| This is an excerpt from the final report of the Policy Reference Committee I at the Eighth Assembly of the WCC. |
The Committee reviewed the parts of the moderator's and general secretary's reports referring to the idea of a Forum, studied the presentation by Marion Best, listened carefully to the plenary discussion, and received written contributions. The Committee received the document, "Proposals Regarding a Forum of Christian Churches and Ecumenical Organizations", based on an August 1998 consultation convened following the February 1998 executive committee meeting which encouraged "further exploration of issues as well as the calling of a consultation to examine the proposal (i.e., of a forum) in more detail with key partners". This consultation brought together participants from the conference of Christian world communions, from the REOs and the NCCs, from international ecumenical organizations and from member churches of the WCC.
The eighth assembly encouraged the central committee of the WCC to continue the process of consultation with leaders of the various bodies who have expressed interest in the forum.
In this process, the eighth assembly commended for serious attention the report of the August 1998 Bossey consultation setting out AProposals Regarding a Forum of Christian Churches and Ecumenical Organizations".
In affirming further work towards the goal of providing opportunity for a more effective, more sustaining, more inclusive network of relationships among churches and ecumenical organizations, the eighth assembly offered the following guidance to the central committee in this effort:
a) the WCC needs to give careful consideration to the nature and scope of its role with other partners in working towards the initiation of the forum;b) there needs to be a clearly articulated distinction between the nature and purpose of the WCC and that of the forum;
c) participation by churches in a forum should in no way be seen as comparable to the ecumenical accountability and commitment of ongoing membership in the WCC;
d) much can be learned from the positive experience of various kinds of forums currently existing in some regions of the world, and exploration of the usefulness of forums in other regional or national contexts is encouraged;
e) it is assumed that there will be the need for a modest organizing and facilitating structure with limited responsibility for convening, organizing, funding, and evaluating the forum; establishing and sustaining this structure should be the shared responsibility of the participating churches and organizations;
f) in order to achieve comprehensive participation, the process of invitation should be as inclusive as possible, based on the criteria for participation stated in appendix II, point 9, and should remain open into the future;
g) the distinctive ecclesial self-understanding of each member church and ecclesial family of the WCC, of Christian world communions such as the Anglican Consultative Council, the Baptist World Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, needs to be honoured as the concept of the forum is developed;
h) consultation with the Joint Working Group between the RCC and the WCC, and with the proposed WCC-Pentecostal joint working group is encouraged to help clarify the potential nature of the involvement of these churches in the Forum;
i) consideration should be given to whether regional or national forums could be seen as an alternative or as complementary to the concept of a global forum.