Fifty-Fourth Meeting of the Central Committee

2005·11.3 MB·English

WORLD COUNCIL
OF CHURCHES
Central Committee
Minutes of the Fifty-Fourth Meeting
Geneva, Switzerland
15 - 22 February 2005
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
World Council of Churches
https://archive.org/details/fiftyfourthmeetiOOunse
Central Committee
World Council of Churches
Minutes of the Fifty-Fourth Meeting
Geneva, Switzerland
15-22 February 2005
World Council of Churches
150 route de Femey
P.O. Box 2100
CH-1211 Geneva 2
http://www.wcc-coe.org
ISBN 2-8254-1465-4
©2005 by the World Council of Churches
CONTENTS
1. OPENING ACTIONS.1
1.1 Worship.1
1.2 In Memoriam.1
1.3 Call to Order and Welcome.7
1.4 Approval of Membership of the Central Committee.7
1.5 Roll Call and Seating.of Substitutes.8
1.6 Agenda and Timetable.9
1.7 Minutes of the Previous Meeting.10
1.8 Sub-Committees of the Central Committee.10
2. REPORTS OF THE MODERATOR AND
GENERAL SECRETARY.11
2.1 Report of the Moderator and Discussion.11
2.2 Report of the General Secretary and Discussion.15
3. APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP.20
3.1 Member Churches.20
3.2 Associate Member Churches.21
3.3 Pending Applications.21
4. FINANCE .22
4.1 Preliminary Report of the Finance Committee
Vice-Moderator.22
4.2 Report of the Finance Committee.25
5. PUBLIC ISSUES...:.37
5.1 Past and Proposed Actions.37
5.2 First Report of the Public Issues Committee.38
5.3 Second Report of the Public Issues Committee.41
5.3.1 Minute on Israel/Palestine.42
5.3.2 Statement on Indigenous Peoples ..44
5.3.3 Statement on the Tsunami .47
5.3.4 Statement on the International Criminal Court.51
5.3.5 Statement on Guantanamo Bay.57
5.3.6 Statement on Iraq.59
5.3.7 Memorandum and Recommendations on
Uprooted Peoples.64
6. PREPARATIONS FOR THE NINTH ASSEMBLY.73
7. PROGRAMME COMMITTEE.77
7.1 First Report of the Programme Committee.77
7.2 Pre-Assembly Evaluation.89
7.3 Second Report of the Programme Committee.93
8. PLENARY HEARING: AN ECUMENICAL
CONVERSATION ON CONTEMPORARY
ETHICAL CHALLENGES: HUMAN SEXUALITY.108
9. PACIFIC PLENARY.114
10. PLENARY OF THE RECONFIGURATION OF THE
ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT.122
11. REPORT OF POLICY REFERENCE COMMITTEE 1.128
12. REPORT OF POLICY REFERENCE COMMITTEE II.144
13. REPORT OF POLICY REFERENCE COMMITTEE III.149
14. STAFFING.179
14.1 Contract Extensions - Director.179
14.2 Contract Extensions - Executive Staff.179
14.3 Departures and Arrivals.183
15. INTRODUCTION OF DECISION-MAKING
BY CONSENSUS .185
15.1 Initial Presentation.185
15.2 A further Presentation by Dr D’Arcy Wood.186
15.3 Presentation by Eden Grace.187
15.4 Further Presentation by Ms Glynn-Mackoul.187
15.5 Further Presentation by Dr D’Arcy Wood.188
16. RECEPTION AT THE ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE,
BOSSEY.189
17. DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS.190
18. CLOSING ACTIONS.190
APPENDICES
I. List of Participants.193
II. Membership of Sub-Committees.204
III. Funds and Reserves Policy.210
IV. Recommendations from the Joint Working Group
to the Roman Catholic Church and the
World Council of Churches.213
'
*
1. OPENING ACTIONS
1.1 Worship
The Opening Worship Service took place in the Chapel of the Ecumenical Centre.
The preacher was Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, United Church of Christ, who
preached on Matthew 15: 21-28.
1.2 In Memoriam
During the opening worship there was an act of commemoration of a number of
persons close to the life of the World Council of Churches and the ecumenical
movement who had died since the last meeting of the Central Committee. Their
names were read, a prayer of thanksgiving offered and the hymn ‘For all the saints
who from their labours rest’ sung.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, (Andre Borisovich Bloom), head of the
Russian Orthodox Patriarchal Church in Great Britain and Ireland, priest and
doctor, died on 4 August 2003 aged 89. Widely regarded as the best-known
Orthodox leader in Western Europe, Metropolitan Anthony came to England in
1949. The heart of his life’s work was building up the Russian Orthodox diocese
in Britain. Wishing to support the beleaguered clergy in the Soviet Union, he
chose the controversial path of loyalty to the just re-established Moscow
patriarchate, while being personally deeply critical of communism. Metropolitan
Anthony was a member of the WCC central committee from 1968 to 1975.
Rev. Canon Dr John Aves; honorary canon of Norwich cathedral, UK, died on
25 January 2004, of a heart attack in Bethlehem where he was serving as a WCC
ecumenical accompanier. Aves was 52. His work with Israeli peace groups and in
the Deheisha refugee camp signalled his commitment to non-violent action, while
the stories he wrote as an EA showed his compassion, comprehension and deep
understanding of each person he met. Alison Elliot, WCC Commission of the
Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) member from Scotland, represented the
Council at the 6 February funeral in Norwich.
1
Dr Inga-Brita Castren, the former general secretary of the Finnish ecumenical
council, died on 31 December 2003 at the age of 84. Castren worked with the
WSCF and the YWCA in the 1960s, and joined the WCC in 1969 as executive
secretary for mission education, returning to Finland in 1973.
Dean Olle Engstrom, Swedish church leader and ecumenist died on 26
December 2003 at the age of 83. A member of both the central and executive
committees of the WCC, Engstrom contributed to the creation of Sweden’s
national Christian council and from 1962 to 1985 was the principal of the Mission
Covenant Church’s theological seminary.
Rev. Jan Milic Lochman, a minister of the Evangelical Church of the Czech
Brethren and distinguished professor of religion and systematic theology in
Prague, New York and Basel, died on 21 January 2004 at the age of 81. From
1968 to 1975, Lochman was a member of the WCC central and executive
committees, and served on its Faith and Order Commission from 1975 to 1991;
from 1970 to 1982, he chaired the World Alliance of Reformed Churches’
theology department.
Dr Theo Tschuy, a Methodist pastor from Zurich, died on 8 December 2003 at
the age of 78. After serving from 1961 to 1971 as Latin America secretary of the
WCC, he worked as associate general secretary of SODEPAX, the joint committee
for society, development and peace of both the WCC and the Roman Catholic
Church. From its termination in 1980 until his retirement, he was responsible for
the Churches’ Human Rights Programme for the Implementation of the Helsinki
Final Act.
Archbishop Edward “T ed” Scott, retired 10 primate of the Anglican Church of
Canada, died on 21 June 2004 in a car accident near Toronto. Called the “red
primate” by his critics, Scott was well known for his stand on social justice issues.
In 1975 at Nairobi, the “people’s archbishop” assumed the tasks of moderator of
the WCC Central Committee between its fifth and sixth assemblies, 1975-1983.
2