WCC General Secretary: We are more united than ever before

(Vatican Radio) The World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism has presented a new ecumenical mission affirmation to the World Council of Churches (WCC) 10^th Assembly in Busan, Korea. It was one of many activities at the Assembly, which began last week and ends on Friday.

Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary of the WCC, told Vatican Radio the meeting has so far exceeded his expectations.

“I hoped and prayed that this would be a gathering where we got a new momentum, a new commitment from the churches and ecumenical partners to work together within the framework of the WCC and that we could renew our commitment to work for unity among ourselves and for justice and peace in the world.,” he said. “Reflecting now, my expectations are raised and I have even more expectations that this will happen now.”

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Tveit spoke about criticisms of WCC, including that it seeks a “lowest common denominator” and is too involved with justice and peace issues.

“I don’t think it’s a minimal contribution to discuss issues of economic justice, peace between divided people, issues of addressing the conflict in Syria together as Christianity and we’ve seen the role of the WCC in bringing people together,” he said. “The theme for this Assembly shows we are more united in our work for justice and peace than ever before…there are no critiques against the WCC from our member churches nor partners like the evangelicals that the WCC gives this social and public witness a significant role – they are also committed to this and the WCC has more consensus about this profile than ever before…if we don’t want diversity we can work each one of us alone, but if we want to do something together we have to realize we are different as well.”

Tveit continued by saying these issues are part of his ministry.

“ I am a pastor and I’m called to be in this role as a pastor, that means we work together as churches on the basis of our faith and our call to witness in the world about God’s love and his purpose for unity, justice and peace,” he told Vatican Radio. That means we have to address situations where not just the churches but people are divided for other reasons like conflicts, economic injustice…if we can build bridges between people who are divided I think I t’s part of our Christian witness.”

He also spoke about the significance of the Assembly happening in Korea, and his visit with North Korean Christians.

“It’s a closed country in many ways but our meeting with the Korean Christian Federation, our partner there was very significant, we were able to reconnect with them, since they have a new leader… and they are very much committed to work with the WCC, even if it was impossible for them to attend this Assembly in South Korea,” Tveit said. “But we got the opportunity to understand both the reality of North Korea and the reality of division between north and south……they see that being here could be a risk for them …and could also harm relationship between north and south….but they are also committed to come to Geneva after this Assembly for a meeting, also with South Korean church leaders to discuss how can the WCC continue to convene this dialogue between north and south…..The Assembly can say clearly the WCC is committed to giving reconciliation in this peninsula the highest priority and do everything we can to convene meetings between north and south in a safe space.”

The WCC head also spoke about the organizations relationship with the Catholic Church, which is not a formal member of the ecumenical organization.

“I see that there is a momentum in our relationship with the Catholic Church… I think many hear the same message coming from this Assembly as the message that Pope Francis has as his profile and I find that gives us great inspiration to see new possibilities for cooperation, both on our level but also on the national levels,” Tveit said. “We have a good conversation with the [Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity] and after this assembly we’ll get together and discuss new profile for our Joint Working Group - as far as I know now, we agree we should strengthen that instrument and make more use of it.”

Listen to the full interview by Philippa Hitchen with Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit: