Thursday, March 02, 2006
Reflections on the WCC
I went to Porto Alegre to the 9th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches as a delegate for the United Church of Canada. Two years ago Marion Best approached me and asked me to submit an expression of interest to the General Council nominations committee, which I did, and I was selected (along with Wendy Evans and Janet Sigurdson) after a long process. It's been almost two years, and for the most part, I hadn't hear much about the assembly... it was just off in the distance somewhere.
In the summer of 2005, I was asked to contact the national church's travel agency to start booking travel and was also informed there would be an orientation session in Toronto in October. While in Toronto we met some of the other delegates from the other Canadian member churches, learned a little about the Orthodox member churches and what the special challenges of the WCC are regarding Orthodoxy, and learned about consensus decision making. Marion Best also made it clear at that time that there was a possibility that any one of the three of us (UCC delegates) could be elected to the central committee of the WCC, and that if selected to do that, there was also a possibility of being elected to the executive committee.
In November I sent my passport away with my visa application. I also received a letter from the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the WCC, asking me to participate in a panel of speakers during a plenary on the theme of the Assembly, "God, in your grace, transform the world." Specifically, I was asked to speak on a sub-theme, "God, in your grace, transform the earth." In December I found out that I was nominated to be on a Public Issues Committee to work on statements to the world about public issues (i.e. responsibility to protect in times of genocide, nuclear disarmament, the cartoons which depict the Prophet Mohammed of Islam), but that all committee membership had to be elected by the general assembly in the first days of Porto Alegre. In January things really started to pick up - I received a package of 4 books from the WCC which I was asked to read carefully before I arrived in Brazil.
The Assembly was Feb. 14-23, 2006. I arrived on the 10th of February in Porto Alegre after a loooooooooooong journey (Saskatoon - Calgary - Toronto - Sao Paulo - Porto Alegre). On the 11th & 12th I participated (along with two other Canadian delegates - Wendy Evans and Katie Aven, a Quaker from NS) in the Pre-Assembly Youth Event. It was a time to connect with other youth delegates, get to know stewards, and get oriented to the campus and things like the fact you always have to speak into a microphone to say anything for the simultaneous translation to work. There seemed to be too much scheduled into too little time, and several projects that were started didn't get finished, and it sometimes felt like there was no time to discuss the real issues that were going to come up in the Assembly, but in the end we still had an advantage over the delegates who arrived the night of Feb. 13th! On Feb. 13 I attended a half day of the Pre-Assembly event for Indigenous Peoples, and got to be a small part of a process which worked on writing statements to the different committees asking that Indigenous Peoples be given more solidarity from their member churches, as well as that the WCC work with the UN to protect Indigenous Languages, which (according to UNESCO) are being lost at a rate of 1 every 2 weeks across the globe. That issue in particular hit home for me, because I can't speak Heiltsuk'wala, the language of my people.
Once the assembly actually started, it was a LONG two weeks. Breakfast was between 6:30 & 7:30, then it was off to the PUC campus for morning prayers, bible study, plenary sessions, committee meetings, checking in with the youth and with Indigenous Peoples, more plenary session, and evening prayers. By the time we got home at night, it was often a struggle to decide where/what to eat for supper before crashing into bed. I was grateful to have high speed internet access in my room so I could keep in contact with friends/family back home.
The plenary sessions were interesting, and gave a lot of insight into the recent work of the WCC. Sometimes it was difficult to remember that part of what were we there to do as delegates was to ratify the work of the WCC over the past 7 years, and to set guidelines for the next 7 years, but that we wouldn't be making decisions about specific issues or programming. Again - I have to thank Marion Best for clearly outlining the mandate of the general assembly - I saw a lot of delegates around me, especially youth, you were frustrated at not getting any "real work" done. I do feel like there was sometimes too much information coming all of the time - there was really no chance for Sabbath or meditation. Even now it's hard to write about my experience because I'm still processing everything that happened.
The second week of the Assembly saw the majority of the business sessions. After trying to balance the slate of nominees to Central Committee, there was an error according to the constitution, so elections to Central Committee took place a couple days later than hoped. I was elected to Central Committee along with the Rev. Will Ingram (Presbyterian Church in Canada) and the Rev. John Steele (Anglican Church of Canada) to represent Canada. We will be responsible for representing our own churches on central committee, but it is really important for all of us to remember that our names were put forward by the Canadian churches as a group to represent Canada as part of the North American region. We are also responsible for representing the voices of the Disciples and Religious Society of Friends in Canada (Quakers).
The best part of the assembly for me was meeting people of different faiths from around the world. I had engaging conversations with friends from Rwanda about human sexuality - a topic on which our cultures differ very much theologically (and sometimes in practice). I learned a great deal about Orthodoxy from my friends of the Armenian Apostolic Church (both those in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora) as well as the Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. The mainline protestant churches of the Pacific Islands (Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Kiribati, etc.) truly set the bar for inclusivity of the younger generation, and are dedicated to the training of new leadership and ensuring the future of the Pacific churches. I have also connected with my Indigenous sisters and brothers from all over - Norway, Sweden, the Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Greenland, Germany.
At the first Central Committee meeting (Feb. 22) we elected a new nominations committee, and they met 4 times over a 24 hour period to give us a slate of nominees to Executive Committee. Thursday the 23rd, during a marathon 4 1/2 hour meeting, we managed to elect the new moderator, vice-moderators, and executive committee. I was one of 5 people ages 30 and under elected to make up the executive committee for the next 7 years. We also have representing people under thirty: Graham McGeoch (Scotland), Nerissa Celestine (Carribean), Outi Vasko (Orthodox, Finland), Iyabo Olekola (Africa). We left that meeting at 11:30pm, with little time (for me) to get back to the hotel and pack before leaving for the airport at 4am the next morning. It was truly exhausting.
I would have to say that as I reflect on my experience at the WCC General Assembly, I realize that I saw the best of people, and I saw the worst of people. People's best intentions came out along side of their worst behaviours - and it was both a time full of hope and full of struggle. What struck me as most crucial going forward, is that there really seems to be very little accountability built into the work of the WCC. While the mandate is to work for Christian unity, there is little incentive for member churches to work towards unity if they don't like the process or if it seems to be too painful to change. This should improve somewhat with the deepening of the consensus model of decision making, but I think it will take some time for the parliamentary culture to truly leave the WCC. In the past churches have been justified by not taking action because they voted "against" a particular direction of the WCC. Now that is more difficult because in order for their to be consensus, they have to agree to live with the decisions being made, or try to change things enough to have more compromise. While that should bring member churches more on board, it will take the next seven years to tell if it is working or not.
What I learned is that it is important, no - essential, for us as Christians to always remember to balance the practice of Christianity with our talk of the ideals of Christianity. As someone who sensitive to inter-faith relationships, I was uncomfortable at times with the celebration of the ideal of Christian life, while sometimes there were was blatant silencing of voices which would expose hypocrisy or behaviours inconsistent with those ideals. The report of the message committee, written in the form of a prayer, stated "may our prayers never be empty words, but an urgent response to your living Word." That is my prayer also - we still have so far to go in ecumenism to reach the goal of Christian unity. When every member of every congregation knows something about ecumenism, when congregations can work together across the world to enact the goals of the WCC, and can celebrate that their sisters and brothers in Christ around the globe are working to the same ends, then we will have achieved our mandate as the WCC. Until that time, there is always a danger for the work of this great global body to be "empty words" for it is always the member churches who must put it into practice.
In the summer of 2005, I was asked to contact the national church's travel agency to start booking travel and was also informed there would be an orientation session in Toronto in October. While in Toronto we met some of the other delegates from the other Canadian member churches, learned a little about the Orthodox member churches and what the special challenges of the WCC are regarding Orthodoxy, and learned about consensus decision making. Marion Best also made it clear at that time that there was a possibility that any one of the three of us (UCC delegates) could be elected to the central committee of the WCC, and that if selected to do that, there was also a possibility of being elected to the executive committee.
In November I sent my passport away with my visa application. I also received a letter from the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the WCC, asking me to participate in a panel of speakers during a plenary on the theme of the Assembly, "God, in your grace, transform the world." Specifically, I was asked to speak on a sub-theme, "God, in your grace, transform the earth." In December I found out that I was nominated to be on a Public Issues Committee to work on statements to the world about public issues (i.e. responsibility to protect in times of genocide, nuclear disarmament, the cartoons which depict the Prophet Mohammed of Islam), but that all committee membership had to be elected by the general assembly in the first days of Porto Alegre. In January things really started to pick up - I received a package of 4 books from the WCC which I was asked to read carefully before I arrived in Brazil.
The Assembly was Feb. 14-23, 2006. I arrived on the 10th of February in Porto Alegre after a loooooooooooong journey (Saskatoon - Calgary - Toronto - Sao Paulo - Porto Alegre). On the 11th & 12th I participated (along with two other Canadian delegates - Wendy Evans and Katie Aven, a Quaker from NS) in the Pre-Assembly Youth Event. It was a time to connect with other youth delegates, get to know stewards, and get oriented to the campus and things like the fact you always have to speak into a microphone to say anything for the simultaneous translation to work. There seemed to be too much scheduled into too little time, and several projects that were started didn't get finished, and it sometimes felt like there was no time to discuss the real issues that were going to come up in the Assembly, but in the end we still had an advantage over the delegates who arrived the night of Feb. 13th! On Feb. 13 I attended a half day of the Pre-Assembly event for Indigenous Peoples, and got to be a small part of a process which worked on writing statements to the different committees asking that Indigenous Peoples be given more solidarity from their member churches, as well as that the WCC work with the UN to protect Indigenous Languages, which (according to UNESCO) are being lost at a rate of 1 every 2 weeks across the globe. That issue in particular hit home for me, because I can't speak Heiltsuk'wala, the language of my people.
Once the assembly actually started, it was a LONG two weeks. Breakfast was between 6:30 & 7:30, then it was off to the PUC campus for morning prayers, bible study, plenary sessions, committee meetings, checking in with the youth and with Indigenous Peoples, more plenary session, and evening prayers. By the time we got home at night, it was often a struggle to decide where/what to eat for supper before crashing into bed. I was grateful to have high speed internet access in my room so I could keep in contact with friends/family back home.
The plenary sessions were interesting, and gave a lot of insight into the recent work of the WCC. Sometimes it was difficult to remember that part of what were we there to do as delegates was to ratify the work of the WCC over the past 7 years, and to set guidelines for the next 7 years, but that we wouldn't be making decisions about specific issues or programming. Again - I have to thank Marion Best for clearly outlining the mandate of the general assembly - I saw a lot of delegates around me, especially youth, you were frustrated at not getting any "real work" done. I do feel like there was sometimes too much information coming all of the time - there was really no chance for Sabbath or meditation. Even now it's hard to write about my experience because I'm still processing everything that happened.
The second week of the Assembly saw the majority of the business sessions. After trying to balance the slate of nominees to Central Committee, there was an error according to the constitution, so elections to Central Committee took place a couple days later than hoped. I was elected to Central Committee along with the Rev. Will Ingram (Presbyterian Church in Canada) and the Rev. John Steele (Anglican Church of Canada) to represent Canada. We will be responsible for representing our own churches on central committee, but it is really important for all of us to remember that our names were put forward by the Canadian churches as a group to represent Canada as part of the North American region. We are also responsible for representing the voices of the Disciples and Religious Society of Friends in Canada (Quakers).
The best part of the assembly for me was meeting people of different faiths from around the world. I had engaging conversations with friends from Rwanda about human sexuality - a topic on which our cultures differ very much theologically (and sometimes in practice). I learned a great deal about Orthodoxy from my friends of the Armenian Apostolic Church (both those in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora) as well as the Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. The mainline protestant churches of the Pacific Islands (Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Kiribati, etc.) truly set the bar for inclusivity of the younger generation, and are dedicated to the training of new leadership and ensuring the future of the Pacific churches. I have also connected with my Indigenous sisters and brothers from all over - Norway, Sweden, the Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Greenland, Germany.
At the first Central Committee meeting (Feb. 22) we elected a new nominations committee, and they met 4 times over a 24 hour period to give us a slate of nominees to Executive Committee. Thursday the 23rd, during a marathon 4 1/2 hour meeting, we managed to elect the new moderator, vice-moderators, and executive committee. I was one of 5 people ages 30 and under elected to make up the executive committee for the next 7 years. We also have representing people under thirty: Graham McGeoch (Scotland), Nerissa Celestine (Carribean), Outi Vasko (Orthodox, Finland), Iyabo Olekola (Africa). We left that meeting at 11:30pm, with little time (for me) to get back to the hotel and pack before leaving for the airport at 4am the next morning. It was truly exhausting.
I would have to say that as I reflect on my experience at the WCC General Assembly, I realize that I saw the best of people, and I saw the worst of people. People's best intentions came out along side of their worst behaviours - and it was both a time full of hope and full of struggle. What struck me as most crucial going forward, is that there really seems to be very little accountability built into the work of the WCC. While the mandate is to work for Christian unity, there is little incentive for member churches to work towards unity if they don't like the process or if it seems to be too painful to change. This should improve somewhat with the deepening of the consensus model of decision making, but I think it will take some time for the parliamentary culture to truly leave the WCC. In the past churches have been justified by not taking action because they voted "against" a particular direction of the WCC. Now that is more difficult because in order for their to be consensus, they have to agree to live with the decisions being made, or try to change things enough to have more compromise. While that should bring member churches more on board, it will take the next seven years to tell if it is working or not.
What I learned is that it is important, no - essential, for us as Christians to always remember to balance the practice of Christianity with our talk of the ideals of Christianity. As someone who sensitive to inter-faith relationships, I was uncomfortable at times with the celebration of the ideal of Christian life, while sometimes there were was blatant silencing of voices which would expose hypocrisy or behaviours inconsistent with those ideals. The report of the message committee, written in the form of a prayer, stated "may our prayers never be empty words, but an urgent response to your living Word." That is my prayer also - we still have so far to go in ecumenism to reach the goal of Christian unity. When every member of every congregation knows something about ecumenism, when congregations can work together across the world to enact the goals of the WCC, and can celebrate that their sisters and brothers in Christ around the globe are working to the same ends, then we will have achieved our mandate as the WCC. Until that time, there is always a danger for the work of this great global body to be "empty words" for it is always the member churches who must put it into practice.
