Moving places again in this vast convention centre –
this time in the large meeting hall set up with places for members, and
ecumenical delegates. I’m K58! This particular session was the presentation of
the General Secretary and Moderator reports. There has to be a better way to do
this than to read out word for word what is printed on the page. An Executive
summary. Powerpoint? Storytelling about highlights? Technology? (especially
since lots of the people there were on their computers, checking Facebook and
emails!!). The General Secretary did tantalize by saying he wouldn’t read his
report or we’d never get to eat, but his short version still took a long time
to go through. Mind you, both presentations had great content, just hard to
absorb after the travel and an already full day.
The WCC Moderator, Rev
Dr Walter Altmann, noted that ‘many of the WCC’s 345 member churches have experienced threats to their
financial sustainability in recent years. This has diminished their ability to
support ecumenical organizations, including the WCC. There has also been a
shift of Christianity’s centre of gravity to the East and the South.
Christianity has declined in many Western countries and the Middle East, while
it has grown in Asia and Africa. Pentecostalism has also grown, but this growth
is not yet reflected in the WCC.
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| (photo: Emily Evans) WCC Moderator Rev Dr Walter Altmann's report |
Rev Dr Olav Fykse
Tveit, WCC General Secretary, said: ‘We – the churches – have a legacy as the
WCC for which we give thanks to God. Among the dramatic events, severe
injustices and crises the world had to face and be rescued from in the 20th
century, significant initiatives were born. The ecumenical movement and the WCC
have been instrumental in cultivating better and stronger, deeper and wider,
and more mutually accountable relationships’.
He said, ‘the WCC is
called on a ‘pilgrimage of justice and peace. The WCC’s work must focus on the
areas of unity and mission; public witness and diakonia; and ecumenical
formation, with a special focus on youth and young adults’. He strongly
affirmed the contribution of young people in the life of the WCC and said, ‘we
need you to be with us and join us in our work’.
He cast the vision for
the future: ‘God is creating a new day for us: for all in creation living with
threats; for us, as people of different faiths or no faith, facing new and
unprecedented conflicts between groups identified by religion; for those who
live here in Korea as members of a divided people and families. God is creating
a new day for the worldwide ecumenical movement, building on our experience of
a real but not yet full unity in our faith and life’.
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