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\n17 June 2018 <\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nRepresentatives of churches worldwide gathered at Geneva\u2019s St Pierre Cathedral for a service of celebration to mark the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), at which His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew <\/b>urged continued efforts for unity, justice and peace. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe celebrate a long common pilgrimage on the path to unity, Christian witness, and the commitment to justice, peace, and the preservation of creation,\u201d said the patriarch in his homily during the service on 17 June at the Swiss city\u2019s historic Protestant cathedral. <\/div>\n
\nThe Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was one of the founding members of the WCC, which was established with its headquarters in Geneva in 1948 to foster Christian unity. <\/div>\n
\nToday it brings together 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 million Christians in over 120 countries. <\/div>\n
\nThe patriarch praised common efforts to respond to the major challenges of the age, as well as the \u201cconstructive cooperation\u201d between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church, which is not a WCC member but works with the council in various areas. <\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe are aware that the movement to restore the unity of Christianity is taking new forms in order to respond to new situations and to deal with the current challenges of the world,\u201d said Patriarch Bartholomew, the primary spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian world. <\/div>\n
\nBefore he became Ecumenical Patriarch in 1991, Bartholomew served on the WCC\u2019s Faith and Order Commission and as a member of the WCC\u2019s central and executive committees. He also studied at the WCC\u2019s Ecumenical Institute in Bossey near Geneva. <\/div>\n
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\nThe service was held in French and English, and included hymns and prayers in many languages and from many parts of the world. It was a joint celebration with the Protestant Church of Geneva. <\/div>\n
\nIn words of welcome, the church\u2019s president, Rev. Emmanuel Fuchs, praised the ties between his church and the \u201cuniversal communion that the WCC represents.\u201d <\/div>\n
\nThanking the Geneva church, WCC vice-moderator Bishop Dr Mary Ann Swenson said the cathedral symbolized the city\u2019s legacy in the defence of human dignity and of justice and peace. She noted that participants at the service included representatives from the churches in both North and South Korea. <\/div>\n
\nIn his homily, Patriarch Bartholomew urged dialogue, patience and openness to overcome differences and difficulties that had arisen since the WCC was founded. <\/div>\n
\n\u201cLet us have no illusions,\u201d he said. \u201cThe churches have so far been unable to overcome their divisions and achieve the much-desired unity.\u201d <\/div>\n
\nThe main Christian traditions represented in the WCC \u2013 the Christian East and the churches of the Reformation – needed to redefine the nature of the institution and to mark the limits within which the WCC is called to bear witness and serve, said the patriarch. <\/div>\n
\nHe noted how the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church that convened in Crete in June 2016 had affirmed that local Orthodox churches that are members of the WCC \u201cparticipate fully and equally in the bodies of this institution.\u201d <\/div>\n
\nPatriarch Bartholomew recalled that in 1920, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople had issued an encyclical to the churches in the world to create a \u201cLeague of Churches\u201d on the model of the League of Nations created in the same year in Geneva. <\/div>\n
\n\u201cThe \u2018League of Churches\u2019 proposed by Constantinople finally took on flesh and bones 28 years later in 1948,\u201d he said, when the WCC was created through the fusion of the Christian movement on \u201cFaith and Order\u201d and \u201cLife and Work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\nHomily of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the 70th Anniversary of the WCC<\/a> by Panagiotis Kapodistrias<\/a> on Scribd<\/div>\n