The central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has overwhelmingly approved a set of proposals aimed at giving the ecumenical movement, the WCC and its member Churches a new sense of purpose in the run-up to the new millennium and to the WCC's 50th anniversary next year.
The proposals, contained in a policy statement entitled "Towards a Common Understanding and Vision [CUV] of the World Council of Churches", are intended to provide the WCC's 330 member Churches - drawn from Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican traditions on five continents - with a clear statement of their areas of agreement, and to inspire member Churches and ecumenical partners to "recommit" themselves to the ecumenical movement.
The statement will now be sent to WCC member Churches and other ecumenical partners, and be forwarded to the WCC's eighth assembly which takes place in Harare in December 1998 for possible adoption by the assembly as an "ecumenical charter" for the 21st century.
Explaining the need to restate the WCC's "common understanding and vision", the policy statement describes signs of a "weakening of ecumenical commitment, a growing distance between the WCC and its member Churches, and of a widespread perception among the young generation that the ecumenical movement has lost its vitality". It also refers to the fact that some "member Churches are experiencing internal conflicts and even the threat of schism because of their participation in the ecumenical fellowship", an indirect reference to opposition, in some Orthodox Churches, to ecumenism.
As well as encouraging existing WCC member Churches to play a greater role in the ecumenical movement, the statement is also intended to strengthen the WCC's relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, which is not a member of the WCC, and with those Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches which are not WCC members.
According to WCC officials, it is hoped that a proposal on organising an "ecumenical forum" between the WCC and other ecumenical partners, will be brought to the WCC's Harare assembly next year.