3 - 14 December 1998, Harare, Zimbabwe

By Stephen Brown
Harare, Zimbabwe, 4 December (ENI)--The Christian church must join forces with other religions to develop global ethics based on shared values, a senior official of World Council of Churches told delegates at the WCC assembly, meeting in Harare, today. 

"In a world where technological culture and globalisation foster dehumanisation, in a world where new ideologies of secularisation deny the presence of the ultimate reality and promote materialistic and consumerist values, the church, in collaboration with other faiths, is called to reshape, renew and reorient society by strengthening its sacred foundation," Catholicos Aram I, of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and outgoing moderator of the WCC's central committee, told the assembly. 

He said that "dialogue among religions and cultures is crucial as the basis for greater solidarity for justice and peace, human rights and dignity". 

The call for a new venture with non-Christian faiths shows a growing recognition within the ecumenical movement of ethics and morality of non-Christian origins. In a written version of his report presented to assembly delegates, Catholicos Aram said that global culture must be sustained by a "global ethics" which "should not reflect the Western Christian ethos ... but be based on a diversity of experiences and convictions". 

Catholicos Aram told the 900 delegates at the assembly: "The church, together with other living faiths, should seek global ethics based on shared ethical values that transcend religious beliefs and narrow definitions of national interests." He added that "religions must work together to identify areas and modes of cooperation in human rights advocacy". 

The moderator said that after the assembly the WCC would have to "lay the foundation of a new global ethics in collaboration with other religions" by further developing "ecumenical social thought and a strategy that will promote and defend human rights values in prevention and legal action, when they are violated". 

The remarks of Catholicos Aram come less than a week before the 50th anniversary, on 10 December, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The WCC assembly is likely to issue a declaration to mark the anniversary. 

Stressing the importance of human rights as a "growing ecumenical concern", the moderator said that the WCC would also have to give more attention to the implications for human rights of the challenges of globalisation, religious freedom and ethno-nationalism. 

In his speech, he also staunchly defended ecumenism, warning that the ecumenical movement "may disintegrate if the churches fail to firmly recommit themselves to the ecumenical goals and vision". 

He singled out two steps that churches could undertake to reaffirm their commitment to visible unity - a mutual recognition of baptism and a common celebration of Easter, the date of which has for centuries been a subject of division for churches. 

"In 2001, the two present calculations for Easter, namely the Gregorian and Julian calendars, will fall on the same date [April 15]. Could this not be the beginning of a common celebration of Easter?" 

He also warned that Orthodox participation in the WCC "would steadily dwindle" unless the assembly took seriously the state of relations between the Orthodox churches and the WCC. (Many Orthodox Christians have long believed that the WCC's activities are too heavily influenced by its majority Protestant membership and do not reflect Orthodox teachings.) 

"It is my fervent hope that after the assembly the leadership of the [WCC] and the representatives of all Orthodox churches [will] embark on a serious and comprehensive process of wrestling together with all questions and concerns that are hampering a more organised and efficient Orthodox participation in the council." 

Orthodox churches had to "come with a clear agenda and an open attitude", while Protestant and Anglican churches needed "to help the Orthodox to integrate themselves fully in the life of the council". 

He said: "It is time that the Orthodox Churches move from monologue to dialogue, from reaction to action, from contribution to participation, from being observers to becoming full partners in the WCC." 

Aram Keshishian was elected moderator of the WCC's central committee following the WCC's last assembly in Canberra in 1991, and was chosen as Catholicos of the See of Cilicia (Lebanon) of the Armenian Apostolic Church in 1995. His successor as WCC central committee moderator will be chosen by the new central committee whose members will be chosen during the Harare assembly, which will end on 14 December. [735 words]
 
 
 

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