World Council Research Articles

God Is Love – The Experience of the Just, Compassionate, and Merciful God

AbstractIn 2022, the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) is to gather in Karlsruhe, Germany, around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” This article offers reflections on understanding the theme in a holistic way against the background of the work undertaken in the WCC on trinitarian and incarnational theology, and the reconciliation of all in Christ that is expressed in the WCC document “Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the WCC.” It goes on to offer reflections from an Orthodox perspective on the just, merciful, and compassionate God that we experience as love.

20세기 초 팬데믹 시대 아시아지도자, 사라 차코에 대한 연구

본 논문은 선교 역사적 관점에서 ‘포스트코로나 시대에 필요한 기독교 지도자의 역할이 무엇인가?’에 대한 질문에서 출발한다. 20세기 초, 세계사의 특징은 글로벌화였다. 세계사적으로는 경제 대공황, 제2차 세계대전 등 초국가적인 분열이 계속되었지만, 교회는 치유와 화해를 위한 향한 글로벌 일치 운동을 발전시켰다.<BR> 이 시기에 사라 차코(Sarah Chakko)는 아시아 교회를 대표하는 지도자로 활동했다. 그는 영국식민지였던 인도의 정교회 소속 평신도 여성이었으나, 암스테르담 창립총회에서 아시아 신생교회와 세계교회 여성의 목소리를 대변하여 연설하였다. 그는 교회에서 여성의 삶과 봉사위원회(1951-1952, The Commission of the Life and Work of Women in the Church, 이하 여성위원회) 국장을 거쳐 세계교회협의회 아시아 의장(1952-1953, President of the World Council of Churches, Asia)으로 선출되었다.1) 그는 재임 기간에 동서양 지도자들이 청년지도자 양성을 위해 기독교 기관들이 서로 연합하도록 중재하여, 그리스도인의 하나 됨을 추구하는 진정한 기독교 가치를 실현하였다. 사라 차코가 보여 준 소통, 화합, 섬김, 실천, 균형, 그리고 긍휼의 리더십은 이 시대 기독교 지도자의 역할에 대한 모범이 될 것이다.

Utility Method as an Instrument of the Quality of Life Assessment Using the Examples of Selected European Cities

Improving quality of life still remains the main goal of strategic documents and is promoted by leaders on the global, national, regional, and local levels. Moreover, this ambitious challenge should be consistent with the principles of sustainable development, including the social, economic, and environmental aspects. The ISO 37120 indicators within the World Council on City Data (WCCD) database may be used to monitor the urban performance over time. However, the interpretation of the results is not always easy and sometimes requires a complex analysis. The aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of illustrating in a transparent way the urban quality of life using the utility method. This study also presents that this method may facilitate making data-driven decisions on urban management, planning and investment. Thus, it may be useful for decision makers and help cities and communities of all sizes to become more sustainable, safe and resilient, prosperous, inclusive, and smart. The analysis has been carried out using the examples of selected European cities: Amsterdam, Gdynia, London, and Zagreb. The hypothesis reads as follows: it is possible to use the total and partial utility method in order to assess the level of urban quality of life with regard to the three dimensions of sustainable development in order to monitor progress and results and prioritize and implement the changes within urban policy. Research results indicate that there are significant differences between the compared cities within the economic, social, and ecological aspects. This analysis may constitute an introduction to the development of more complex models in the future.

A Decision-Making Approach Based on TOPSIS Method for Ranking Smart Cities in the Context of Urban Energy

This paper presents the use of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) for the evaluation of smart cities. During the development of the method, the importance of the decision-making approach in the linear ordering of cities was presented. The method of using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was proposed for the preparation of ranking. The method was verified by the application in the measurement of energy performance in smart cities. The authors conducted a literature review of research papers related to urban energy and MCDM published in the period from 2010 to 2020. The paper uses data from the World Council on City Data (WCCD). The research conducted allowed for the identification of the most popular MCDM techniques in the field of urban energy such as TOPSIS, AHP and DEA. The TOPSIS technique was used to organize and group the analyzed cities. Porto took the top position, whereas Buenos Aries was the last.

Churches in solidarity with the divided Korean Peninsula

AbstractThis article explores God’s mission of reconciliation through the ecumenical efforts for peace, reconciliation, and reunification on the Korean Peninsula. It consists of three parts. The first section explores reconciliation as a means of overcoming the division system in Korea. The second section offers reconciliation as a peace process in the Korean context. The third section highlights the engagement in the reconciliation as a spiritual journey from the World Council of Churches’ global prayer campaign, which is a Christian pathway toward a peace system in the Korean Peninsula. In particular, this article demonstrates that prayer is not a strategy in our work of advocacy but a spiritual mandate and movement toward peace and justice cultivating reconciliation.

Kenneth R.Ross. Mission Rediscovered: Transforming Disciples. A Commentary on the Arusha Call to Discipleship. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2020. 139 pp.

Kenneth R.Ross. Mission Rediscovered: Transforming Disciples. A Commentary on the Arusha Call to Discipleship. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2020. 139 pp.

From Busan to Arusha, and beyond

AbstractA new World Council of Churches (WCC) mission statement was presented to the member churches of the WCC at the assembly in 2013 in Busan, South Korea. The document, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL), was said to be pneumatological. From God’s mission, missio Dei, there was a shift toward the mission of the Spirit, missio Spiritus. The ecumenical world was introduced to a new mission concept: “mission from the margins,” according to which the Holy Spirit was empowering those in the margins.Five years later, in 2018, in Arusha, Tanzania, the WCC Conference on World Mission and Evangelism officially adopted a short mission document entitled “The Arusha Call to Discipleship” and another document, “The Arusha Conference Report.” The conference was said to have been influenced and inspired by TTL. However, in the conference documentation, the missio Spiritus seems to have been left aside. Thus, it would seem that in recent ecumenical missiology, there has been a shift from pneumatology toward Christology as the basis of individual and communal Christian life. In light of this, this article intends to compare the WCC mission documents of 2013 and 2018 and to show that there has been a shift toward the “Christ‐connected way of life” of the disciple and how this Christ‐connected discipleship is vulnerable and wounded, as it connects with the concept of kenosis.

Unity for the sake of missions

AbstractPentecostal‐Charismatic Christians form a block of over 600 million people inside Christianity. This article assesses the theological and missiological reasons behind the development of Pentecostal‐Charismatic Christians since the beginning of the 20th century. Pentecostals have been hesitant in developing contacts with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and conciliar churches, fearing to be connected to a collaboration that is more human‐oriented than spirit‐oriented. Slowly, however, the openness toward visible, concrete cooperation on a larger basis has developed in mutual dialogue with others, such as the Global Christian Forum, which represents the Roman Catholic Church, the WCC, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the Pentecostal World Fellowship. Pentecostals today are involved in many kinds of collaboration between the different denominations among themselves but also with other evangelical and even conciliar churches when possible, to fulfil the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

A Christian-Buddhist Dialogue on the Four Noble Truths

For the first time, in the Vatican Council II (1962–65), the Catholic Church recognized non-Christian religions as entities that the Church should respect and with which Christians should enter into dialogue. Being on the same page, the World Council of Churches (WCC) affirms that from her initiation, the Church has been confessing that God is reconciling the world to Himself via His Son and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Again, the WCC holds that, throughout history, the Church has been seeking to apply the basics of her faith to concrete situations in which she has been finding herself in her endless missiological journeys. Nowadays, the Church is called upon to empower her members to relate to people of other religions and to live as witnesses with others. These points justify the necessity of this article, which is entitled “A Christian-Buddhist Dialogue on the Four Noble Truths.” In the context of interreligious dialogue, this article seeks to explain the four Noble Truths of Buddhism in the light of Christian Soteriology. To that end, this article begins with a simplified explanation of the four Noble Truths of Buddhism after which it seeks to re-explain and re-express the same noble truths in the light of Christian Soteriology. Ultimately, this article reveals that Christians and Buddhists can borrow from each other towards enriching their respective soteriologies. Regarding its methodology, this article employs the review of the relevant literature, the principles of Nostra Eatate No. 2, the comparative method, and rational reflection.

Alternative Strategies in East and West?

AbstractThis article describes church reactions in the two German states in the 1970s to the Programme to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The decision of the WCC in 1970 to support liberation movements in Southern Africa provoked a conflict between the WCC and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in West Germany. The Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) supported the programme. The EKD sought to develop an alternative strategy based on talks with firms investing in South Africa and support for exclusively nonviolent organizations. The article describes this alternative strategy and its failure. The article reviews the analyses of ecumenist Ernst Lange (1927–74). It comments on South Africa’s transition to democracy and contemporary challenges in the light of the WCC 11th Assembly theme.

“The Burning Fire of Love, the Nucleus of Reconciliation”

AbstractIn 2022, the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches will gather in Karlsruhe, Germany, around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” Since its 20th‐century beginnings, the modern ecumenical movement has been closely bound up with developments in Germany, not least during the period of the Third Reich. Its early protagonists included the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed in 1945 for his resistance to National Socialism. This article considers the theme of the forthcoming WCC assembly in 2022, “Christ's love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” from the perspective of the life and writings of Bonhoeffer, for whom speaking of reconciliation and unity raises the question of the relationship of the church as the body of Christ to the whole of humanity and the whole created order embraced by the reconciling love of God in Christ.

Ecumenical Solidarity

AbstractIn October 1970, the synod of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau agreed to support the Special Fund of the Programme to Combat Racism (PCR) of the World Council of Churches from church tax contributions. The church was the first regional Protestant church in West Germany to offer financial support to the Special Fund of the PCR, at a time when the programme was facing heavy criticism in the Federal Republic of Germany. This article is an edited version of a video address to a special session of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau synod on 26 November 2020 to commemorate the 1970 decision of the church.

Farsightedness

The World Council of Optometry has just approved a resolution supporting the optometrists in adopting myopia management across the globe. Bill Harvey discusses its significance

“No Violence”

AbstractIn 1948, at the 1st Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, its member churches stated their conviction that “war is contrary to the will of God.” Against this background, this article reviews the history of the debate about peace ethics in the Protestant churches in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It focuses on the issue of conscientious objection and the “the preferential option for nonviolence” expressed in 1989 at the Ecumenical Assembly for Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation in the GDR. The convictions of the Protestant churches in the GDR on peace ethics were formulated under the conditions of “real existing socialism,” the division of Germany, the Cold War, and the nuclear threat. As such, these theologically based testimonies from the past can be applied only to a limited extent to the present challenges of peace ethics. Nevertheless, the central question posed during this time – “What can the church do for peace?” – remains the same and demands theological answers.

A critical review of World Council of Churches’ responses to the global challenges of migration

This article views migration as a topical issue that poses challenges, especially in recent times, for migrant sending and hosting nations and the migrants themselves. In response, the church has recommended various ways of addressing the prevailing migration situation. In acknowledging these proposed intervention measures, this article aims to establish if the churches’ approaches to the migration situation are harmonised and integrated. To accomplish this, the article reviews the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) responses to migration challenges as a window and insight into the broader approaches employed by the churches. The WCC mirrors the churches’ efforts, strategies and positions on migration issues. However, some churches do not adequately execute some of the interventions because of lack of finances to meet the material needs of the migrants, whilst others break the laws of the land as they respond to migration challenges. The article concludes by making recommendations on how the WCC can improve some of its intervention strategies in order to effectively respond to migration challenges. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article views migration as a topical issue that poses challenges to migrant sending and hosting nations and the migrants themselves. It acknowledges that the Church has recommended various ways of addressing the prevailing situation of migration. After acknowledging the aforesaid, it then proceeds to determine if the Churches’ approaches and interventions to the migration situation are harmonised and integrated. As such, the article is interdisciplinary as it seeks to understand the integration and harmonisation of the churches’ approaches and interventions to the topical issue of migration.

Gender and ethnic diversity in global ophthalmology and optometry association leadership: a time for change.

To assess the diversity of leadership bodies of member organisations of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) and the World Council of Optometry (WCO) in terms of: (1) the proportion who are women in all world regions, and (2) the proportion who are ethnic minority women and men in Eurocentric high-income regions. We undertook a cross-sectional study of board members and chairs of ICO and WCO member organisations using a desk-based assessment of member organisation websites during February and March 2020. Gender and ethnicity of board members and chairs were collected using a combination of validated algorithmic software and manual assessment, based on names and photographs where available. Gender proportions were calculated across Global Burden of Disease super-regions, and gender and ethnicity proportions in the high-income regions of Australasia, North America and Western Europe. Globally, approximately one in three board members were women for both ICO (34%) and WCO (35%) members, and one in three ICO (32%) and one in five WCO (22%) chairpersons were women. Women held at least 50% of posts in only three of the 26 (12%) leadership structures assessed; these were based in Latin America and the Caribbean (59% of WCO board positions held by women, and 56% of WCO chairs), and Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania (55% of ICO chairs). In the Eurocentric high-income regions, white men held more than half of all board (56%) and chair (58%) positions and white women held a further quarter of positions (26% of board and 27% of chair positions). Ethnic minority women held the fewest number of board (6%) and chair (7%) positions. Improvements in gender parity are needed in member organisations of the WCO and ICO across all world regions. In high-income regions, efforts to address inequity at the intersection of gender and ethnicity are also needed. Potential strategies to enable inclusive leadership must be centred on structurally enabled diversity and inclusion goals to support the professional progression of women, and people from ethnic minorities in global optometry and ophthalmology.

Walter J. Hollenweger: an (auto)biographical account of his ecumenical legacy

ABSTRACT Walter Hollenweger had a profound impact on a variety of theological disciplines that was nurtured by his personal story. This essay accounts for his ecumenical legacy beginning with the Pentecostal Church in Switzerland to the World Council of Churches in Geneva through an autobiographical account by one of his former students. The essay traces Hollenweger’s early career followed by personal reflections and insights that take Hollenweger’s ecumenical legacy from Birmingham to Geneva to Romania and beyond.

Swedish and American Lutherans Negotiate Joining the World Council

This article investigates how Nordic and American Lutherans reached an understanding over the formation of a future World Council of Churches. During the inter-war period different attitudes towards a nascent ecumenical movement developed on each side of the Atlantic. With an increasing recognition of the need to develop inter-Christian co-operative bodies, leading Nordic Lutherans tended not to fully understand the cautious attitudes expressed by American Lutherans. A struggle arose over the question of so-called confessional representation in a future World Council. It was not possible to reach an understanding until these group were able to convene after the end of WWII. It is the argument of this article that these discussions also constituted a turning-point at which a deeper knowledge of the circumstances of the respective Lutheran churches emerged.

Адаптація міжнародних підходів до формування системи статистичних показників аналізу використання водних ресурсів на рівні міста

The article aims at substantiating the theoretical and methodological foundations for creating a unified statistical indicators system and statistical analysis of the water resources management at the city level. The advantages of using standardized indicators in the field of sanitation and water supply at the city level are identified and characterized in accordance with ISO 37120: 2014 «Sustainable cities and communities – indicators of urban services and quality of life». Both the main and auxiliary indicators of urban services and quality of life on «Water and sanitary conditions» and «Sewage» topics are systematized as for their formulas, application features and data sources. It is established that, according to the Water Risk Filter, Ukraine can be divided into four regions depending on the water risk, namely, low, moderately medium, medium, and high water risk levels. Based on these data, such cities from the Global Register of Cities developed by the World Council on City Data (WCCD) were selected: Amsterdam (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Guadalajara (Mexico). Their indicators in the field of sanitation and water supply were analyzed. It is established that these cities are characterized by a high level of water supply and sewerage services, as well as a fairly high level of the access to high-quality sanitary and hygienic conditions. The situation with quality indicators of water management is worse. For example, advanced waste treatment is only carried out in Dubai. In Guadalajara, 21% of urban wastewater is not treated at all. It is established that in general, Dubai is the leader in the quality of water supply and sanitation services, while Guadalajara is the outsider city, showing the lowest quality levels of most of the studied indicators. The national system of indicators is suggested to be expanded by including such an indicator as «Average annual duration of water supply outages per 1 household»

UNDERTAKING SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY PLAYFULLY: TOWARD TRANSFORMING ACTION

This article demonstrates how re-imagining our understanding of the Holy Spirit in more comprehensive ways can be effective in moving Christians toward creative, transforming activities in the world. This article also provides some examples for undertaking systematic theology in a playful way by using the present ecumenical discourse of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on transforming spirituality.