Kirkpatrick, Seaman elected
to WCC Central Committee - 12/14/98

Kirkpatrick, Seaman elected to WCC Central Committee By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman Monday, December 14, 1998 HARARE, Zimbabwe - The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick and Ms. Ashley Seaman have been elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. Kirkpatrick, who is stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), is one of the denomination's strongest supporters of the WCC. Seaman, a lay member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) delegation, is classified by the WCC as a youth delegate. During the Harrare assembly, she headed a group that edited the WCC's position paper on peace in Jerusalem. The Constitution of the WCC grants broad powers to its Central Committee. Because the WCC Assembly meets only once every seven years, the 150-member Central Committee is, for all practical purposes, the WCC. That power was acknowledged during the Assembly's opening session when Bishop Thomas Frederic Butler of the United Kingdom referred to it as the "Supreme Soviet" of the WCC. The newly-elected Central Committee includes 39.4 percent women, 14.7 percent youth (persons under 30), 24.6 percent Orthodox, and 43.3 percent laypersons. Clifton Kirkpatrick The nominating committee's first draft included 33 percent women, a statistic that brought United Church of Canada Marion Best to her feet in protest. She told the Assembly that in the light of their "Ecumenical Decade in Solidarity with Women," females in the Assembly were expecting to do better than the 39 percent representation that they registered seven years ago in Canberra, Australia. She said that there are more women in the member churches than men and that the drop to 33 percent is "just unacceptable." Best threatened to walk out of the assembly if the nominating committee didn't do something about the numbers. The nominating committee scurried off and returned later with the winning slate that included 39.4 percent women. Best was unhappy that there had been only four tenths of a percent gain, but the figure was apparently encouraging enough for her to remain a part of the WCC. The newly elected Central Committee members will serve until the Ninth Assembly of the WCC that is expected to take place in 2005.

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