Ecumenical will meet Evangelical this week as the World Council of Churches holds its largest and most ambitious conference in eight years.
Starting Tuesday and running for a week, the WCC will be hosting its international assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. While the 350-member ecumenical body has held such gatherings in the past – with this year’s marking the Council’s ninth assembly – the shifting landscape of modern-day Christianity has formed a completely new terrain for the world’s largest Christian body.As aptly put by the head of the Council, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, the gathering will take “a fresh look at global Christianity.” Namely, Kobia hopes to fully recognise the spiritual shifts in Christendom and begin serious dialogue with Pentecostal and Evangelical groups, who have often regarded the Council as a threat to their independence, fund-raising methods, worship style, and theology.
"I will also call on Pentecostals, charismatic and others to approach us in an open mind and not with the hostility of history that has led to suspicion," Kobia said in a statement.
Dozens of Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders will attend the assembly as "observers," and are even planning a separate, smaller gathering among themselves during the weeklong gathering.
The WCC boasts a membership of 350 churches around the world that represents more than 500 million followers. And while the mission of the Council is cooperation among various Christian churches, most of its core membership is made up of two bodies of Christians: mainline and Orthodox.
In an effort to expand its reach, the assembly will be open to those who adhere to the Pentecostal, Charismatic and Evangelical tradition. According to the Centre for the Global Study of Christianity in South Hamilton, Mass., the number of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches is at 597 million followers, and expected to grow to more than 783 million by 2025. Couple that figure with the 300 million evangelicals claimed by the World Evangelical Alliance, and there are nearly 900 million adherents to bring to the WCC table."I think it is now evident very clearly that there is very fast growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic and some conservative Evangelicals in all parts of the world," Kobia said.
Should dialogue and cooperation prevail, the assembly could mark a turning point for the Council, whose more liberal church members have been losing members to the fast-growing Pentecostal/Evangelical churches. Failure to find common ground could reinforce the polarising trends of congregants streaming out of traditional churches.
"They are simply drawing Christians from existing congregations. ... This has caused tensions,” Kobia said.
Pauline J. Chang
Christian Today Correspondent
