Gathering Worship

Our gathering worship was led by a Korean choir in traditional dress accompanied by traditional instruments.

Laments were read from various regions as a Philippino youth group dramatized the lament. In the prayer below a woman from the Pacific Islands is lamenting the rising sea and climate change as it threatens their very survival. The actor is pouring ashes over her body in agony.

Now which button would you push?

Life can become so complicated, even with the most basics of life's necessities. I eyed the buttons with some concern, but it was the only cubicle free. The heat-warmer seat was an unexpected bonus. Luckily, I made sure that I was decent before I guessed which button was the flush. Out popped a fountain-like spray & I jumped out of the cubicle with a few yelps, watching helplessly as the spray began flooding the floor. The poor cleaner just shook her head, as she must have done a number of times, at us unsophisticated foreigners.

God of life, lead us to justice and peace

The title of this blog is the theme of this 10th Assembly of the WCC. Each day will be dedicated to a different aspect of this theme in morning prayer, Bible studies, plenary sessions and meetings.

These past two days have been filled with planning, rehearsing for opening worship and setting up the hall for worship. I will including pictures of the opening worship tomorrow.

Today was the day of demonstration against the WCC. The demonstration was peaceful and no one threatened us as we walked through their midst. However, we found out later that there was a bomb threat. The SWAT team was called in with their dogs to search the conference centre--just to add a bit of excitement. It is sad how people supposedly committed to the same faith can be so adamantly opposed to one another. The United Church of Canada was one of their targets, as was Namibia. I just happened to be walking through the crowd with Nangula, the Moderator of our Worship Planning Committee, who was from Namibia. Fortunately, the crowd was none the wiser.

Kari, from Norway, Nangula from Namibia and myself

Truly our prayer is: God of life, lead us to justice and peace.

What is the World Council of Churches?

Immediately after World War II, the World Council of Churches was formed at its first assembly in Amsterdam in 1948. It is "the most diverse Christian gathering of its size in the world. It is a unique opportunity for the churches to deepen their commitment to visible unity and common wittiness so that the world may believe." http://wcc2013.info/en/about-the-assembly

I have served for over 10 years on the Plenary Commission of Faith and Order (the body which produces theological statements). These documents have included the interpretation of scripture, the common meaning of baptism and eucharist and the nature and purpose of the church, and human sexuality. One might think that these are wonderful meetings of commonality and joy. That would be nice. In reality, these have been quite contentious as Christian denominations including Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Pentecostal, Baptist, etc. all contribute their own interpretations. It is a miracle that we have been able to produce any documents at all--but we have. And therein is hope.

I am sitting in the Calgary airport writing this latest post. I just read that there will be a demonstration against the assembly on Oct. 29 by "anti-ecumenical" groups. We are told not to worry.

D-Day approaching

The countdown is on. In 2 1/2 days, I'll be on the plane, heading for the Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Korea.  I'm part of the Worship Planning Committee and have been assigned to rehearse the participants in each day of our creative prayers. Our Planning Team has met twice--once in Armenia and once in Korea to view the site where we'll be meeting. We'll be setting up one of the fanciest conference centres in the world to resemble a tent. We are, after all, Christian pilgrims on a journey. The juxtaposition of tented travellers within a state of the art building will perhaps represent our diversity of class & culture as Christians gather from all around the world.