Introduction
Ecumenical Movement aimed to brining unity moreover Ecumenical Movement
also has broadened their understanding or involved to raise questions to
mainstream churches concerning such a ‘worldly’ issues [racism, womanist
concerns, human right and Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN)]. This was an outcome of all the dehumanizing and elements in order to
reframing ecumenical theology for the holistic vision for the solidarity or
communal harmony or the wellbeing of the whole universe.
The question of human rights has been one of the WCC’s major international
issues. Given the preeminence of human inherent values, “the content of human
rights is openended, related to all forms of inequality and oppression against
which individuals, groups or nations demand their rights.” The place of women
in the Ecumenical movement was relatively insignificant at least in its early
period. Even if the issue of women was raised in major ecumenical forum, it was
mostly an issue of men and in the interest of a controlled council or
conference.
The Christian
Church has rejected outright racial prejudice from the early period of its
inception. Racism both as an ideology and a movement has discriminated,
segregated, alienated and oppressed people on the basis of clan, race, sex, and
color or class distinction. Its inhuman, dehumanized and oppressive character
has made it mandatory for the Church’s denunction. The mission of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network
(EDAN) is to support the work of individuals, churches and church organizations
concerned with issues affecting disabled people globally.
1. Human Right
Human rights are a very significant issue which deals with human dignity
and justice.[1]
The WCC[2]
works to defend human dignity by addressing human rights from an ethical and
theological perspective. It responds to requests from churches to support their
work when human dignity is threatened. This project attempts to accompany
churches and strengthen their advocacy work for human rights. This requires a
holistic approach where civil and political rights, economic, cultural and
social rights are addressed in an integrated way.[3]
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights[4] is now recognized as a fundamental
reference point for peoples around the world and provides the cornerstone of
human rights work. It was adopted in 1948, as a "common standard of
achievement for all peoples and all nations." The World Council of
Churches, through the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs,
played a significant role in the drafting of the Declaration, particularly the
article on the freedom of religion and religious liberty.[5]
Further development of the
inter-religious dimension of rights and dignity; a focus on victims' and
minority rights, impunity, and religious freedom; and providing the churches
with a space in which they can discuss the relationship between justice, human
rights and human dignity are project priorities. The project will work closely
with another WCC project, the Global platform on theological
reflection and analysis, on a study on justice and rights.[6]
The question of human rights has been one of the WCC’s major international
issues. The term is derived from a universal human conviction that the human
being has inherent dignity, honour and worth. These values are so vital that
they required legislative codification and judicial guarantee in order to place
limits of actions upon authorities at different levels.[7] The
stoic teachings that all human persons share a common nature and the biblical
account of God’s creation of man and women in His image were symbolic
illustrations of universal understanding and common concern for human rights.
Given the preeminence of human inherent values, “the content of human rights is
openended, related to all forms of inequality and oppression against which
individuals, groups or nations demand their rights.”[8]
The WCC has been part of the international body that prepared the draft of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1940s. For instance, Frederick
Nolde, the founder-Director of the Commission of the Churches on International
Affairs, was a consultant on the sections on religious liberty and freedom of
conscience to the draffers of the said Universal Declaration of Human Rights
from 1946 to 1948. From the beginning of its inauguration in 1948, the WCC has
discussed and issued statements underlining the churches’ duties and
commitments of human rights, issuing a declaration on religious liberty and
bringing out abuses of human rights such as racism, torture and extra-judicial
executions, to light.[9]
It is in this background that IX WCC
Assembly, meeting in Porto Alegre between 13 and 23 February 2006, has adopted
a statement on the UN Reform. The Assembly "urged member states to avoid politicising the composition of the new
Human Rights Council and give it a status within the UN architecture that
reflects the central importance of human rights as one of the three pillars of
the UN system. Members of the UN Human Rights Council must demonstrate through
their policies, actions and domestic and international human rights record a
genuine commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, including
the economic, social and cultural rights. Being a UN member state or even a
permanent member of the UN Security Council does not by itself meet this
criterion."[10]
1. Womanist Concerns
1.1.The Status of Women in Religion
The status of women in religion, though the women are born leaders and
could do mighty works far beyond that of men, history has generally relegated
women to a low status – a status where they are considered as emotionally unfit
or traditionally shameful. They have been regarded as inferior, unequal and low
in all respects. In Christianity especially the Old Testament patriarchy was
itself an implicit explanation of a male-dominated society.[11] The
ministry of women in the New Testament, they were among the earliest members of
the New Testament Church. Though Jesus Christ[12] did not
choose any woman as a disciple, he was nevertheless conceived and born through
the Blessed Virgin Mary and in the line of Judah. Mary was venerated and placed
on the highest level in the traditions of both the Western Church and that of
the East as well. The Crucified Christ, who rose from the dead on the third
day, appeared to a women first, Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9).[13] Lydia
was the founder member of the Church at Philippi (Acts 16: 11ff).[14] Most
major religions, like Hinduism, Islam, and others have never given equal
importance to women.[15]
1.2.The Ecumenical Concerns of Women
The history of women in the Bible, an assessment of the impact that women
in the missionary movements of the 19th century have made an the
lives of the people they encountered, or an objective, positive re-look at the
contribution that women have made to the church and the ecumenical movement in
this century-will all affirm that indeed women have been at the forefront of
the missionary and evangelistic tasks of the church throughout its history. But
it is also true that these contributions from women have been very inadequately
recorded because women’s selfless and devoted service to the church has often
been counted for nothing. In recent times, women in various parts of the world
have more consistently begun affirming and putting down on record all that they
have gifted to the church and to its various ministries.[16]
The place of women in the Ecumenical movement was relatively insignificant
at least in its early period. With the exception of the YWCA, most of the
ecumenical ventures did not have significant women representation.[17] Even if
the issue of women was raised in major ecumenical forum, it was mostly an issue
of men and in the interest of a controlled council or conference. The YMCA that
was formed in 1854 through had provided ample opportunity to women’s freedom,
responsibility and full participation in the decision making, it was
nevertheless another compartmentalized organization vis-à-vis the YMCA and not
a part of the larger movement at least in the recent past.[18]
The first Assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam 1948 was an international and
ecumenical gathering of mostly male-delegated members. It was planned by men,
discussed and decided by meetings of men for churches, missions and
missionaries and implemented by men. If at all there were women participants
and discussions on their question, the proceedings were designed to place them
marginally in an insignificant position. It is not surprising, therefore, that
even at the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference[19], 1910
the issue of the place of women in the church and in the mission field came up
in the agenda. But the issue and importance of women kept coming up, and women
felt that they were achieving their goal as equal partners with men, gradually.
So the invitation of Kathleen Bliss to address in one of the sessions of the
first WCC Assembly I 1948 was an achievement.[20] Her
address on The Service and Status of
Women in the Churches was published and became a source book on women’s
concerns.[21]
The speech was so powerful that it made the Amsterdam Assembly to set up a
permanent commission on the life and work of women in the Church. Sarah Chakko
too read a report on the role and status of women in the Church from 58
countries. The first half of the 20th century ecumenical movement
through had not facilitated substantive women’s involvement had however created
an intense awareness that had significant repercussions on the ecumenical
thinking in the later years.[22]
2. Racism
Despite the claim
that in many nations a “post-racial” reality has been achieved, racism and
similar instruments of discrimination continue to plague many populations
throughout the world. People of African descent, the Dalits in South Asia, the
indigenous peoples, the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities in many
places in the world continue to be more marginalized than before on account of
the changing economic, political and social conditions that the present world
has entailed. This is true even though human rights activism and liberation
movements have made gains in highlighting these problems and some legislation
has been enacted in an attempt to provide solutions. The legacy of
discrimination and exclusionary practices persists, though sometimes in forms
less obvious than in the past. The presence of these insidious forms of
economic, social, cultural, and political exclusion reflects that the struggle
against dehumanizing discriminatory practices continues and that our churches
must assume a greater leadership role in challenging them in their old and new
forms and guises.[23]
The Programme to
Combat Racism (PCR) is a sub-unit II, on Justice and service. It came into
existence in 1969 following the Uppsala Assembly in 1968. The Christian Church
has rejected outright racial prejudice from the early period of its inception.
Racism both as an ideology and a movement has discriminated, segregated,
alienated and oppressed people on the basis of clan, race, sex, and color or
class distinction. Its inhuman, dehumanized and oppressive character has made
it mandatory for the Church’s denunction.[24]
J. H. Oldham was
apparently the first ecumenical leader who had attempted to provide an
articulated systematic writing against racism as early as 1924. Four years
later, the issue of racism required sufficient attention as one of the major
agendas of the International Missionary Council meeting in Jerusalem in 1928.
The Amsterdam WCC Assembly 1948, viewed racism as “denials of justice and human
dignity“ and called upon churches to fight against it, and to take serious
action against racial prejudice and ovecome its barriers in society.[25]
The WCC Uppsala
Assembly 1968 did not just recognize the seriousness of racism in society but
also provided a concrete structural framework for its elimination. There were at least three
main factors that had prompted the Uppsala meeting to give racism an urgent
focus. First, the World Conference on Church and Society, which was held in
Geneva in 1966, had taken up the issue of racism and made strong
recommendations to the WCC. Secondly, the rise of Christian thinkers like
Martin Luther King Jr, Eduardo and the un expected assassination of King some
weeks before he was to deliver a speech at the Uppasala’s Assembly in 1968
stimulated ecumenical debate and action against racism. Lastly, influence had
also come from the side of the UN discussions and resolutions against racism
and racial prejudice, although the Uppasala statement went a step ahead in
identifying the gravity of “white racism“ in different parts of the world.[26]
3. EDAN
The mission of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network
(EDAN) is to support the work of individuals, churches and church organizations
concerned with issues affecting disabled people globally. Created after the
WCC's Eighth Assembly in Zimbabwe in 1998, the network envisaged an
all-inclusive approach to ecumenical work from the very start. EDAN's main purpose, as set out in its
constitution, is to advocate for the inclusion, participation, and active
involvement of persons with disabilities in the spiritual, social and
development life of church and society. Its goals are to maintain an active network of people with
disabilities, to improve their situation by providing the space for their
contributions and gifts to the ecumenical movement and the churches, and to
hold up this network as a distinctive ecumenical contribution to new
models of being the church.[27]
Specific
operational objectives include: 1) to maintain
the fellowship forged between diverse disability advocates and, where
necessary, to extend it to include other interests not so far represented; 2) to
engage in theological reflection on disability in order to provide a foundation
for church engagement; 3) to work with and advise the WCC on its work to
improve conditions affecting disabled people in the churches globally; 4) to
deepen cooperation with and among churches, national ecumenical bodies and
regional ecumenical organizations in respect to inclusion and full
participation of people with disabilities in their ministry and mission; 5) to
broaden the process of information-gathering in support of disability concerns
and advocacy efforts; 6) to take initiatives that will express the willingness
and capacity of disabled people to help further a disability agenda in the life
of the church globally; 7) to analyze and address the relationship of
disabilities to systematic violence, war, and human rights violations.[28]
EDAN organizes regional meetings in
different parts of the world.[29]
Participants with disabilities contribute their perspectives and challenge
their churches to become inclusive of their theological and spiritual gifts.
They also devise ways to strengthen and expand the network in each region.[30]
EDAN is both a movement and an
institution. As a movement, it continues to develop regional networks to lobby
for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the general life of the
church. At the institutional level, EDAN is part of the WCC structure. The All
Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) offers a home for the EDAN coordinating
office. The network is administered by Samuel Kabue, who was previously the
director of the NCCK Advocacy Unit, but is now a full time WCC staff member
working under the auspices of the AACC. A four-member core group - Rev. Noel
Fernandez Collot (Cuba), Rev. Arne Fritzson (Sweden), Ms Ye Ja Lee (Korea), and
Ms Caroline Thompson (USA) - supports and assists the consultant.[31]
Conclusion
It is important that our today’s
church and society should work hand in hand in shaping and reconstructing a new
structure according to ecumenical perspective against all the barrier of this
contemporary world such as, racism, womanist concerns, human right and Ecumenical Disability
Advocates Network (EDAN), gender discriminations, economic marginalization
and all other social injustice to the better spiritual environment and social
justice.
[1] M.
Stephen, Human Rights Concepts and
Perspectives (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 2002), 124.
[2] World Council of Churches (WCC), a fellowship
that brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other Churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries.
[3] "Human
Rights to Enhance Human Dignity",
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/public-witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace/human-rights.html
(accessed 01/ 07/ 2012).
[4] The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976) and other complementary instruments
and some regional documents have become the foundation stone on which the
edifice of human rights is being built. Soon after the establishment of the
United Nations, work on the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights began. Its text, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on
December 10, 1948, opens with the following words: “whereas recognition of the
inherent dignity and of equal and inalienable rights to all members of the
human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’.
Two
generation of rights were internationally recognized after the World War. The
‘first generation’ of human rights was well established in the legislation of
various countries in Europe and America by the mid-nineteenth century. They
were, to a large extent, rights of certain people. These rights were not
considered applicable to all races or social classes. The concept of women’s
rights was largely unknown. Since those days there has been a battle to end
discrimination and to extend the basic rights to everyone- workers, peasants,
women, religious believers, nations, ethnic groups, indigenous populations and
various ‘minorities’.
A ‘second generation’ of
rights began to be formulated together with the increasing formal recognition
of civil and political rights for all. They are the economic, social and
cultural rights. The right to be employed and to fair working conditions, the
right to a standard of living that ensures health and well-being, the right to
social security, the right to education, the right to participate in the
cultural life of the community, special rights of motherhood and childhood (P,
226-227). [M. A.
Thomas, Towards Wider Ecumenism
(Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 1993), 226-27.]
[5] Samuel
Kobia, "Human Rights Council" http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/general-secretary/messages-and-letters/human-rights-council.html
(accessed 01/ 07/ 2012).
[6] "Human
Rights to Enhance Human Dignity",
(accessed).
[7] "Economic
Growth with Social Justice",
http://essaysandarticles.com/search/economic-justice-in-india/ (accessed
06/ 06/ 2012).
[8] O. L.
Snaitang, A History of Ecumenical
Movement: An Introduction (Bangalore: BTESSC/SATHRI, 2010), 212-13.
[9] Ibid.,
213.
[10] Kobia, (accessed).
[11] Snaitang,
202.
[12] Christ
affirmed women’s witness and treated them with dignity, respect and honor.
Women and men were equally called to the ministry of witnessing. Thus we can
say that the task of witnessing Christ in the local congtrgation from a
feminist perspective is to build a discipleship of equals, an inclusive
community where everyone is accepted and has a place, regardless of
differences. [Bethel
Krupa Victor, "Witnessing to Christ Today in Local Congregation: Women in
Mission," in Edinburgh 2010:
Witnessing to Christ Today in India, ed. James Massey and Wati Longchar
(Bangalore: FTESSC / SATHRI / SCEPTRE, 2011).]
[13] Papiya
Durairaj, "Ecumenism in India Today: Women's Perspective," in Ecumenism in India Today, ed. James
Massey (Bangalore: BTESSC / SATHRI, 2008), 68.
[14] Snaitang,
201.
[15] Ibid.,
202.
[16] Aruna
Gnanadason, "Women in the Ecumenical Movement," International Review of Mission ATLA Serials: 237.
[17] Noarola
Imchen, "On Ecumenism in India Today: Women's Perspective," in Ecumenism in India Today, ed. James
Massey (Bangalore: BTESSC / SATHRI, 2008), 71.
[18] Snaitang,
202-03.
[19] According
to Brian Stanley, there were more than two hundred women delegates among the
1200 who gathered at Edinburgh 1910. But their voice was hardly heard. It is
shocking to note that it had been the decision of the organizing committee not
to appoint a separate commission to study women’s work in mission, but to “have
women’s help on all of the commission.” In fact the number of women involved
was very low and two of the commissions had no women members at all. [Aswathy
John, "Witnessing to Christ Today in India: Women's Pespective," in Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today
in India, ed. James Massey and Wati Longchar (Bangalore: FTESSC / SATHRI /
SCEPTRE, 2011), 181.]
[20] Snaitang,
203.
[21] Gnanadason:
240.
[22] Snaitang,
203.
[23] "Statement
from the Wcc Conference on Racism Today",
http://www.oikoumene.org/de/dokumentation/documents/oerk-programme/unity-mission-evangelism-and-spirituality/just-and-inclusive-communities/racism/statement-from-the-wcc-conference-on-racism-today.html
(accessed 01/ o7/ 2012).
[24] Snaitang,
215.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid.,
215-16.
[27] "Ecumenical
Disability Advocates Network (Edan)",
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/unity-mission-evangelism-and-spirituality/just-and-inclusive-communities/people-with-disabilities-edan.html
(accessed 01/ 07/ 2012).
[28] Ibid., (accessed).
[29] The thirteen original members
of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN), all persons with
disabilities, held their first consultation under the sponsorship of the WCC in
Nairobi, Kenya in December 1999. They came from Africa (Uganda, Madagascar,
D.R. Congo, Ghana and Kenya), North America (USA), Caribbean (Jamaica), Latin
America (Cuba), Europe (Hungary, Netherlands, and Sweden), and Asia (Taiwan,
South Korea). The purpose of the consultation was to set out parameters for
furthering the disability agenda globally. As such, it was a landmark in the
development of EDAN from a mere concept to an institutionalized operation.
Consultation
participants said that people with disabilities have immense capacities that
need to be shared to enrich the lives of God's people world-wide. God is
committed to the total wellbeing of his people, and calls us to a similar
commitment to enhance their satisfaction and fight against those forces that
discomfort human beings. This observation is the basis for EDAN's work. At the
end of the seven-day consultation, EDAN members agreed on all its operational
structures, goals and objectives.
["How Edan Is
Organized",
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/unity-mission-evangelism-and-spirituality/just-and-inclusive-communities/people-with-disabilities-edan/about-edan/how-edan-is-organized.html
(accessed 01/ 07/ 2012).]
[30] "Ecumenical
Disability Advocates Network (Edan)",
(accessed).
[31] "How
Edan Is Organized", (accessed).
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