Group opposes opening WCC to non-Christian religions By Angela R. Treadway The Presbyterian Layman Tuesday, November 17, 1998
So how is it, asks the Association for Church Renewal (ACR), that in its recent publication “Toward a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of Church,” the WCC proposes embracing “macro-ecumenism,” its term for opening the ecumenical movement to non-Christian religions, while at the same time excluding evangelicals from meaningful participation? A ‘Macedonian call’ As the WCC prepares for its upcoming “Jubilee” Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe Dec. 3-14, the ACR has released a Jubilee Appeal and seven position papers, urging renewal within the WCC. Speaking at a Nov. 9, 1998 press conference in Washington D.C., Diane Knippers, ACR steering committee vice chair and president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, said “It is a ‘Macedonian call’ to the rest of the world – come over and help North America. We need missionary outreach to renew our own societies and to reform the WCC.” David Runnion-Bareford, an ACR steering committee member and executive director of the Biblical Witness Fellowship (United Church of Christ), said, “In trying to find the road to growth and revitalization, the WCC is looking longingly down the path of bringing non-Christian religions into its fold. They are seemingly unaware that it is a route leading to the death of the WCC as a carrier of ecumenical hope.” Parker T. Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman, said the WCC “was never to be simply a society of religious ideas. It was never to be a gathering of people who would create their own deities, or a ‘choose whomever you please’ deity. What it was never to be was a pluralism of thoughts and ideologies.” Evangelicals systematically excluded Donna Hailson, a director of American Baptist Evangelicals, urged the WCC to stand firm on the essentials of the Christian faith, placing Word before culture, text before context. “Work to develop a clear understanding of the meaning of tolerance. Tolerance is characterized by reason, respect and values. Tolerance involves patience, forbearance and restraint in the face of provocation, but tolerance is not a synonym of relativism … Syncretism is a repudiation of tolerance, not an acceptance.” Thomas C. Oden, Drew Seminary professor and chair of the Jubilee Appeal Project, said, “This could be the last assembly of the World Council of Churches. The Orthodox churches are in a process of withdrawal … and under a rhetoric of inclusiveness, evangelicals have been systematically excluded from the decision-making processes... . Presbyterians are being represented at Zimbabwe by Mary Ann Lundy [who left her PCUSA staff position after helping plan the 1993 ReImaging Conference and is now WCC deputy general secretary]. We have a long history of struggle within our own denominations, and we who are Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Methodists, Disciples of Christ, we know the people who will not represent our interests.” A six-member team will carry the ACR challenge to the WCC assembly. The delegates are Williamson, Oden, Knippers, Hailson, Janice Crouse and Patty Williamson. |
||
| Parker T. Williamson's Nov. 9 speech | ||
| The Presbyterian Layman Nov/Dec 1998 | ||
|
Home,
· Archives,
·The
Layman Online News, |
||
