NEWS FEATURE: Bishop Vinton R. Anderson: `truly an ecumenical person’

c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Bishop Vinton R. Anderson may work locally but he thinks _ and acts _ globally. Anderson presides over the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church _ predominantly black congregations in the mid-Atlantic region _ from a comfortable downtown office. But as one of the nation’s […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Bishop Vinton R. Anderson may work locally but he thinks _ and acts _ globally.

Anderson presides over the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church _ predominantly black congregations in the mid-Atlantic region _ from a comfortable downtown office. But as one of the nation’s most prominent African-American ecumenists, his vision of the church stretches from his Washington office to the rugged terrain of the Gaza strip and the bureaucratic beehive of the Geneva offices of the World Council of Churches.


As he talks from behind his AME desk, Anderson fondly recalls his many travels on behalf of the ecumenical movement and church unity _ trips that have ranged from his role in a church leaders’ delegation to the Middle East to his presence at a Moravian Easter sunrise service in North Carolina.

Now, as he looks back at his seven-year term as the first president of the World Council of Churches from an historic African-American denomination, Anderson also looks forward _ with the hope others will follow in his ecumenical footsteps.

Over the course of three decades, the 70-year-old Bermuda native has advanced from being a one-time carpenter’s apprentice to one of the world’s pre-eminent church leaders, working to build relationships among church groups often busy keeping their individual denominational houses in order.”Ecumenism is about the unity of the church,”Anderson said in a recent interview.”If, indeed, we are serious about our journey, it has to be a journey together.” His travels have taken him to the far reaches of ecumenism _ dodging bullets in the Gaza Strip as he stood in solidarity with Christians there; sleeping under the stars as he supported tribal peoples in Canada; speaking to 150,000 Christians in India.

Like most ecumenists, a key Bible verse from the Gospel of John serves as the motto for his work:”Jesus said, `I prayed that they may be one,'”said the bishop.”The high priestly prayer of Christ is that the church might be one. I believe that.” But Anderson stands out for his efforts to bring the black church community squarely into the ecumenical movement.

Although he has been a leader in numerous ecumenical agencies _ including serving as the AME Church’s ecumenical officer _ his work with the World Council of Churches has been the venue where he has forged ties between race and religion on an international level.”One of the things I tried to do was to be sure that when the World Council met to do worship, that the spirituality of the African-American church would be present,”he recalled,”and that the issues of liberation and justice were issues that would always be at the forefront.” At Anderson’s urging, for example, the WCC’s seventh assembly in Canberra, Australia, included a service providing delegates the opportunity to experience African-American worship.

The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, recalled the effect of that 1991 service on delegates, such as Australian aborigines who were unacquainted with traditional black worship.”It was a foot-stomping, hand-clapping, amen session,”she recalled.”It just broke down a kind of stereotypical image of who the U.S. churches are.” The World Council of Churches, a consortium of some 330 member churches in 100 countries, will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year at its eighth assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe. Anderson is one of eight outgoing presidents whose terms will end at the conclusion of the meeting, to be held from Dec. 3-14.

Anderson, who has served as the moderator for the U.S. conference of the World Council of Churches, has traveled the globe relaying the message of liberation and justice he learned from the African-American church.


The Rev. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, said Anderson’s presidency has benefited both the church community he represents and the council of which he has become a part.”It has brought into the inner council of the WCC a voice reflecting the very particular experience of the historic African-American churches and at the same time has created among them the presence of a recognized and respected ecumenical leader,”Raiser said.

While he has succeeded in bringing the black church experience to the global ecumenical scene, Anderson continues to see challenges in getting the historic African-American churches involved in ecumenism.”Except for a few people we call `ecumaniacs,’ in general, we’re still very much concerned about our own houses,”he said.

Yet, Anderson gains inspiration from seeing hundreds of WCC churches working and praying together on issues of peace and justice and providing financial support at times of famines, wars and other global crises.”The fact that … it reaches so far and brings so many people together in itself is a great sign of hope for humankind,”said Anderson.”We get to dialogue across the world … If you can get the consensus of 300 and some denominations or communions, that’s a major step.” He is less optimistic about the Consultation on Church Union, the effort to forge a form of unity among nine U.S. Protestant denominations. Anderson serves as a COCU vice president.

When COCU holds its plenary meeting early next year, it will determine what if any next steps it can take towards unity and Anderson is concerned those steps have not yet jelled. COCU began in 1962, with an original vision that assumed the effort would be one of”organic union,”but the idea of bureaucratic merger has been abandoned for what church officials call”covenanting.””The concept is a wonderful concept, that we need to be together, but it’s trying to find the way to, I guess have a courtship, which portends to a good marriage,”he said.”Sometimes when you date a long time and you get to know each other better you get a little more unsure about the marriage.” Vivian Robinson, COCU president, said Anderson has not only worked well with the groups affiliated with COCU, but with Catholics and other faith groups who are not connected to the process.”As long as I’ve known him, he has not been just an African Methodist Episcopal person, but he has been truly an ecumenical person,”she said, noting that Anderson chaired COCU’s worship commission that developed liturgies for cross-denominational worship services.

His fellow bishops in the African Methodist Episcopal Church say Anderson lives ecumenism, rather than just talks about it.”He has been a serious, what I would call thoroughgoing ecumenist,”said Bishop McKinley Young, the AME Church’s current ecumenical officer.”It’s not been a passing fancy. He thinks and acts ecumenically. He sees the church as best empowered when it has a life that is interlocked and linked with the … collective life of the church universal.” Anderson’s dreams about ecumenical relations _ both in the United States and beyond _ drove him to urge friends who wanted to celebrate his tenure as a WCC president to use that moment to help further the cause of his heart.

He will be honored Oct. 29 at Washington’s Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church at a worship service that will raise money for scholarships in his name for black, Caribbean and African students to attend the Graduate School of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches at Bossey, Switzerland.”My feeling is that there is too much parochialism in the churches, too many independent movements and they’re coming faster,”said Anderson.”You’ve got a number now of independent religious institutions disconnected. I still believe that the connectedness is important and that we need some voices and if we don’t start with young people in the seminaries we’re not going to have a voice to speak later.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)


Anderson’s commitment to the church began early, when his aunt took him regularly to an AME congregation in his native Somerset, Bermuda. Though his life began under meager circumstances _ he was born to an unwed mother _ he quickly became a leader in his community.

His longtime friend Ira P. Philip, a well-known journalist and author in Bermuda recalled how Anderson, a”good cricketer,”proved to be a church leader at an early age. Both Anderson and his wife Vivienne, were active in the church’s youth league, with the bishop serving as president.

It was in his home church that he received a call to ministry from a visiting bishop in 1946.”My call was not one of these dramatic things, but it was a recognition for the need for trained ministry,”said Anderson.

Years later, his work in the ecumenical realm brought recognition to his homeland.”We’re elated, we’re excited, extremely proud,”said Philip, who called his friend a person who”put Bermuda on the mapâÂ?¦ in a most significant way.”

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