By Andrew Bell
Acts 17 records how the Apostle Paul, distressed over finding the city full of idols, was taken to the Aeropagus to confront the city’s intelligentsia. As Rev Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) stood on the Aeropagus to address the 2005 WCC conference on World Mission and Evangelism, he did not look over a city of idols, but one where the vast majority of its residents are Christian and Orthodox.
Kobia challenged commissioners to remember that “the gospel is not our gospel...; rather, the gospel is that good news of Jesus Christ that all are privileged to hear”. Kobia pointed out that our world is still confronted by many false idols such as wealth and power, war and violence, oppression of women and minorities, inequities of economic globalisation and the stigma against those who live with HIV/AIDS.
I was introduced to the work of WCC in South Africa in the late 1980s. The WCC stood accused by (so called) white Christians of funding “terrorist organisations” including the African National Congress (ANC). So strong were the feelings that whole congregations sought the termination of denominational membership, and thousands of members stopped tithing as an act of personal protest. At the same time, (so called) black Christians celebrated this dramatic demonstration of practical Christianity and WCC’s solidarity with the freedom fighters, as together they struggled to overthrow the oppressive apartheid regime.
Of course the work of the WCC is not new to Kiwi Presbyterians. The legendary very Rev Dr Alan Brash was at the forefront of the WCC’s dynamic engagement with the world in the way just described. Alan had an unswerving dedication to the poor, blind, oppressed and destitute while serving at the WCC, initially as Director of Interchurch Aid, Refugee and World Service and then as Deputy General Secretary. Of course, Alan was a leader of ecumenism in New Zealand and is credited with the change toward pacifism in the church as well as the shift to seeing New Zealand as being a part of Asia rather than a distant appendage of Great Britain. Given this heritage, I knew only too well that attending the WCC conference was always going to be a huge theological challenge. The conference’s theme, “Come Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile”, left me with little doubt that the goal was to seek practical out-workings of authentic Christian action.
As I listened to the many heart-breaking stories from around the world, there was also a deep sense of profound responsibility. For years earlier, Christians like me sat in similar gatherings and were so moved by the stories of suffering coming out of South Africa that they did what they could to enable change. This was personalised further when one realised that you were one of 576 delegates selected from around the world, representing 105 nations, but also all humanity. It was easy to feel overwhelmed.
Without a doubt, the primary challenge facing humanity is HIV/AIDS. The presentation by Nance Upham, an activist now living in France , was a powerful and intelligent challenge to many of the traditional presuppositions about how we should deal with the pandemic. Andre Karamaga, a Rwandan minister who now leads the Africa desk at the WCC, shared in a Bible Study on the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. He spoke of his experiences of ministry in the aftermath of the genocide of 800,000 people. He spoke quietly of how he had experienced first-hand a real valley of bones as he had returned to the region where much of the killing had taken place. But he also shared how life had been breathed into the communities as the Church had ministered healing and wholeness.
Stories of genocide, human cruelty and injustice, war and abject poverty leave one pondering how we can even suggest that as humans, we are created in the image of God. After all, we preach that God was incarnate in Jesus to suffer and die as a profound demonstration of love and forgiveness. There seems to be little organic evidence of this in the world today. However, these stark realities also provide the Church with a brilliant opportunity to incarnate the Gospel truth in the lives of people at home and abroad. People who look to organisations like the WCC for help are in fact looking to us. After all as a member church, we are the WCC. Often all they are asking us to do is listen and help them find healing so that they can make a fresh start. But, if we are willing to do more, their situation is often so desperate that they will gratefully receive our expressions of love. For them, our love is a living expression of the love of Christ.
Rev Kobia concluded with these words: “Pentecost is the Spirit whose gift is that of understanding, of knowing who and whose we are….we pray Come Holy Spirit transform the world that God so loved, that He sent His only begotten Son to teach us how to live and relate.” I think Alan Brash would have agreed.