 1985 when it meets in Anaheim, Calif. Resources and reflections for its action will come to Convention from the dioceses of the Church, the Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers and other groups that will study the reports over the coming years.
Preliminary work will include a report from Presiding Bishop John M. Allin, the Rev. William A. Norgren, ecumenical officer at the Episcopal Church Center, and members of the Episcopal Church's delegation who collaborated on a draft report of the Assembly's actions.
While it is impossible to say what shape the Episcopal Church's response will take eventually, the preliminary comments and recommendations garnered from that report are designed to help congregations and interested groups engage in the necessary reflection.
- "The call to deepening of faith and accompanying witness began with the opening service of the Assembly when in the homily appeared the list of martyrs since the last Assembly. The central and spiritually refreshing worship and more space to the affirmation of biblical themes are marks of significant progress."
- "The peace and unity of the people of God should be a growing concern. So many churches are in weak positions, confronted with the powers arrayed against them. They need the ecumenical network; they want it strengthened. A new understanding about the meaning of the shared Christian life may be what we most remember about the Assembly."
- "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, spoke well in the plenary when he affirmed that the multilateral and bilateral dialogues are essential to each other. He warned that we must not play the one off against the other."
- "The Western peace movement was also challenged at the Assembly to understand that confessing Jesus Christ today means responding to the biblical mandate for peace, justice, and reconciliation as a whole. One cannot use the issue of peace to escape from unresolved issues of injustice, poverty, hunger, racism."
- "Non-Anglicans observed that Anglicans played a major role in key places in the Assembly, especially Archbishop Edward Scott as Moderator of the Central Committee, Cynthia Wedel as a president, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Archbishop W.P.K. Makhulu of Nigeria as one of the new presidents."
- "The Assembly challenged stereotypes of the World Council and showed up the distortions conveyed by some of the media about the Council and its work. Sweeping denunciations by some fringe groups in the U.S.A. and elsewhere amount in our judgement to false witness against their neighbors."
- "We must also share some perplexities about the process. The time was too short in the issue groups to enable them to say what the real priorities are or to exercise theological judgements. What is shared in the issue group reports may not always, therefore, reflect major priorities for the churches.
- "Outstanding differences between confessions, cultures, and regions of the world make it very clear that the Council will be useful for a long time to come. The churches need a forum for justice issues in different parts of the world, theologies of peace, scientific and medical ethics, doctrine and authority in the Church, the community of women and men in the Church, etc., etc., etc."
This report is addressed to the Episcopal Church. Your church's representatives are reporting to you what the Assembly of representatives from churches around the world believe we should be saying to the world. A wider audience can be reached by members of the Episcopal Church. We invite Episcopalians to reach out.
- A key step is to obtain the inexpensive summary of all the reports, statements and events of the Assembly: Vancouver Voices, Charles Long, Editor. Available in November from Forward Movement Publications, 412 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202; toll-free number 800: 543:1813.
- A primary resource is the agreed statement Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, a landmark on the way toward unity of the Church. Share in the building of the ecumenical "house" where you are by starting "living room dialogue" groups around this statement, which shows that theological disagreements are being overcome. Also, get ready to support study of Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry in your diocese, sponsored by Diocesan Ecumenical Officers (EDEB) in preparation for the 1985 General Convention, when the Episcopal Church will make an official response to the BEM statement. Available: Friendship Press, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 722, New York, NY 10115; 212: 870-2586. $3.50
- The excellent Ecumenical Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism deserves to receive major attention in the Episcopal Church and its networks. When so many people have not yet heard the Gospel, the Church has to hear Christ's mandate that it be proclaimed to all peoples. Available: NCCC/DOM, Room 620, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115. $1.00
- The report of the Sheffield Conference titled The Community of Women and Men in the Church will appeal to those who wish to work on women's (and men's) issues. Available: Friendship Press, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 772, New York NY 100115; 212: 870-2586. $13.95
- Seek out the delegates of the Episcopal Church (and other churches) and others at Vancouver and get them to share their impressions, ideas, and recommendations.
- Refer Vancouver reports and statements to appropriate official bodies of the Episcopal Church.