Editor EMILIO CASTRO

Managing Editors T. K . THOMAS MARLIN VANELDEREN

Editorial Assistant JOAN CAMBITSIS

The quarterly of the World Council of Churches

Editorial Some weeks ago I was in Paris at a press conference organized by the Association

of Religious Journalists. We had more than two hours of very intensive discussion. The very first question put to me was: Why is the World Council of Churches not more involved in human rights questions in socialist countries? The very last question was: Why is the World Council so involved in New Caledonia as to write a letter of encouragement to its member church there which is supporting the struggle of its people for independence? Of course, in between were many questions covering a variety of issues: the current discussion on baptism, eucharist and ministry; the search for a new spirituality; the participation of women in the life of the church; nuclear winter; the place of Christian evangelism at a time when ancient religions are showing tremendous signs of vitality; the challenges of modem science; and so on. In two hours, bracketed by one demand for greater involvement and another for less, I was asked about a wide spectrum of ecumenical concerns and a fair cross-section of the many activities of the World Council of Churches.

It is not surprising that the WCC Assembly in Vancouver, having received a detailed picture of these diverse activities of the World Council, called for a study of its undergirding theological presuppositions. The Assembly wanted the Council to grow towards a vital and coherent theology. It said: “A vital theology will incorporate the rich diversity of theological approaches emerging out of the varied experiences of churches throughout the world. A coherent theological approach will incorporate tradition and methods of reflection which represent the concrete needs and call of each and all members of the ecumenical movement towards unity of life and faith.”’

’ Gatheredfor Life, ed. David Gill, report of the WCC Sixth Assembly, Vancouver 1983, Geneva, WCC, 1983, p.251.

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THE ECUMENICAL REVIEW

This issue of The Ecumenical Review is an attempt to recall and reappropriate the basic vocation and the raison d’gtre of the World Council of Churches. The Council projects different images to different people. The media coverage of its activities can distort the total picture. In the day-to-day life of the Council, our own enthusiasm or preference for a particular dimension of Christian obedience can also create imbal- ances. That is why it is important for us to go back to our roots, to rediscover and to reaffirm our vocation and to recapture the vision of that united church which was also the object of the prayer of Jesus “that the world may believe”.

Whenever a church applies for membership in the World Council of Churches, it is invited to affirm, together with the other 303 member churches, the Basis of our common faith:

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That basic affirmation has of course a kind of juridical role. It is the fundamental

common doctrinal affirmation that is expectedof every church which would like to belong to this fellowship. It is a common doctrinal point of reference and it provides a criterion to assess potential candidates for membership. It has a legal function, which we cannot do without, and is particularly important in such a loose association of churches as the World Council is. We are afellowship of autonomous, independent churches; the World Council as such has no authority over the churches, except that moral or spiritual authority which the churches themselves would like to recognize in what it says and does.

We need to be clear on the basic tenets of our faith, and our Christian freedom should not be confused with arbitrariness or lack of conviction. We believe in the authority of the Bible. We believe that Jesus Christ is God and Saviour. Through Christ we are empowered to discern God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and in him we discern our vocation to confess, through service and proclamation and through commitment to justice in the life of nations and communities. This is our common calling, and by fulfilling it we glorify God.

The Basis has a clear legal role, but this does not limit or exhaust its total richness. In fact, if the Basis were only a doctrinal safeguard, it would soon become a legalistic document without the power to inspire devotion and commitment. But this statement on the character of the World Council as a fellowship of churches is fundamentally a spiritual affirmation. We believe that we are called by God to come together and to work together, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, seeking a more profound Christian unity and expressing our belonging together in God’s mission of love manifested in Jesus Christ.

This issue of The Ecumenical Review, built around the central affirmation of the being of the World Council of Churches, is an invitation to Christians and churches everywhere to join with all those who already enjoy this fellowship and attempt together to confess Jesus Christ. The articles are by people who are, or have been, very much involved in the life of the Council. They are not in any sense official exegeses of the Basis of the WCC, but because they represent a variety of perspectives, together they provide an opportunity to review where we are and to plan where we should be going.

The original version of the Basis read: “The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of Churches which accept our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.” From

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a relatively simple Christological statement, the Basis grew into a more comprehen- sive trinitarian affirmation. What was perhaps conceived as a basic juridical statement developed into a doxology. Indeed we cannot come together or stay together as Christians without being led by the Spirit to prayer, worship and adoration. There is no meeting organized by the World Council where the reading and study of the Bible and the adoration of God do not play a central role. We could be discussing the most “secular” topics, like the balance of power in the nuclear age, or hunger in Africa, or the search for national identity in Asia; but we would not be able.to meet together to think and plan and act in any of these areas of concern without the joy and the discipline of searching the scriptures for inspiration and praying together. :

In the last few years, the World Council has been advocating people’s participation both in the life of our societies and in the life of our churches. It should be no surprise then that the same demand for participation is heard within the Council also, and debates take place regarding the representation of member churches in the elected bodies of the World Council. These can sometimes lead to power struggles of the kind we associate with political campaigning.

The Basis of the World Council is a necessary spiritual corrective to the institutionalization of the Council and the trends resulting from it. Real participation is our belonging to a fellowship where churches recognize each other - if not de jure, then defucto - as members in the same body of Jesus Christ; and where churches which cannot yet recognize each other as “full churches” because of their different ecclesiological self-understandings, at least recognize that they have enough in common to extend the hand of fellowship to others. Participation is our waiting and working together for the miracle of unity.

Those who understand this basic affirmation of the identity and vocation of the WCC will not be surprised by the variety of human engagements in which the Council is involved. They are not political or secular activities; they are intended to be testimonies made to the vision of the glory of God, fully manifested in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of humankind. With Irenaeus of Lyons in the second century, we affirm Gloria dei, vivens homo - the glory of God in the living human being.

Included in the issue are three articles which do not deal directly with the Basis but are nevertheless important in our study of the Basis. One of them reviews Roman Catholic-WCC relations, and makes a plea “for a basis beyond the Basis, limited to be sure, but at least not a neutral ecclesiological stance towards the ecclesial implications of the Basis and the reflections of our common ecumenical experience - both ‘according to the Scriptures”’. Another is on the experience of a Pentecostal church in the ecumeni- cal movement; that church joined the fellowship of the WCC, subscribing without reser- vations to the Basis. The third is a study of the significance of the “Common Creed”, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan confession of our faith, and shows, among other things, how it reinforces the trinitarian basis of the ecumenical movement.

In light of our basic confession, we are called as a community of churches to become what we are in our intention, our confession, our vocation: to be the church seeking unity, for the glory of God and for the salvation of the world. We invite all churches and all Christians to join with us in this pilgrimage and in this fellowship. Here we stand, and on our faithfulness to these basic convictions we should be judged.

EMILIO CASTRO

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