World Council of Churches

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World Council of Churches

Throughout 1998 the World Council of Churches (WCC) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, culminating in a service of recommitment by member churches to the ecumenical movement at its eighth World Assembly, in Harare, Zimbabwe. As a hopeful effort in the aftermath of World War II, Christian leaders from around the world brought together two strains of ecumenism at Amsterdam in 1948. The actual birth of the ecumenical movement, however, is generally dated from a meeting of missionary societies in 1910 at Edinburgh, Scotland. In Lausanne, in 1927, the Faith and Order Commission was formed; the Life and Work Commission began in Stockholm in 1925. Both of these commissions were united in Amsterdam to form the World Council of Churches, to which the International Missionary Council was added in 1961.

When founded, the WCC had 147 member churches, mostly Anglican and Protestant from North America and Western Europe. Gradually churches from all parts of the world have joined—332 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox churches, totaling roughly 500 million Christians by 1998. Although it cooperates on several key issues, the Roman Catholic Church is not a member. In their pursuit of Christian unity, WCC member churches, confessing the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior, have been moving toward an essential identity as a "fellowship of churches" rather than as an agency conducting programs and activities apart from its members. They also have become more conscious of the WCC as one part of a many-centered network of ecumenical partners that includes a wide variety of ecumenical bodies, churches not affiliated with the WCC (the Roman Catholic Church and Pentecostal and Evangelical bodies especially), and less formal organizations and groups.

Throughout its more than fifty years the WCC has undergone various restructurings. It has entered another as it tries to integrate its work in four basic areas under one administrative whole:

Selected issue and theme priorities (including the historic groupings of Faith and Order; Mission and Evangelism; Justice, Peace, and Creation; and Education and Ecumenical Formation).
Ecumenical, regional, interreligious, and international relations.
Communication, public information, publications, and documents.
Finances, personnel, house services, and computer and technology services.

Participation in the WCC has always been strenuous for its member churches. The issues of faith and order often took priority in the early years of its formation and were marked by dominant European scholarship. After World War II, much work was done immediately to provide aid to refugees and displaced persons and to serve in the rebuilding of communities torn apart during the war. The 1966 Geneva conference "Church and Society" brought many more participants from the Third World, who have continued to press for WCC priorities toward systemic change and justice issues, especially for the poor, ethnic/racial groups, and women. The WCC's Program to Combat Racism has been one of its most controversial efforts, because it attempted to alleviate suffering in areas of Africa, especially where conflict between political groups was occurring. The WCC has been at the forefront of concern for the degradation of the environment and has significantly tied this concern to justice and peace in its 1990 world convocation "Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation" in Seoul, South Korea. It has also championed the dignity of women through the "Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women" program.

Approximately every seven or eight years the WCC holds its World Assembly, which is the highest decision-making body. Past World Assemblies have been held, each with a central theme, in the United States (1954), India (1961), Sweden (1968), Kenya (1975), Canada (1983), and Australia (1991). The theme at the 1998 Harare, Zimbabwe, Assembly was "Turn to God—Rejoice in Hope." At this eighth World Assembly the delegates considered a major policy document titled "Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of Churches," which was intended as a point of reference and charter for the future.

Between assemblies, a 156-member Central Committee, elected by the World Assembly, meets annually to monitor and develop policies set by the Assembly. There is a general secretary of the WCC, who since January 1993 has been Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser, a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany. He meets semiannually with the Central Committee's Executive Committee, including its several presidents and officers.

The Administrative Center of the WCC is in Geneva, at 150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland. A modest U.S. WCC office is at 475 Riverside Drive, Room 915, New York, NY 10115.