This became the gathering that changed the debate of development within the ecumenical movement. Social justice became the means by which economic growth can be regarded as the root of development.
Economic development based on growth at all cost was rejected and replaced by economic growth within the context of participation by the economically deprived section of society. In other words, development is not about economic growth through production, but economic growth within the context of changed institutional structures and value systems. People became central to the development debate.
Parmar, formerly Assistant Director of the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches, captured the new direction by claiming that "[d]velopment is a means to human welfare; it is not an end in itself. Man and woman is more important than social processes. But if efforts for development are to bear fruit these processes must be allowed to shape the values and structures of society..
Eradication of poverty and economic stagnation necessitates structural changes" People take a central place within this notion of development, unlike the exclusive principle of growth prior to Montreux. The people become an important means of production and the manner in which distribution will take place.
Because the rich has been at the receiving end of production and the distribution thereof, the ecumenical movement had to seriously consider the role of the poor. The participation of the people here referred to the poor and the marginalised. This new emphasis in the development debate elevated distribution above production and in an even more damning manner described real distribution to be egalitarian.
The new emphasis and especially the notion of participation shift the focus away from exclusively economic to ethical and political indicators Swart The emphasis on the poor and marginalised is also recognised in the critical approach to the imposed structures and policies of the industrial nations on the developing nations. It was stressed that such strategies do not take the distinctive and peculiar situation of developing countries into account and that they remain structural and policy frameworks that are imposed upon these societies from outside" Swart Policies relevant to trade, technology, the environment and labour need to take on a different structure.
Policies need to consider both the intra and inter structures of the developed and developing nations. Instead of merely an economic approach, a political-ethical approach needed to be considered seriously. This was started shortly after The Fifth Assembly in Nairobi.
While the Western approach to justice was based on the Roman notion of justitia, the JPSS approached justice from the Old Testament and the later New Testament notion of justice as righteousness. Justice in the latter case delineates the abstract, atomistic distributive justice in favour of "justice means the vindication of the poor and oppressed and the societal dimensions of justice are reinforced" Mulholland Not only has the attention shifted to a greater centrality of people, even to be more specific, the poor, but the participation of the poor towards their own means and manner of development took on a prominent position.
The poor takes responsibility for their own development by identifying the needs, manage resources and determine the future. Personhood as interrelatedness of relationship, self-respect and justice. De Gruchy rightly claims that identity includes both the "who" image of God and "do" the response of the poor to the Missio Dei. The two components of Korten's social transformation, people and their involvement together with their relationship with the environment and the ecumenical movement's emphasis of the poor and their responsibility towards the environment as at Montreux resonates with De Gruchy's claim.
Korten demonstrates relationship when he describes the relationship between the poor and the ecological system. According to Korten, one of the motivations for making the poor central in development is the natural relationship between the poor and the ecological system.
Arguing that the poor depend on their immediate environment for their livelihood more than the rich, Korten claims that development needs and planning can be best done with diagnoses of the poor's interaction with the environment.
Unlike post-industrial development and modern development paradigms' preoccupation with two singular categories of variables, that of the developed and underdeveloped, industrialized and non-industrialized and modern and ancient, the poor contributes to a more accurate analysis of the dependent resources and its usages, as well as the causes of poverty.
Poor households have become critical agents in the search for alternative paradigms for development. The poor has now become more than "faceless aggregate statistics, but rather people, innovative and hardworking, a potentially productive development resource-if the major constraints they faced could be relieved".
Although Korten does not use the term agency, he uses voluntarism and citizen action as two notions of agency. Agency is here referred to as the poor to be actively involved and not just the passive recipients who depend on the generosity of others including bureaucratic, technological and scientific theories and systems. Whereas the latter is production centred, the former is more comprehensibly agency centred.
Personhood is not about the domination or isolation of human or non-human communities as products or commodities, but it manifests itself in relationships of mutual enrichment, mutual care and mutual responsibility Klaasen Parmar has a slightly different perspective, but makes the same point when he replaces self-reliance with self-respect.
In the context of the widening gap between the rich and the poor nations, Parmar claims that the developing nations can never approach development from the "catching up" element to achieve a reasonable measure of growth in per capita income compared to the affluent nations.
He gives four reasons for inadequacy of the "catching up" element: Firstly, it creates frustration and a sense of incompetency of the developing nations.
Secondly, there is a lack in realism. At the time and the situation is even more dire now , the environmental conditions did not project a more favourable national or per capita income in relation to development.
Thirdly, using the norms and values of other nations to evaluate one's own growth creates a sense of subservience and dependence. Fourthly, the developed economies encourages a high consumption rate and for the developing nations to imitate such an approach Relationships and self-respect is intertwined with justice.
Mulhalland rightly observes that after the Fifth Assembly in Nairobi, "[i]n the light of the experience of many churches all around the world, the WCC became convinced that participation and sustainability could not exist without justice, and that the struggle for justice demand a praxis of participation as well as ecological responsibility, and an informed confrontation of structures and powers which threatened the future of humankind" Here is a clear indication that human beings, as both persons and in terms of responsibility, define themselves in the context of justice.
It is ultimately the involvement of people in their own development and the shape of their future that determine effective development. This is along the same lines to say that the kinds of relationship that human beings have with each other and the rest of creation contributes to development.
Robinson refers to the notion of justice in the Old Testament as "a relational concept which raises the question of right relationship with God and with God's people.
Wherever Old Testament prophets found irregularities in the society, wherever they found abnormal relations such as dominance, oppression and exploitation, they immediately raised the question of justice" Structures and policies that enhance a reciprocal relationship and common values can support just production and equal distribution.
The model of development within which the role of personhood can be placed is the "conscientization approach". Dickinson claims that people's participation in development must emerge from a new awareness of the capacities and rights of people. This awareness cannot come from outside or foreign entities, but from the capacities and potentialities from within the person that is locked up or blocked by external and internal forces. They must discover their individual and corporate power, and act towards the creation of their own future" The development debate within the World Council of Churches has not made significant strides since the 's.
Swart points out that "only a small number of scattered writings in contrast to the rich stream of publications on the subject of development during the s, s and to a lesser extent the earlier part of the s".
This does not mean that the development debate has disappeared from the ecumenical discourse. The debate has taken on different forms and Swart reminds that "[a]s an overview of the small corpus of ecumenical writings on development over the last decade suggests, recent ecumenical reflection on the theme of development seems to follow old familiar tracks.
This is, for instance, evident from a number of contributions in the issue of The Ecumenical Review that focus rather on the subject of 'ecumenical diakonia' Vol. Apart from the lack of academic resources allocated to development within the ecumenical movement WCC , the neglect of the role of personhood has stifled the development debate.
There is certainly evidence of the role of persons in their own development as I tried to point out by means of this short survey of the debate within the Wold Council Churches and especially with reference to the Geneva , Uppsala , Montreux and Nairobi The approach at Geneva and Uppsala was from an economic perspective with the focus on the role of the developed countries.
Industrialization, technology and production were the focus. These became the means by which people would be developed. People were the recipient of development. This led to a producer and receiver process by which the rich provides and the poor remain dependent. At Montreux and Nairobi this approach was challenged and people became more than the passive receiver. While economic growth remained the main focus of the church, the people, and more specifically the poor, became a main role player in their own development, or at least the idea was that development had to take serious the sustainability of any development efforts.
The Latin American expression of the ecclesia as the "church of the poor" influenced the shift from a top-down to an egalitarian approach by which the poor affirms the missionary agenda of the church. Ideas and values take precedence over economic policies and projects.
The development debate has not been exhausted, despite the decrease of emphasis by the ecumenical movement. Economic and social deprivation has increased amongst the poorest people and the situation is not getting better.
I suggest that one of the core elements in the quest for development that of personhood, can contribute to a more robust and encompassing approach to development. Relationships, self-respect and justice are significant tendencies for development. It is here that the church and theologians in collaboration with social sciences can make a contribution to the development debate. Bosch, J. De Gruchy, S. Dickinson, R. Lossky, J. Bonino, J. Greetings by the Rev. Report concerning the membership of WCC governing and consultative bodies as well as by laws, among other issues, as approved by the WCC Central Committee.
This document offers a summary of the Ninth report from the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC, which relates the focus and work of the group from through As the group approaches its fiftieth year, its recent foci include in-depth work on the notion of ecclesial reception of ecumenical work, the spiritual roots of ecumenism, church participation of youth, and emerging work on migration.
This report outlines the activities of the JWG during and includes the two study documents and reflections on the role of youth.
The JWG members offer these texts to the parent bodies, i. The report of the Joint Consultative Group reflects the work of the group between the period and It is prepared as a resource for the Busan assembly with advice and recommendations for how to strengthen the dialogue between the fellowship of WCC member churches and Pentecostal churches around the world.
Following the recommendations on the reception of ecumenical texts from the ninth forum, the meeting in Dar Es Salaam gave special attention to the reception of the achievements of the bilateral dialogues in the Global South.
Its recommendations urge the international theological dialogues to be more intentional about questions of membership, methodology, and theological questions about Christian unity that emerge from the variety of contexts in the South. Malta has been at the crossroads of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East throughout its history. Tribute to the life and work of Dom Emmanuel Lanne on the occasion of his death. Father Lanne belonged to the first group of Roman Catholic theologians that became in especially close ways associated with the WCC as members of the Commission on Faith and Order.
The group, hosted by the Diocese of Cordova, Spain, met from 12 to 19 October Bilateral dialogues are official talks between two Christian churches or families of churches often known as Christian World Communions, CWCs. They aim at overcoming inherited divergences often related to doctrine and church order, so that the two partners in dialogue may move to declaring that they are in fellowship. The proliferation of bilateral dialogues as from the s has led to the creation of the Forum on Bilateral Dialogues.
The Forum provides space and time for CWCs engaged in bilateral dialogues to exchange information, consult together on emerging issues and trends and reflect on the coherence and integrity of the dialogues. The projects are funded through the Martung Upah Appeal. How We Work. State and National Co-operation The National Council of Churches in Australia is a national organisation that works in partnership with state ecumenical councils around Australia.
Forum and Board While the National Forum of the Council meets every three years, ongoing oversight of the Council is provided by the Board, which is made up of nominated Directors from national churches. Act for Peace manage the: annual Christmas Bowl , which has been generously supported by Australian churches since The EAPPI seeks to support local and international efforts to end the Israeli occupation and bring a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a just peace, based on international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.
Safe Church Program For over a decade, the Safe Church Program has helped churches and Christian ministries to create safer environments for children and vulnerable adults.
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