World Council of Churches Assembly Inspires U.S. Lutherans

CHICAGO (ELCA) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) nine delegates to the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Dec. 4-13 returned from Harare, Zimbabwe, with a sense that the WCC will have a significant future. Two ELCA delegates were elected to serve on the WCC's Central Committee until the next assembly in seven years.
Four thousand international representatives and visitors met in southern Africa to set policy goals for the WCC and to provide a multicultural celebration of the Christian faith.
"As we went into this assembly there certainly was a fear that this could be the last assembly," said Kathy Magnus, associate director for international personnel in the ELCA Division for Global Mission and elected member of WCC Central Committee. After long days of negotiations and consultations, it was apparent that the 339 member churches would continue working together in the WCC, she said.
"There will have to be some changes made to go about doing our business," said Magnus. "The outcome was, for me, very positive in that there was a service of re-commitment. We did commit to continue to work together toward unity. This is our calling. This is what is expected of us as children of God."
Magnus served as vice president of the ELCA from 1991 to 1997. As vice president, the church's top lay volunteer position, Magnus chaired the ELCA Church Council. She has already served three years on the WCC Central Committee.
Arthur Norman, Houston, was elected to the Central Committee. At 24, he said he will have spent almost a quarter of his life in that office before the next WCC assembly.
"The ELCA has a strong commitment for youth involved in the church," said Norman. "It was reassuring to see that all the member churches of the WCC are equally committed to youth and young adult involvement in the ongoing work and direction-setting of the church." He said about 22 of the Central Committee's 150 members are young adults.
A member of Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Houston, Norman was treasurer of the ELCA's Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod's Lutheran Youth Organization when elected chair of the ELCA Council of Synod Lutheran Youth Organization Presidents. He also served as a youth advisor to the ELCA Church Council.
Norman received a master's degree last year from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. He is a chemical engineer in the environmental control group treating waste water before it is discharged from the E.I. du Pont de Nemours agricultural products division in LaPorte, Texas.
The WCC assembly "gave me an opportunity to experience the true essence of ecumenism the ecumenism that Jesus actually prayed for," said Norman. "It made me realize that the movement toward visible Christian unity can be difficult at times -- trying to get so many different people, so many different denominations involved in this international ecumenical organization -- but the journey is well worth it."
"Drums, trumpets, choirs, hymns, video clips, South African President Nelson Mandela, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, and a huge hall filled to overflowing," Magnus listed her memories of the WCC assembly. "What a thrill it was to be present in the Great Hall at the University of Zimbabwe for the Journey to Jubilee Celebration on Dec. 13."
The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, secretary of the ELCA; the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA; Liza Canino, Bayamon, Puerto Rico; the Rev. Andrea F. DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South Dakota Synod; the Rev. Jan O. Flaaten, Trinity Lutheran Church, Phoenix; the Rev. Robert L. Isaksen, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod; and the Rev. Daniel F. Martensen, director of the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs were the ELCA's other delegates to the WCC assembly.
"John L. Peterson of our ELCA churchwide staff was producer extraordinaire," said Magnus. "His creativity, flexibility and 'can do' ability made this an event which will be remembered forever in the history of the WCC. How proud he made us."
Peterson, the ELCA's director for public media ministry, coordinated the multimedia program at the assembly to celebrate the WCC's 50th anniversary.
The WCC assembly elected eight presidents, including the Rev. Eberhardt Renz, bishop of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Wurttemberg, Germany. From 1994 to 1998 he was a member of the WCC Central Committee.
The Rev. Yadessa Daba of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Rev. Anders Gadegaard of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark are Lutherans the assembly elected to the WCC's 23-member executive committee.
Lutherans make up 8.5 percent of the WCC Central Committee. The Orthodox families of churches have the highest representation, with 24.6 percent. Reformed churches have 22 percent, Methodists and Anglicans have 10 percent each.
Two Lutheran churches became WCC members at the assembly: The Christian Protestant Angkola Church of Indonesia has 28,000 members, joined the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 1977 and has been an associate member of the WCC since 1991; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Congo has 136,000 members in 82 parishes and joined the LWF in 1986.
The assembly adopted a total of eight new member churches, six from Africa and two from Asia. The WCC now has a membership of 339 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches, bringing together an estimated 500 million believers.
A fellowship of churches in more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC.
The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.=20=

Its Geneva-based staff is headed by General Secretary Konrad Raiser from
the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Germany.

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