c. 1998 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ The general secretary of the World Council of Churches predicts the global ecumenical movement will become less institutionalized in the next century, fostering forums with Pentecostals and Roman Catholics who have not been comfortable joining agencies such as his group, which celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year.”I wouldn’t go as far as saying that institutionalizing ecumenism has had its day but I think we have to go through a process of deinstitutionalizing ecumenism,”the Rev. Konrad Raiser told reporters at a luncheon Thursday (Oct. 1).

Raiser’s prediction came two months before delegates of the 332 member churches are scheduled to gather in Harare, Zimbabwe, for the WCC’s Eighth Assembly.

The Dec. 3-14 meeting is expected to be controversial, not only because of the various notions evolving about the most appropriate ways for the world’s churches to relate to one another, but because of specific debates regarding the role of Orthodox churches in the WCC and differing views among the churches on homosexuality.

Although issues of sexual orientation are not on the official agenda, seven of the more than 400 workshops and exhibits that will take place during the assembly will discuss the topic.

Groups ranging from liberal Americans and Canadians to conservative Africans have differing views on the contentious topic and would like the Geneva-based WCC to take a stand, but Raiser said he hopes the issue won’t be forced onto the agenda.

Since a formal statement on the issue has not been prepared he said he hopes there can be further dialogue on the matter after the assembly.”Under these circumstances, it would not be wise and probably would rather be counterproductive if the attempt were made to force the assembly into a statement of one sort or the other,”he said later in an interview.

Likewise, Raiser said he hopes what is being called a Mixed Theological Commission, scheduled to meet after the assembly, will help address some of the concerns Orthodox churches have about the theology and the structure of WCC. Some Orthodox leaders believe the WCC is too liberal and too Protestant.

He told reporters at the luncheon that the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are not expected to be represented at the upcoming assembly and the Russian Orthodox delegation will be”much reduced”and will not include its hierarchy.

But he said other Orthodox churches will be represented and hopes the general assembly will support the formation of the special commission.”It is obviously meant to address some of the fundamental issues that underlie and feed into the feeling of unease among Orthodox member churches regarding their participation with the World Council of Churches,”Raiser said. The council has 21 Orthodox member churches and 311 non-Orthodox members, including Protestants and Anglicans, from 100 countries.

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The approach to divisive issues such as the differences with Orthodoxy and the divisions over homosexuality follow an”implicit philosophy”of the WCC, Raiser said.”It’s never been made too explicit, but one of the unwritten ground rules is to create a win-win situation rather than a win-lose situation to avoid putting people into the situation of a minority that is marginalized, that feels that its concerns have not been heard and therefore it can only either quit the scene or protest,”he said in an interview.

Thus, the council often works to find consensus rather than voting on a matter.

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Raiser said an emphasis away from bureaucracy might help involve Catholics, evangelicals and Pentecostals in future ecumenical discussions. He believes they are”eager”to participate without becoming members of a group like WCC.”The decisive issue is not membership, representation, decision-making, voting, report-making, but opening a space where those who have so far not really talked with one another can meet,”he said.

The assembly is expected to consider a proposal for the creation of a forum that might include a broader representation than is currently a part of WCC’s membership. If approved by WCC and other groups, the first international meeting could take place in 2001, Raiser said.

Raiser predicts that not only the form, but the face of the ecumenical movement must change.”Too much of our professional ecumenical work is in the hands of people whose hairs are getting gray, who are passing, like myself, the threshold of (their) 60s,”he said.

The assembly will gather purposefully in Africa, Raiser said, to be in solidarity with the countries there as they continue to combat racism and struggle with debt problems.”The question of international debt will play a significant role at the assembly itself,”Raiser said.

The assembly will consider a declaration that not only supports the reduction of unpayable debt in poor African countries but also will seek to prevent future indebtedness.”Unless the system by which credit is given and the rules of the international financial system are critically reassessed and changed, the same situation of indebtedness would very soon arise again,”he said.

The assembly, in addition to looking ahead to the ecumenical movement and dealing with current issues, will look back at its recent work, including the conclusion of its Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women. For 10 years, the WCC has drawn attention to church-related issues of women’s rights and violence against women with 70 teams of men and women visiting leaders of most of the WCC member churches.”The visiting teams made it possible for the first time for women (in individual churches) to talk into the face of the bishop and to reveal the forms of marginalization, discrimination and oppression that women still suffer from, not only in society in general but in the church,”Raiser said in the interview.”The silence has been broken.” As Raiser looks beyond the assembly to the future of the ecumenical movement, he is hopeful. His hope, he says, comes from his personal experience being welcomed as a”German-trained pastor”by Christians across the globe.”As Christian believers we indeed belong together, whatever may separate us doctrinally,”he said.”People instinctively know that and sense that. There is a common spirit that pervades our different communities. Since I have experienced that, I am not concerned about the future of the ecumenical movement.”

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