Reflections on the Future

Aram Kes h is hian

It is with special joy that I greet you in this house of love and fellowship, hope and vision. We often remind ourselves in our common ecumenical journey that the WCC is not the Geneva Centre but a fellowship that transcends all kinds of structures and programmes, and that it has no centre except Jesus Christ. Yet, after so many years of togetherness in the fellowship of the World Council, we also realize the vital importance of this centre as a place of prayer and spirituality, of reflection and action, of learning and serving. This house is not, and it should never become, an administra- tive centre where only paperwork is done for the churches. It is a sacred place where the churches meet together in the name of Jesus Christ to pray together, to deliberate together, to grow together, and to commit themselves to God’s mission in the world. As such, this place does not exist for itself; it exists for the churches. Its place and role is in the life of the churches. It derives its meaning, its importance, its raison d’etre from the very life and witness of the churches.

This also means that the staff working here are not employees in the ordinary sense of the word; they are missionaries. They are called to participate in a specific way in God’s mission through this fellowship. The churches expect a great deal from them.. .. .

Since this is my first meeting with you as the moderator of the central committee, I would like to share with you briefly my vision and some of my thoughts pertaining to the postCanberra period.

1. The first and foremost concern of the Council is the people of God, since the church by her very nature is the people of God. The programmatic thrusts of the Council must emerge from the priorities of the people and be responsive to concrete issues and situations. In other terms, whatever the Council does must be oriented towards the people. Our theology must be people’s theology, our programme people’s programme, our money people’s money, our Council people’s Council. If the Council’s programmes, activities and actions fail to touch the daily existential life of

0 The primate of Lebanon, Archbishop Arm Keshishian is the newly-elected moderator of the WCC central committee. This article is the text of a talk he gave to the WCC staff during a brief visit to Geneva shortly after his election.

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the people at the grassroots level, the Council greatly jeopardizes its own nature and vocation as a fellowship of churches.

2. I strongly believe that the question of unity should remain the first item on the agenda of the WCC. I want particularly to emphasize this concern, as I have seen during the last couple of years an increasing shift of emphasis from unity as the major ecumenical issue to other issues and areas of concern which often are not directly related to the unity of the church. I am particularly happy that the Canberra statement on unity goes beyond the description of the nature of unity that the churches see through the ecumenical movement, and calls the churches to take concrete steps towards visible unity. The Council in general and Faith and Order in particular must constantly and through convergence- and consensus-oriented action programmes remind the churches of the centrality and urgency of visible unity for their life and mission.

3. We are living in a world of interdependence, interaction and inter-relation. The Council should continue to pay particular attention to this reality of the present-day world. It has to identify its priorities and organize its programmes so that the inter- relatedness of the issues are spelled out creatively and dynamically. I believe that the JPIC process includes not only the priorities of our churches, such as justice, human rights, racism, women, youth, ecological crisis, etc.; it also sharpens the intimate inter-relatedness of those priority issues that used to be dealt with by the churches as well as by the Council as separate issues. Therefore, JPIC ought to remain a major concern for the coming period. 4. I believe that questions and concerns related to women and youth must also be

treated by the Council with equal importance and urgency. These are indeed serious issues and must be tackled as such. The Council is not a council of clergy, but a council of churches. The churches are represented in council by different categories of the people of God. We have reached a stage in our journey together towards ecumenical maturity when we must stop thinking in terms of categories, percentages, balances and imbalances, and plan and act as a fellowship that embraces the whole people of God. Women and youth are full partners in the Council. Their issues are the Council’s issues. Their concerns are the Council’s concerns. I come from a church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, which is a church of the people; the identification of the church and the people is such that one cannot speak in terns of church and people as being two different realities. In dealing with the issues of women and youth, in my view, the Council has to be critically selective; otherwise it loses its specific identity and becomes a platform for action groups.

5. The Council is in financial crisis. This is, indeed, a crucial probiem that we have to wrestle with. I am not an expert on finance. But out of my limited experience, I want to say that the problem is not how to get money, but rather how to use it, It is imperative that first we comprehensively and critically reassess our present financial situation and policy; second, we reorganize the Council’s financial system; and, third, we establish a new financial policy, a policy that encourages the churches’ financial commitment to the Council on the one hand, and clearly identifies programmatic priorities on the other. I understand that the outgoing executive committee, with an aim of balancing the budget of the Council, has decided to reduce the number as well as shorten the terms of the staff. Personally I do not agree with such a drastic measure. The heart of the Council is the

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programmes. And the programmes are implemented by people. In order to have good programmes we need qualified and committed staff.

6 . It is my firm belief that not only the financial crisis, but many of the crises and problems that the WCC is facing can be solved when our churches strongly identify themselves with the Council. The churches, regions, and the WCC constituency must think, speak and act in terms of their obligations towards the Council and not in terms of their rights in the Council. The churches make the Council; they are the Council. The question is not only what to take from the Council, but also what to give to it. Growing together implies mutual responsibility, sharing and accountability.

7. The Canberra assembly, with its new perspectives, insights, and challenges, marks for the Council the beginning of a process of renewed commitment towards the basic goals of the ecumenical movement. It also opens the Council to new dimensions, hopes and vision. Our primary task is to translate Canberra into programmes and the programmes into life. This is not an easy task. It requires strong leadership, a leadership with vision and courage, active and full participation of the churches in all areas and at all levels of the Council’s life, competent people in commissions and committees as well as qualified staff. We have to do our utmost to reach these goals.

8. I am Orthodox. I am firmly rooted in my Orthodox tradition. But I am also open to other traditions. I believe in the dialogue of traditions. Therefore, I am not here as an advocate for Orthodoxy. Of course I want to see that Orthodoxy’s concerns are fully and correctly heard, but I also want to open Orthodoxy to other theological perspectives. The Orthodox churches are not on the periphery of the Council; they are as much part of the Council as any other tradition. They are called to manifest in a more concrete, critical and constructive way their commitment to this fellowship. What happened in Canberra as “Orthodox reaction” to some of the issues was only a first step by the Orthodox to respond to challenges coming from other traditions. But it is vitally important that the Orthodox churches move from mere reaction to active participation and deeper involvement in the Council’s life.

At this decisive turning point in the history of the WCC and the ecumenical movement as a whole, and as we prepare ourselves for the task that lies ahead of us, let us commit ourselves with humility and a sense of profound responsibility, with courage and vision, to the mission to which God calls us.

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