WCC uses New Consensus Model to Tackle Difficult Issue of Human Sexuality

Yesterday (17 February) the WCC central committee meeting took place under a new proposed consensus model. The dialogue and conversation on human sexuality went smoothly, and information was presented and discussed without the heated atmosphere that often surrounds such controversial issues.

Throughout the meeting, rather than decision making, the committee was asked to enter into a spirit of discernment. Various representatives gave their presentations in a systematic way.

Erlinda Senturias of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Moderator of a reference group which began studying on the subject of human sexuality since 1998, outlined the work done by the group so far.

Via "intense mutual encounter and exchange" in small groups, the human sexuality issue was examined from several perspectives by a series of previous seminars. Dr Valburga Schmiedt-Streck of the Lutheran Church of the Evangelical Confession in Brazil presented the findings.

With presentations and table discussions that followed, it was possible to exchange experiences and share insights into the issue. The WCC Europe region president Bishop Eberhardt Renz, moderator of the session said consensus must always start with this kind of conversation.

The WCC reaffirms the value of the consensus model, saying that it matches with WCC’s tradition that embraces a wide variety of viewpoints, stemming from differences in culture, geography, and theology.

"This allows us to go from confrontation to dialogue," said Msgr John Radano of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, a delegated observer to the meeting. "The world needs to see Christians doing that at this particular point."

Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America echoed that a dialogical approach is the best. "Ideological debate is a totally unfruitful process," Kishkovsky said. "(The issue) is better taken up in discernment mode at this point rather than in a for/against mode."

"Maybe we can still recognise the image of God in those taking the opposite position," he responded in the discussion of human sexuality.

Currently, the consensus model is waiting for the approval by delegates at this meeting. It would, if accepted, be endorsed for the WCC ninth assembly in February 2006 in Brazil.