Episcopal Press and News
WCC Committee Presses Social Issues
Episcopal News Service. September 18, 1980 [80321]
NEW YORK -- Christian denominations throughout the world will have heavy agendas if they attempt to come to grips with the many recommendations which came out of the latest Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches.
The Central Committee met in Geneva in mid-August and addressed a wide variety of concerns -- many of them growing out of conferences held over the past year on racism, evangelism, and faith and science. While the Committee sets policy for its World Council programs, it also works to support and stimulate response on social issues from its nearly 300 member denominations.
On nuclear issues, the Committee strongly backed an appeal to nuclear weapons powers to undertake an immediate freeze on testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons while seeking a comprehensive test ban treaty. However, a resolution calling for a similar moratorium in peaceful nuclear developments was passed by only 16 votes with 12 other members of the Committee abstaining.
In the Middle East, the Committee deplored the recent Israeli actions in declaring an undivided Jerusalem as its eternal capital and asked the member churches to work through their governments to exert pressure on Israel not to implement the decision.
Southern Africa was a major concern to the Committee which has consistently decried the apartheid policies of the Republic of South Africa. Council agencies and member churches alike were urged to press for comprehensive sanctions and cessation of financial involvement. The Episcopal Church has been active in this field through its participation in shareholder actions authorized by Executive Council.
A statement on food in the 80s is intended to alert public attention to the fact that current policies and trends in food production and distribution result in the scandal of the hunger of millions of people.
The Central Committee, in its statement, calls on member churches to monitor their countries' food policies as well as the role of transnational companies in the agri-business and to analyze their own role in promoting or protecting people's right to food as the "most basic of all human physical needs."
Five new churches were welcomed into the Council this year, three of which are Anglican: the Province of Nigeria, the Province of Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire, and the Anglican Church of Papua-New Guinea.
The Anglican Archbishop of Canada, the Most Rev. Edward W. Scott, is moderator of the Committee and Presiding Bishop John M. Allin of the Episcopal Church is a member of the 88-person panel. Dr. Cynthia Wedel, a longtime Episcopal and ecumenical activist, serves as a president of the Council.