| Visser ‘t Hooft, the first General Secretary of the WCC, has written about the formative period of the Council. This excerpt deals with the early deliberations on questions of representation and membership. |
In the Westfield College plan and in the draft constitution prepared at Utrecht, the representation of the churches in the Council had been based on the regional principle, though an exception was made for the Orthodox churches. But this regional approach was criticized by the advocates of the confessional principle. Thus eight Lutheran churches in the United States of America proposed in 1945 to amend the constitution so as to provide for Lutheran representation both in the Assembly and in the Central Committee on a confessional basis. These and other critics of the original plan felt that a structure based on world confessional families would be able to deal more directly with the confessional differences which had led to separation. They felt that the confessional point of view was far more important for churches than the territorial one. The defenders of the regional principle pointed out that the confessional approach would tend to freeze confessional positions and make advance towards unity in national situations even more difficult.
Discussion led to an agreement that, in the matter of representation, both the regional and the confessional factors would be taken into consideration. For some, this represented a compromise, but many others welcomed it as a deliberate choice for a World Council in which the member churches would be the basic units. Exclusive emphasis on the regional principle would have tended gradually to make the World Council a council of national or regional councils. Exclusive emphasis on the confessional principle, on the other hand, would have made the World Council a council of confessional families or communions. Both these were undesirable because the confessional and the national or regional bodies were essentially consultative and had no authority over their member churches. For the World Council, itself a body without canonical authority, it was essential to be in direct touch with the churches which were competent to speak officially in World Council meetings on behalf of their members and to translate World Council proposals into concrete action.
The provisional committee decided therefore at its meeting in Buckhill Falls (USA) in 1947 to propose to the first Assembly an amendment with regard to the representation of the churches in the Assembly and the Central Committee. According to this amendment, which was adopted by the Assembly, the seats in the Assembly were to be allocated by the Central Committee, and the membership of the Central Committee was to be distributed among the member churches by the Assembly. In both cases, due regard was to be given to such factors as numerical importance, adequate confessional representation and adequate geographical distribution. This formula had also the advantage that regional and confessional aspects of representation would both be taken into account. It meant, however, that the allocation of seats in the Assembly and of places on the Central Committee would be difficult, and would demand much wisdom and good will on the part of all concerned.
Another amendment adopted by the Assembly provided that world confessional associations and national councils of churches, to be designated by the Central Committee, might be invited to send to the Assembly representatives who would have the status of consultants.
In 1947, the policy as to requirements for membership was more precisely defined. The principal requirement was, of course, agreement with the Basis upon which the Council had been formed, but four other criteria were established. The first was autonomy, that is say that a church is responsible to no other church for the conduct its own life. The second was stability and the third was size, while fourth was the relationship to other churches. It was also decided that, before churches which were members of confessional world organizations were admitted, the advice of these organizations would be sought.
Reference:
W.A. Visser ‘t Hooft, The Genesis and Formation of the World Council of Churches (Geneva: WCC, 1982), pp. 61-2.