wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Kobia challenges US churches

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 26/07/2005

KOBIA CHALLENGES NORTH AMERICAN CHURCHES
TO REFLECT GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

"If it was the challenge to US churches in 1965 to reflect a global
perspective rather than that of an ultra-patriotic 'culture club', this
remains a principal challenge 40 years later," World Council of Churches
(WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia told a gathering of US
Christians on 26 July.

Speaking at the general assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) in Portland, Oregon, Kobia was recalling a 40-year-old, but still
relevant insight from a former WCC general secretary from the US, Eugene
Carson Blake.

Commenting on today's world-wide fears regarding US policies like the
doctrine of pre-emptive war, and the current US administration's reluctance to support international initiatives against global warming, or the
Millennium Development Goals, Kobia said that the role of the churches is
to "speak truth to power", even if it is unwelcome in some quarters.

At the same time, he acknowledged the leading role of North American
Christians in the modern ecumenical movement, and stressed the role of US
churches in providing an alternative voice and taking a leading role in
fighting hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS, racial discrimination and violence.

In the context of the southwards shift of the global centre of gravity of
the world-wide church, Kobia suggested that North American churches "need
to adjust to a new position within the wider church of Jesus Christ".

And referring to a perceived spread of para-church organizations,
mega-churches and a "so-called 'prosperity gospel', based on assumptions
of free market economics", from North America to other continents, he
warned against "the confusing of preaching Christ with the proclamation of
American cultural values".

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a North American mainline
Protestant denomination, is one of a total of 23 WCC member churches in
the USA.

The full text of Kobia's speech is available on the WCC website at:
http://www.wcc-usa.org/wcc-usa.nsf/index/kobia-disciples-05.html

Additional information:
Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

Sign up for WCC press releases at
http://onlineservices.wcc-coe.org/pressnames.nsf

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.