Ecumenical council gathers in shadow of
bleeding Mother Africa
By Patricia
Lefevere Special to the National Catholic
Reporter Harare, Zimbabwe
The world church turned its attention to Africa this month,
visiting a continent where the Body of Christ is growing faster than anywhere
else on earth. It also saw that body mortally wounded, impoverished and
diseased.
War, communal and domestic violence, a towering debt burden,
corruption, human rights violations and the growing specter of HIV-AIDS were
never far from the deliberations of the nearly 5,000 persons who attended the
World Council of Churches Eighth Assembly here Dec. 3-14.
Participants arrived from 339 Protestant and Orthodox churches in
some 100 lands, speaking and praying in scores of languages. Many expressed joy
at hearing the gospel in the unique rhythms and flavors of Mother Africa,
so easily forgotten and ignored by the powerful when convenient, so unknown by
so many, so exploited and stepped upon by others, noted Disciples of
Christ pastor Eunice Santana of Puerto Rico. Santana preached the homily at the
opening service, reminding those in the huge worship tent that it was in Africa
where Jesus received asylum as an infant 2,000 years ago.
Alongside Zimbabwes grim tallies -- unemployment, more than
50 percent; inflation, 45 percent in 1998; and AIDS deaths, 700 recorded weekly
-- hung the assembly theme, Turn to God, Rejoice in Hope.
Turning to God meant turning to ones neighbor in active
love, justice and reconciliation, urged Greek Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios of
Albania. Many got the message. When the basket was passed, a rarity at a World
Council event, $5,000 was collected: $2,500 for victims of AIDS, the same for
survivors of Hurricane Mitch. But the worlds suffering people wanted more
than a handout. They sought assurances that the World Councils member
churches would pressure their governments and the banking world to repeal
Africas $227 billion debt, which is costing $379 for every African each
year on a continent where most people earn under $2 a day.
Two of Africas presidents -- Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and
Nelson Mandela of South Africa -- addressed the assembly, appealing to the
consciences of those World Council leaders and their followers, who, 30 years
ago, approved the organizations controversial Program to Combat
Racism.
The name of the WCC struck fear in the hearts of those who
ruled our country during the inhuman days of apartheid, Mandela told a
cheering throng on hand to mark the anniversary of the World Councils
founding in Amsterdam 50 years ago.
Mugabes appearance won less praise. Polite applause greeted
his 50-minute speech, much of it extolling the contributions made by white
Catholic and Protestant missionaries to Southern Africa. Mugabe is Catholic,
Mandela a Methodist.
Journalists questioned whether the World Council had lost an
opportunity to engage Mugabe about the effects his policies are having on the
nations economy and work force. World Council representatives responded
that it would have been improper for them, as guests in Zimbabwe, to criticize
Mugabes one-party state or his spending $1 million daily to support an
unpopular war in the Congo.
On the eve of the assembly, Ecumenical Support Services, a
progressive Christian organization based in Zimbabwe, issued the Zimbabwe
Kairos Document, which states that the country has been plunged into a
political, economic and moral crisis that is shaking its very
foundations. It pointed to a trampling of democracy by a Soviet-style
state that used tanks and bullets against unarmed demonstrators
last January, who protested against rising food and fuel prices.
And it regretted that new black political and economic
elites ... have replaced the old colonial elites. Although the Catholic
Justice and Peace Commission of Zimbabwe has consistently challenged
injustices, both before and after independence in 1980, few other churches have
done so, according to the document, which blamed churches for not educating
their members about abuses of power by authorities. Assembly speakers
acknowledged the complexities of debt and corruption issues, noting that
corruption affects all nations.
The 960 voting delegates appealed to leaders of developed nations
to cancel the debts of the poorest nations to enable them to enter the
new millennium with a fresh start and to reduce substantially the debts of
middle-income nations.
In their message, they called for a new, independent arbitration
process for negotiating debt cancellation. Acknowledging that tough
conditions should be imposed on debtor governments, the World Council
asked that these not be a prerequisite for cancellation. It suggested that
community organizations, including churches, determine and monitor the
conditions for canceling debts.
An idea floated by World Council General Secretary Konrad Raiser
for the past two years for the Forum of Christian Churches and Ecumenical
Organizations, appeared to win favor here.
Some at Harare were already calling the forum a
pan-Christian council. The initiative has been included in the
World Councils newest study document, Toward a Common Understanding
and Vision, the process by which the council hopes to guide the
ecumenical movement into the new millennium.
Paulist Fr. Thomas Stransky, reacting to the idea of the forum,
said he did not rule out some sort of future restructuring that
might allow the Roman Catholic church to reverse its 1972 decision to not seek
World Council membership. Stransky, one of 23 Catholic observers at Harare,
directs the Tantur Ecumenical Institute near Jerusalem and was handpicked by
the Vatican to attend the session here.
Stransky emphasized that the Catholic church is already a full
member of 56 of the 88 national councils of churches worldwide.
Far more pressing, for the moment at Harare, were concerns about
who would enter the World Council fellowship and which of the current members
would bolt. The assembly voted to delay the membership application of the
Celestial Church of Christ in Nigeria because the church still has a polygamous
clergy, even though in 1986 it stopped ordaining people with more than one
spouse and now requests its new clergy to live monogamously.
The Georgian and Bulgarian Orthodox churches have quit the council
in recent months, and the Russian Orthodox church has threatened to leave the
World Councils Central Committee. Some 70 Eastern and Oriental Orthodox
churches comprise about one-third of the World Councils Christians.
Currently, they are nervously reluctant participants, and yet
the future of the WCC is uncertain without them, according to
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey.
The Anglican primate, in his Dec. 13 homily here, reflected the
mood of many who see the councils greatest challenge as that of balancing
the needs of the ancient, tradition-bound churches and those of the more
liberal Reformation communions. Harsh words emerged in the debate. A Russian
Orthodox priest wanted to know why it was divisive to talk about
the veneration of Mary or of icons, but not divisive to talk about
womens ordination. Another Russian Orthodox delegate said that the call
for inclusive language in church doctrine and liturgy was
blasphemous, while Albanian Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios said:
Keep your Common Understanding and Vision. We will go out.
Yet a majority of delegates gave sustained applause to Anglican
priest Rose Hudson-Wilkin when she said that the struggle was really about
power. Its about: My church is bigger than yours, or I
have more money than you or My church has this long and important
tradition.
She said if churches want to listen to each other, they cannot do
it from a distance. It means walking side by side with me, even if you
are uncomfortable. It is hoped that some of the discomfort will be
overcome by the establishment of a special theological commission that will
deliberate on Orthodox participation in the World Council and other concerns
for at least three years.
Although the 50-year milestone led to reflection on the
achievements of the ecumenical movement and the council, it also prompted Carey
to almost agree with those who call the World Council a
cul-de-sac into which ideas are lured and quietly strangled.
Despite the tripling of Christendoms members this century
and the growth of the visible unity of the church, the splits are wider
now, Carey said. Our sense of mission is under attack. Western
Christianitys preoccupation with single issue matters [is] sapping the
churchs energy and claiming nearly its full attention, Carey said.
In some sections of the world, we are bleeding to death, the
prelate said, referring to questions of gay and lesbian participation,
womens ordination and left-right polarities over doctrine and church
polity.
Carey said he thanked God for the enormous vitality of
Africas faith, but added that Africa was bleeding from
all that it had to bear. He recalled the words of Catholic Bishop Paridi Taban
of Torit, Sudan, who talked about the difficulty of evangelism in refugee
camps. Empty stomachs have no ears, he said.
Taban preached at the assemblys African churches service
Dec. 5. Pleading before thousands in a soccer stadium, he asked the
worlds churches to demand a no-fly zone over the southern Sudan so that
the Khartoum government would stop the devilish bombs, which have
killed many and left deep psychological scars, he said. Survivors have asked
the world, through Taban, to test them for suspected chemical poisoning from
the bombs.
Muslim observers were among a number of non-Christian
representatives and visitors at the assembly. Jews, Hindus and Buddhists also
took part causing Atonement friar Ellias Mellon of New York to applaud the
interfaith dimensions of Harare.
As participants gathered each day for worship on the grounds of
the University of Zimbabwe, they confronted a teak cross 14 feet high with a
carved continent of Africa across its center.
It was before this cross that the very sandals of God are
removed, read a part of the assemblys message to a poor and
bleeding Africa and to a church not yet one, not yet truly catholic, at times
unholy and still struggling with apostolic questions.
Leaders of the worlds churches, still unable to take
Intercommunion after a century of meetings and 35 years of ecumenical
dialogues, exchanged crosses as a sign of their unity and their brokenness in a
service of recommitment Dec. 13.
World Council of Churches: http://wccx.wcc-coe.org/
National Catholic Reporter, December 25,
1998
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