THE World Council of Churches faces significant challenges as it marks its 60th anniversary, leaders said this month.
Members of its central committee, meeting in Geneva from 13 to 20 February, said it is failing to make its presence sufficiently felt, while it also faces decreased funding, reports Ecumenical News International.
The Council was founded in 1948, and had a high profile in the ’70s and ’80s because of its support for the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and for its part as go-between in the East-West conflict, said the Rt Revd Martin Hein, a bishop in the Evangelical Church in Germany, in an interview. But the absence of such high-profile issues in recent years is one of the reasons why the WCC has failed to get noticed, he said.
The general secretary of the WCC, the Most Revd Samuel Kobia, said that the fastest growing churches seemed to be mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and were charismatic or Pentecostal. WCC members are mainly Protestant or Anglican, drawn from Europe and North America. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member, but works with the WCC on a number of issues.
During its meeting the central committee will be considering a new communications strategy.
An ecumenical service to mark the anniversary will be held this Sunday at St Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, where the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I will speak. |
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