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Vanishing Point: Is This the End of the Line for the World Council of Churches?
By: Parker T. Williamson
In 1948, Christians from 147 churches in 44 countries gathered in Amsterdam in a demonstration to a war-torn world of their unity in Jesus Christ. Unequivocally focused on “the Jesus Christ of Scripture … the God we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” their vision was to encircle the globe with a common commitment to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.
A passion for worldwide evangelization beckoned these denominational leaders to the Dutch city while, out on the frontiers, their missionaries long had known that the faith they shared transcended doctrinal differences. Called to win the world for Jesus Christ, they determined that they must engage in this work together. Thus, those leaders formed the World Council of Churches.
Today, a cruel alchemy has morphed the council’s mission into dross that its founders would not recognize. Its postmodern passion to embrace non-Christian ideologies raises the question, “Who is converting whom?” The council deems conversion itself as ecclesiastically objectionable, derailing the mission that the Amsterdam gathering so clearly defined. The texts of the Presbyterian Church (USA) hymn book illustrate this exchange. “O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer’s praise” has been replaced as the preferred version by “O for a world where everyone respects each other’s ways.” Mutations toward a sterile and amorphous “oneness” find similar expression among other mainline leaders who chart the course of the World Council of Churches.
Vanishing Point is a reporter’s notebook from the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Here, Anglican Archbishops Rowan Williams and Desmond Tutu, Orthodox Patriarch Aram I, the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Clifton Kirkpatrick, the United Methodist’s Janice Love, United Church of Christ President John Thomas and other ecumenists labored mightily to move the worldwide church in a worldly direction.
A soul-stirring counterpoint, though, has entered the scene. Sweeping through the churches of Africa, Asia and Latin America, an evangelical form of ecumenism is manifesting such power that it cannot be ignored. Spokesmen for this “new ecumenism” -- evangelical scholars recognize it as the re-emerging original -- appeared in Porto Alegre, their bold witness revealing an alternative course. Will the World Council of Churches continue on its present path, or will it switch to a more promising track?
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