The latest meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee took place in Johannesburg near the end of June 2025. (The WCC now has 356 national and international member churches.) Having grown up in South Africa, in the apartheid era, I was particularly intrigued to follow the discussions of the Central Committee in this country. I’ve been interested in the work of the WCC over the years, since I was a member of the Central Committee from the 1991 Canberra Assembly to the 1998 Harare Assembly. I also helped with the planning of the Harare Assembly.
Part of the discussions during the time of this year’s Central Committee involved an input by Frank Chikane, a well-known South African church leader, pointing again to the question that was raised in the apartheid era, with people asking, ‘Where is God?’ This question was taken further in the discussion about the spiritual interconnectedness that God brings, alongside a focus on the role of prayer and worship.
I’ve sometimes wondered recently whether in the churches in the UK we’ve given more of a focus to issues to do with management and organisation rather than spirituality and worship. Management and organisation are important, but are inevitably more inward-focused than looking to the God who is both other than us and present with us, and with all God’s people.
Deeper conversations between Christians of different backgrounds and traditions with regard to spirituality and prayer, and worship, could lead us to a closer ecumenical understanding of who God is, and of the nature of God’s call to the church in today’s world. It could also lead to the way we might see this as a shared and common call that we need to focus on more deeply, rather than as a path of separation between different traditions.
Talking together with each other more regularly could lead to greater learning from each other’s different understandings of the faith. Looking at the varying practices of prayer and worship in different traditions could help to deepen our awareness of who God is and how we encounter God. Sharing this experience might help us engage better, locally, regionally and nationally, with the questions people outside the church have about the Christian faith.
In the overall WCC discussions, there wasn’t a separation between spirituality and activism, as can sometimes seem to be the case in parts of today’s church. What was interesting in the Central Committee discussions was the way they led on to the need for activism, in a range of ways, including such areas as public health, climate change, and immigration. There was also a statement which ‘reiterated the foundational assertion that rejects war as contrary to God’s will and called for an immediate global ceasefire as a moral imperative.’
The write-up of the meeting included the following statement: “The WCC governing body also suggested that the (WCC 12th) Assembly strike a balance between decision-making and ecumenical celebration. It should empower delegates to not only be informed, but to also be actively engaged, inspired, and equipped to carry the ecumenical vision forward. The assembly should foster curiosity, spiritual renewal, intercultural encounter, and ecumenical learning – even for those not involved in decision-making.”
These words speak to me again about the challenge to the churches in the UK to work and talk together in order to present holistically the alternative values of the Christian faith in this troubled world in which we live.
Rev Dr Elizabeth Welch is coming up to the 50th Anniversary of her Ordination as a minister in the United Reformed Church. She grew up in South Africa, as the daughter of a Congregational minister, and part of an anti-apartheid campaigning family. For her first twenty years of ministry, she worked in two Local Ecumenical Partnerships, firstly in Eastbourne, then in Milton Keynes. She was then appointed as the West Midlands Synod Moderator. During this time, she was also elected as the first woman minister to be Moderator of the URC General Assembly. (2021-2020). She has served as chair of the Society for Ecumenical Studies (2011-2023) and Co-chair of the International Reformed Anglican Dialogue (2015-2020). At a later point in her working life, she studied for a PhD, comparing the writing of the 17th-century Puritan divine, John Owen with the contemporary Orthodox theologian, John Zizioulas, subsequently published as ‘The Holy Spirit and Worship’.