{"id":4081,"date":"2017-05-20T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-20T11:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/?p=4081"},"modified":"2018-12-19T12:07:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T12:07:13","slug":"collaboration-between-rcc-and-wcc-dr-paulos-gregorios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/?p=4081","title":{"rendered":"Collaboration between RCC and WCC \/ Dr. Paulos Gregorios"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"paulos_gregorios_34\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Collaboration between RCC and WCC \/ Dr. Paulos Gregorios<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Collaboration between RCC and WCC: Some Random Comments<\/span> <\/strong>\r\n\r\n\r\nPAULOS MAR GREGORIOS<\/strong> \r\n(Metropolitan of Delhi) \r\n\r\n\r\nMy information is limited. Twelve years of experience on the \r\nJoint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the \r\nWorld Council of Churches, some inside knowledge of both consti- \r\ntuencies acquired in the last 20 years, and partial acquaintance with \r\nthe literature \u2014 this is all I have to go on to make some comments \r\non R. C. C. \u2014 W. C. C. relations today and tomorrow. \r\n\r\nI. Differences \r\n\r\nThere are the obviously seen differences: \r\n\r\n(a) The RCC is a Church, the WCC is a fellowship of Churches, \r\nwith no body authorized to act on behalf of all of them. \r\n\r\n(b) The Vatican is a State, and has a special place in the Com- \r\nmunity of Nations. The W. C. C. and its agencies are at best \r\nNon-Governmental Organizations without any official relation \r\nto individual states, but accredited to the ECOSOC of the \r\nU. N. \r\n\r\n(c) The decision-making process reflects the view of the Two-third \r\nworld more in the W. C. C. than in the RCC. The Holy \r\noffice in Rome is less advanced than the W. C. C. in ensuring \r\nsuch representation and participation. \r\n\r\n(d) The laity and especially women and youth have a larger role \r\nin the W. C. C.\u2019s decision-making and leadership than in the \r\nRCC. \r\n\r\n(e) The RCC is an institution with centuries of tradition, while \r\nthe W. C. C. is young, only a few decades old. \r\n\r\n(f) The decisions of the RCC can be implemented by the Church \r\nmore efficiently and readily than the decisions of the WCC by \r\nits member Churches. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n29 \r\n\r\n\r\n(g) The Roman Catholic ethical and political decisions are based \r\non a more clearly articulated conceptual system and princi- \r\nples; the W. C. C. tends to be more pragmatic and is shy \r\nabout working out principles and theoretical bases for its \r\npolicy and action. \r\n\r\nII. Fellowship and Membership \r\n\r\nBeyond these obvious differences, there is considerable uncer- \r\ntainty as to the role and purpose of the Joint Working Group. Is the \r\npattern of future relationship between the W. C. C. and R. C. C. \r\nnow recognized as some form of membership for the RCC in a \r\ncommon body where the member Churches of the WCC are also \r\nmembers? If this pattern is formally and officially recognized by \r\nboth sides, then the function of the Joint Working Group would be \r\nclearer, i. e. \r\n\r\n(a) building up better relationships between the WCC member \r\nChurches and the RCC, in terms of Christian fellowship, \r\ndialogue and mutual cooperation; \r\n\r\nand (b) preparing the way for arriving at membership in a common \r\nfellowship. \r\n\r\nAs far as the WCC is concerned, while there may be psycholo- \r\ngical reasons why some Churches may not welcome membership in a \r\ncommon body with the RCC, the WCC itself is committed to the \r\nposition that it would admit into its membership any Church that \r\naccepts the basis, has the necessary autonomy and size. None of \r\nthese conditions are in principle difficult for the RCC to fulfill, but \r\nuntil the RCC applies for membership in the WCC, the WCC cannot \r\nin principle consider the question of membership. This is also the \r\nreason why there is no need for a joint statement on the question of \r\nmembership; but a declaration by the RCC indicating not necessarily \r\nmembership in the WCC, but the idea of a structured fellowship in \r\nwhich the RCC would accept common membership with other \r\nChurches would be helpful, I believe. \r\n\r\n\r\nIII. Practical Collaboration \r\n\r\nAs for collaboration possibilities, there are a number of specific \r\nareas on which some collaboration can be projected. \r\n\r\n(a) on a joint effort for nuclear disarmament; \r\n\r\n(b) some common statement of agreements and disagreements on \r\nthe possibilities for biological manipulation of life and the \r\nmoral issues raised by it; \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n(c) some common study on the causes of poverty and injustice in \r\nthe world, and on practical means of removing the causes, \r\nand the Churches\u2019 role in relation to these means; \r\n\r\n(d) some theological study on the role of the Church in the \r\nstruggle for justice and dignity for the whole of humanity, \r\nand for directions and orientations for Christian action for \r\nsocial change; including the question of the relation between \r\ncompassionate services to the sick and the poor, organized \r\nstruggle for social and structural change, and pioneering in \r\nnew pattern of common life. This will also include an \r\nattempt to delineate the basic elements of human nature \r\n( humanum ) which should now receive priority attention; \r\n\r\n(e) some common compaigning for diverting the use of science \r\nand technology from war and profit to peace, economic \r\nliberation and cultural creativity; \r\n\r\n(f) some common study about how the fellowship of rich and \r\npoor Churches can become a two-way process of mutual help, \r\nencouragement and co-operation with human and material as \r\nwell as spiritual resources. \r\n\r\nThese are in addition to ongoing theological work in the frame- \r\nwork of Faith and Order. \r\n\r\nIn the present circumstances, the above seems to be an ambi- \r\ntious enough starting point. \r\n<\/span><\/pre>\n
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Collaboration between RCC and WCC \/ Dr. Paulos Gregorios Collaboration between RCC and WCC: Some Random Comments PAULOS MAR GREGORIOS (Metropolitan of Delhi) My information is limited. Twelve years of … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-4081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecumenical","tag-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4081"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5009,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions\/5009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulosmargregorios.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}