It is disappointing to see so few young people in the WCC and in the ecumenical movement in general, but that’s the way it is, says Freddy Knutsen, who runs the WCC youth programme. Things are gradually changing, though, and the stewards programme organized around central committee meetings has contributed greatly to this trend.

The stewards gather a week before the meeting for an intensive seminar on the WCC and the ecumenical movement, with discussions on issues of concern to the WCC. They are then asked to prepare a project on ecumenism to present to their own local community. Involving them in discussions with members of central committee has been greatly appreciated on both sides, Knutsen says.

Some of the Stewards at central committee

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this experience is the testimony of the young stewards themselves. Working side by side, in close contact with other faith traditions, encountering and sharing their differences, they learn not just to communicate what ecumenism is, but to experience it as a reality. The meetings between the stewards and members of central committee help the latter discover what it means to live ecumenically, and not just talk about it.

Enugu, Nigeria, was the venue for an important meeting between representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, African theologians and members of the WCC. They met there from 8 to 14 January to discuss the place and role of Africa in world Christianity. For Hans Ucko of the WCC’s team on Interreligious Relations and Dialogue, who set up the meeting, Africa’s influence throughout Christian history has been consistently played down. Yet it has been present all through, from the African church fathers to Negro spirituals, and its contribution has been extremely rich. The purpose of the Enugu meeting was to start a process of reflection on Africa’s role. Participants welcomed the fact that Africa was at last being placed at the centre of a religious debate rather than being discussed only in terms of its "problems".

Among the many subjects discussed was the question of African religiosity. It was decided to continue this reflection, consolidating the network of contacts, continuing the dialogue and extending it to other religions (Islam, traditional religions), encouraging local contributions. Two other important consultations are already planned, one next year specifically on French-speaking Africa and the other, in 2003, on the important place of women in African religion.

For the first time since the political changes there, a joint team from the WCC and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) has visited the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A group of seven people headed by the general secretary of the WCC, Konrad Raiser, and his CEC counterpart, Keith Clements, met the country’s religious leaders from 15 to 19 February 2001. In Belgrade, the delegation had fruitful meetings with representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, notably His Holiness Patriarch Pavle and the holy synod, as well as with teachers and students at the faculty of theology.

The team’s efforts focused chiefly on re-establishing communication with the various religious authorities in the country, after years of restrictions and isolation. New possibilities for cooperation between the Yugoslavian churches and the WCC were discussed: holding certain WCC meetings in Serbia, sending students to the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, or involvement of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Special Commission. Cooperation between Orthodox and Protestant churches was also discussed.

The delegation also had the opportunity to talk with the new president of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, notably on church-state relations and the difficult situation of the 700,000 refugees and displaced people.

In Novi Sad the group met the leaders of Protestant communities. A sensitive problem for them is the fact that ethnic and religious minorities are often the same group of people. But, they said, the new government deserved to be trusted.

His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, a member of the WCC central committee, has recently been awarded the Athenagoras Prize for human rights for 2001. This prize, in memory of Patriarch Athenagoras, a great promoter of peace, was presented to Archbishop Anastasios on 17 February in New York for the part he has played in the renaissance of the church in Albania.

Rev. Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter, for many years in charge of the women’s desk at the WCC, will be installed as Bishop of Holstein-Lübeck in the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, on 1 April of this year. She was ordained to the ministry in 1980. After leaving the WCC, she taught Lutheran theology at the United Theological College in Kingston, Jamaica, before returning to work as a parish minister in Stuttgart in 1991. For the past three years she has been general secretary of the Council of Christian Churches in Germany.

The central committee of the Christian Conference of Asia has elected Dr Ahn Jae Woong as the organization’s new general secretary. Dr Ahn Jae Woong is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Korea and has served the ecumenical movement in Asia in different capacities for three decades, including student associations and urban rural mission.

In part because of the pressure of work that lies ahead for the WCC with the changes shortly to be proposed by the Special Commission, the central committee agreed to extend the mandate of the WCC general secretary, Dr Konrad Raiser, for one year up to December 2003. It congratulated him on the outstanding leadership he has brought to the WCC and the ecumenical movement as a whole.

At the recent meeting of its central committee the WCC welcomed nine new churches: the Mara Evangelical Church of Myanmar (associate member), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana, the Africa Inland Church (Sudan), the Association of Baptist Churches in Rwanda, Ekalesia Niue (Pacific), and the United Reformed Church (Scotland), the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, the latter two each resulting from the merger of two churches already belonging to the WCC. The WCC extended family now has 342 members.

The French Protestant Federation, the National Council of Churches of Burundi, the Federation of Protestant Churches and Missions of Cameroun (FEMEC) and the Council of Churches of Malawi were also admitted as associate councils.

Lastly, the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe and the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe are now recognized as international ecumenical organizations in working relations with the WCC.

In March, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, will visit the Asia-Pacific region:

• Bangladesh (9-14 March)
• Sri Lanka (14-18 March)
• Samoa (19-23 March)
• Cook Islands (23-27 March)
• Tahiti (28-31 March)

The history of one of the new member churches admitted into the WCC at the last central committee, the Ekalesia Niue, is worth recounting.

The island of Niue, 2,400 kilometres north-east of New Zealand, measures only 260 km2. With its 2000 inhabitants it is the world’s smallest democratic state. The first sizeable migrations from Samoa and other Polynesian islands took place in the 16th century. In 1774 the British sea captain, James Cook, put in there and in 1901 the island was annexed by New Zealand. After a first constitutional assembly in 1960, Niue gained its independence in 1974.

Christianity came to the island in the mid-19th century. After a first fruitless attempt, missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS) returned in 1846, this time bringing with them a man called Peniamina, a native of Niue who had lived in Samoa and been trained by the LMS. His testimony was quickly accepted by his people and by 1854 almost the entire island was converted.

The church, then called the LMS Church in Niue, became independent in 1970, with the name Ekalesia Niue. It has 1500 members, 13 parishes and 10 pastors, representing 75% of the island’s population. It also ministers to the migrant community of around 4,500 people who have left Niue for Aotearoa/New Zealand. The Ekalesia Nuie is particularly active in work with young people, Christian education, communication and lay training. The Christian women’s federation also welcomes women from other denominations. The Ekalesia Niue quickly became involved in ecumenism. One of the biggest problems it faces is the large migration of people away from the island to Aotearoa/New Zealand as a result of growing unemployment, low standards of education and Niue’s difficult economic situation.

The Ekalesia Niue is a member of the National Council of Churches of Niue, the Pacific Conference of Churches and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Racism is an ongoing concern of the WCC and it expects to have an active presence at the UN World Conference on Racism to be held next September in Durban, South Africa.

The Justice, Peace and Creation team has been investigating what the churches are doing to combat racism. It has launched a major survey of the actions against racism initiated by or involving churches in Europe, where acts of racist violence are increasingly frequent. This wide-ranging inquiry started with Germany and Austria in 1999.

The overall findings are positive: initiatives are being taken, anti-racist campaigns are being organized, the churches are being mobilized but this is certainly not enough. Those in charge of the survey say that more effective campaigns and more sustained efforts by the churches are needed, especially among young people.

The survey will continue, looking next at France and Britain.

Elisabeth Behr-Sigel and Mgr Kallistos Ware
THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Behr-Sigel deals with the historical context and the difficult growth of consciousness of this issue. Ware sets it in perspective in the light of patristic anthropology and Orthodox theology.
102 pp, FRF.95.-, Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1998
Ed. anglaise : COE, 2000, CHF11.50, USD7.50, GBP4.95

Lewis S. Mudge and Thomas Wieser, eds
DEMOCRATIC CONTRACTS FOR SUSTAINABLE AND CARING SOCIETIES
What Can Churches and Christian Communities Do?
What should be done to put into action the agreements and conventions the international community elaborated to make viable a sustainable society? What can churches and Christian communities contribute?
206 pp, CHF22.50, USD14.50, GBP9.50

Jeffrey Gros FSC, Harding Meyer and William G. Rusch, eds
GROWTH IN AGREEMENT II
Reports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical Conversations on a World Level, 1982-1998 The reports that have resulted from bilateral talks between churches on a world level. An indispensable resource book for everybody engaged in the Christian ecumenical dialogue.
956 pp CHF65.-, USD42.50, GBP27.50. . Co-published with Wm B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, USA

Peter Bouteneff and Dagmar Heller, eds
INTERPRETING TOGETHER
Essays in Hermeneutics.
176 pp, CHF22.50, USD14.50, GBP9.50.

Video:
A Living Church - Faith and Dreams in Albania
After 23 years of religious persecution, the church in Albania was in an appalling state. The story of the its dramatic renaissance in the decade that followed, led by Archbishop Anastasios, one of the most visionary leaders of the world-wide church, is told in image and interview.
46 minutes, available in PAL or NTSC. CHF29.50, USD19.50, + postage

Video:
Journey to Jubilee -- 50 years of the World Council of Churches
A short film tracing the history of the WCC from its first assembly in 1948 up to its 50th anniversary. French version pending.
27 mn, available in PAL or NTSC. CHF29.50, USD19.50, plus postage.

CD:
PEACE TO THE CITY. SONGS FOR PEACE
Music of the ballet: a magnificent suite for violin, violincello, piano and voice quartet.
CHF20.-, USD12.90, GBP8.50.