Padare at the World Council of Churches Eighth Assembly

Community meeting, Gweru, Zimbabwe (1984) (Photo Oikoumene theme: Development & Economy/Communities; ref. no.: 2818-14)

Padare means people coming together to receive and share wisdom

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Padare - a Shona word meaning meeting place - is a Zimbabwean tradition of people coming together to receive and share wisdom, especially concerning community problems. The World Council of Churches' Eighth Assembly will be held in Zimbabwe this December; inspired by this tradition, the WCC has invited churches and ecumenical groups and organizations to share their experience and wisdom with participants in an international, ecumenical version of Padare at the Eighth Assembly.

On the campus of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare WCC Assembly delegates will be joined by hundreds of other people. 1998 is also the year of the 50th Anniversary of the WCC and there will be a special Anniversary celebration at the Assembly. On any given day as many as 4000 people - representatives of ecumenical organizations and of churches which are not WCC members, observers, advisors, guests, visitors from Zimbabwe and abroad and journalists - may be present on the Assembly site. The Padare is designed to break down the barriers between all these people - between official delegates, visitors and members of local churches - and to provide the atmosphere of a genuine gathering of churches to mark the WCC's 50th anniversary.

The Padare is an entirely new feature and will be a central element in this WCC Assembly. As a space in which to share experiences of ecumenical activities and to reflect on the meaning and implications of those experiences with others, it will have its own raison d'être outside the Assembly's official decision-making agenda. No reports are to be written or recommendations formulated. But Assembly delegates will have ample opportunity to sample Padare offerings and will, it is expected, bring insights and proposals back to the second round of Assembly "hearings".

Korean dance presentation at the 1991 WCC Assembly in Canberra, Australia. (Photo Oikoumene theme: Vancouver to Canberra; ref. no.: 5072-9)

Some 200 offerings from member churches and ecumenical groups and organizations are now listed in the Padare programme. These are organized under six themes which are vital ones for the WCC as well as for regional, national and local ecumenical bodies. The themes are:

• Justice and Peace, including issues that arise for the church in a world marked by conflicts, violence and globalization and in the building of reconciled communities;
  
• Unity: issues related to worship, spirituality, the visible unity of the churches and ecclesiology and ethics;
  
• Moving Together: issues related to communication of and within the ecumenical movement, to conciliar ecumenism and to an understanding of one ecumenical movement;
  
• Learning: issues that arise in interreligious relations and in Christian and ecumenical formation related to cultural and religious plurality;
  
• Witness: issues which arise in communicating the gospel through witness and evangelism, and around the problem of proselytism;
  
• Solidarity: issues related to the churches' concern for the environment, for the development of just and sustainable communities and for practical actions of empowerment and capacity-building.

During the five days of Padare experiences and ideas will be shared via workshops, seminars, displays and exhibitions, music, mime and drama.... Actual events will be time-tabled. A variety of spaces on the university campus, including formal lecture halls, informal meetings places both indoors and out, and theatre space with audiovisual equipment have been set aside for this purpose.

Participation in the Padare is self-financing since the WCC is unable to assist with travel, accomodation, living or other costs. Groups who wish to participate are thus encouraged to look for sponsorship from within their own countries. On the other hand no charge will be made for use of the site or facilities. Padare participants will be accomodated at hotels and some student accomodation at the university.

The opening of an Assembly space where participants listen and learn from one another puts into practice an essential element of the ecumenical understanding, as expressed in the policy statement Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of Churches: "The essence of the Council is the relationship of the churches to one another." The WCC anticipates that this openness to the Holy Spirit's work among those gathered from each part of the world will bring new energy and creativity to the life of the Assembly.

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World Council of Churches
Padare office
P.O. Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

Telefax: (+41 22) 788 0067 E-mail: Contact us

"The Challenge of a Jubilee Assembly and the Padare",
by Myra Blyth (Assembly Feature Service no.8)

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