3 - 1998

Editorial

The World Council of Churches (WCC) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. It was founded in Amsterdam in 1948 as a world-wide alliance of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches.

This is reason enough for church journals all over the world to focus on the WCC and the role it plays for Christians world-wide. As a result of the political changes of the past ten years the churches now face a difficult situation. In many countries, political and ideological freedom have generated anything but religious liberalisation, and the position of the German churches in this respect is neither uniform nor unequivocal.

In this issue of the Ecumenical Dialogue we will discuss what role the WCC plays for the churches in Germany. Various opinions expressed here clearly demonstrate how eager hopes are for a positive sign from this year's General Assembly in Harare.

The focus is firstly on the WCC's position and its goals. How does it see itself in the historical context of the last few decades and with what vision does the General Assembly intend to enter the next century?

Recently, the Orthodox member churches have taken a sceptical and distanced point of view. Bishop Rolf Koppe who is in charge of the EKD's international and ecumenical work, gives us his understanding and view of the situation.

Secondly, we ask whether the ecumenical awareness of the eastern churches differs from those in western Germany? Can the experience of the churches in eastern Germany help build bridges to churches in Eastern Europe?

And thirdly, we focus on the question whether the WCC can trigger and stimulate ecumenical initiatives at the churches' grassroots level. Today it would seem that the visions have been overtaken by reality.

Again, we look forward to your letters, which we will be pleased to pass on to Bishop Koppe at the EKD. Please inform anyone who is interested in the subject of our website quoted in the masthead.