| |
| | Looking Back on Harare: The 8th General Assembly of the WCC |
 | | Unfortunately, these observations were fully confirmed yet again at the Eighth General Assembly of the WCC in Harare, Zimbabwe (December 3-14, 1998), which, since it marked the first fifty years in the life of this primary institutional organ of the ecumenical movement (1948-1998), was truly a unique opportunity for an Orthodox witness. |
 | | What happened in Harare, with regard to participation by the Orthodox, testifies to what was a markedly uneven reception of the Thessaloniki Statement,18 the concluding recommendations of which proposed reduced participation in the Eighth General Assembly, in such a way as to voice Orthodox dissatisfaction with the WCC in a united, pan-Orthodox way.19 |
 | | It was very evident at Harare that the agenda of the Orthodox ecumenists in Geneva is to continue shifting the center of gravity of the problems that concern all Orthodox more generally towards the ecumenical movement itself, and thus to confine themselves merely to salvaging the WCC. |
| www.orthodoxinfo.com /ecumenism/harare.aspx (3127 words) |
|