Towards a common understanding and vision of the WCC: a working draft for a policy statement - World Council of Churches - Common Understanding and Vision - Transcript

Editor's note: The text which follows represents an important stage in the ongoing process of study and consultation "Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of Churches" (see preceding article). This text has been sent, by decision of the WCC central committee in September 1996, to WCC member churches and ecumenical partners for comments and responses. These reactions will be taken into account in preparing a policy document for presentation to the September 1997 meeting of the central committee and subsequent submission to the eighth assembly of the WCC in September 1998.

Readers are invited to send comments about the text (including reference where appropriate to specific numbered paragraphs) to: Ms Mary Ann Lundy, Deputy General Secretary; World Council of Churches; P.O. Box 2100; 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland (telefax: +41-22-791-03-61). The text is also available in booklet form -- in English, French, German and Spanish -- along with a short reader's guide. For information please contact the same address.

PREAMBLE: VISION STATEMENT OF THE MEMBER CHURCHES OF THE WCC

Christ, who has called us to be one, is in our midst!

We, the churches in each and every place, celebrate God's bringing us together through the World Council of Churches to a common life of prayer, witness and service. Our lives have been changed as we have turned together to God in Christ, the source of our faith.

We journey together as a people who trust in God's forgiveness; in the midst of brokenness we proclaim the good news of reconciliation, healing and justice. We journey together as a people of the resurrection; in the midst of exclusion and despair we proclaim in joy and confidence life in all its fullness.

We journey together as a people of thanksgiving; reflecting on our history, we see glimpses of God's oikoumene embodied in our commitment to strengthen our common life.

We are drawn by the vision of a church that brings all people into communion with

God; a church that is visibly one, sharing one baptism, celebrating one eucharist,

and enjoying the service of a reconciled common ministry.

We are compelled by the vision of a church whose unity is expressed in bonds of

conciliar communion which enables us to take decisions together and to interpret

and teach the apostolic faith together, with mutual accountability and in love.

We are inspired by the vision of a church that engages in dialogue and cooperation

in service with people of other faiths.

We are challenged by the vision of a church that is fully inclusive, mindful of the

marginalized, overcoming divisions based on race, gender, age and culture,

promoting justice and peace, and respecting the integrity of God's creation.

We aspire to the vision of a church that reaches out to everyone through a life of

sharing, proclaiming the good news of God's redemption, being both sign and

servant, drawing all ever more deeply into the fellowship of God's own life.

Such is the nature of God's church; it is a gift already given to us.

Yet when we look at ourselves in the light of this vision, we are brought to a sharp awareness of what we have not yet received and realized. We see the challenge that is before us to become what we are: to embody visibly, here and now, the vision of what God has created the church to be. We affirm, in this 50th anniversary year, the role of the World Council of Churches in assisting the churches in this holy task, and we recommit ourselves to strengthening its potential to fulfill its purposes.

We intend to stay together and are restless to grow together in unity, according to the wish and prayer of Christ that those who believe in him may be one. We are sustained by the assurance that in God's purpose all things shall be united, things in heaven and things on earth. We are conscious that after fifty years our task is more urgent and more daunting than when we first began. We stand at the end of the 20th century and bid farewell to the misplaced certainty and confidence of the secular modem world. We move towards a new millennium, trusting that despite our uncertainties we may, through the strength of the Holy Spirit and according to the prayer of Christ, see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven.

PART I

The WCC and the Ecumenical Movement

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the World Council of Churches provides the member churches an opportunity to reaffirm our ecumenical vocation and to clarify our common understanding of the WCC.

1.2Through the WCC the churches have worked together, reflected together and worshipped together, restless to grow together according to the wish and prayer of Christ that those who believe in him may be one (John 17:21) and sustained by the assurance that in God's purpose all things should be united, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:9-10). Although our common life has been tested during this half-century, we have by God's grace maintained the resolution expressed by the founding Assembly in Amsterdam in 1948: "We intend to stay together."