To
strengthen
solidarity
with women

Prior to the Amsterdam assembly, a questionnaire designed to document women's many specific contributions to the life and ministry of the churches during the war years was prepared and distributed. The assembly received a report on the responses; and out of this grew the idea of a permanent WCC commission to coordinate and encourage activities related to the ministry of women.

Concern about women's participation in the life of the church, including the question of the ordination of women to the ministry, has remained an issue of intense discussion and sometimes bitter controversy in many churches. At the same time there has been a growing awareness of the distinctive gifts women bring to the church and to the ecumenical movement.

This has received special attention during the ten years from 1988 to 1998: the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women.

Around the midpoint of this Decade, the WCC undertook an extensive programme of visits to the churches. Some 75 teams of four met with church leaders, women's groups and movements, parish pastors and laypeople, theology professors and students in the great majority of the WCC's member churches.

The visits proved one of the most effective ways of responding to the mandate from the Canberra assembly in 1991:

Deepening the churches' solidarity with women in the church and in the whole society should find a central place in the continuing work of the World Council of Churches. We need to continue to strengthen the solidarity of each member church with women, to fully receive their gifts, contributions and perspectives.