WCC elects eight presidents; UCC activist chosen for U.S.
The Layman Online, February 24, 2006
The World Council of Churches has elected eight regional presidents, including Rev. Dr. Bernice Powell-Jackson, a social activist in the United Church of Christ who favors the ordination of practicing homosexuals and same-gender marriages, as the representative of North America, the region that includes the U.S. and Canada.
The regional president in the Western Hemisphere is Rev. Dr. Ofelia Orthega of the Communist government-sanctioned Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba. Her jurisdiction is the Caribbean and Latin America.
The other regional presidents are:
- Africa: Rev. Prof. Dr. Simon Dossou, Methodist Church in Benin
- Asia: Rev. Dr. Soritua Nababan, Protestant Christian Batak Church
- Europe: Dr. Mary Tanner, Church of England
- Pacific: Mr. John Taroanui Doom, Maohi Protestant Church
- Eastern Orthodox: Archbishop Dr. Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania
- Oriental Orthodox: Patriarch Paulos, Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Bernice Powell-Jackson
Powell-Jackson is the retired executive director of Justice and Ministries of the United Church. She played a prominent role during the 2005 national meeting of the UCC, when the UCC became the first U.S. denomination to approve same-gender marriages.
In a UCC column, Powell-Jackson dismissed opposition to her denomination’s abandonment of Biblical standards on homosexual issues by saying, “The Jesus I am talking about never said one word about homosexuality.”
She has crusaded on a number of social issues in which she was accused of misstating facts. For instance, she once declared that “Wal-Mart does not pay the health insurance costs for most of its employees,” which “means that we all pay for their health care costs.”
But a Wall Street Journal article noted that Wal-Mart does provide health benefits for half of its employees and that 40 percent are covered by other policies, such as their spouses’ benefits. Only 10 percent choose not to accept coverage.
In an interview with TV commentator Chris Matthews, Powell-Jackson defended the UCC television commercial that is intended to depict the UCC’s welcoming stance toward all-comers. The ad contrasts the UCC liberality with unidentified other churches: depicting them as using thugs to turn people away from their worship services.
CBS and NBC refused to air the commercials. The transcript of the interview included:
- Matthews: Do you think religion should say “those churches are no good, ours is good?” Is that a good policy for a Christian religion to follow?
- Bernice Powell-Jackson: Well, I don’t think we are trying to point fingers at any one church and…
- Matthews: Sure you are.
- Powell-Jackson: No.
- Matthews: (emphatically) Oh come on. You’re showing a bunch of brown shirts, you’re showing people in crew cuts – they look like bouncers in a nightclub…
- Powell-Jackson: Right.
- Matthews: ” …shoving people away who happen to be African-Americans or apparently gay – gay couples – and you’re saying you’re not pointing a finger?
- Powell-Jackson: No, we’re not pointing a finger at any one church, I said. I think we’re pointing a finger at all churches.
Powell-Jackson has had a close tie with the leadership of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as a resource person on peacemaking, opposition to U.S. engagement in Iraq, advocacy on behalf of the Palestinians and sexuality issues.
Ofelia Ortega
Ortega, who was the first woman ordained as a minister in Cuba, began teaching at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, in 1985, and has been the executive secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean in the WCC Theological Education program since 1988.
She returned to Cuba to be the rector of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas for eight years, and at present is the director of the Institute of Gender Studies. She is one of six vice presidents of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The president of that organization is Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The Presbyterian Foundation maintains a permanent endowment that honors her name to support the work of the Cuban seminary. The fund was begun by a $20,000 gift made by Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames, Iowa.
Like Powell-Jackson, Ortega has also had close ties with WCC leadership.
Archbishop Dr. Anastasios
Anastasios may be the most internationally acclaimed of the eight presidents. He is credited with Orthodoxy to Albania, a nation of 3.5 million people where were prohibited from any practice of religion during Communist rule from 1945-1990.
Every church, mosque and synagogue was destroyed under the Communists. Archbishop Anastasios, a former university professor, is credited with reviving a people battered by decades of ruthless dictatorship.
Sent to Albania by his church in 1991, Anastasios found 1,600 churches destroyed and only 22 elderly priests still alive of the 440 who had served Albania before communism. Since then, he led the effort to construct 83 church buildings, repair 140 that were in ruins, restore five monasteries and construct a convent and an archdiocese headquarters.
He has used what has happened in Albania as a lesson for Iraq. “Right now, Iraqis, like the Albanians when I came here, are suspicious and hostile because they lived in fear and oppression for so long,” the archbishop says. “The secret to changing those attitudes is to show that Americans care about and respect them. Respect for the other is the essence of both Christianity and democracy. It’s especially important to stay true to that ideal in places where cultures clash.”
Mary Tanner
Tanner is Ecumenical Officer for the Church of England. She has served as a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches since 1974, and since 1991 has chaired that commission.
She also was moderator of the WCC Advisory Group of the Community of Women and Men in the Church Study (1979-83), and moderated the WCC’s Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order at Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She has been a university lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew; a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission; consultant to the ecumenical section of the Lambeth Conference and convenor of the Women’s Presentation at Lambeth; a member of the Eames’ Commission on Women and the Episcopate set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Tanner’s publications are in the area of Old Testament studies, ecumenism and Christian feminism.
John Taroanui Doom
Doom is widely known for his opposition to nuclear testing. He became a deacon of the Maòhi Protestant Church in 1962, and served as its general secretary, 1971-1988. He was a member of the executive committee of the Pacific Conference of Churches, 1966-1989, and principal of the Hermon Theological School, Tahiti, 1972-1977. He was a member of the central committee, 1976-1983, and of the Churches’ Commission on International Affairs, 1983-1989.
In 1989, Doom became the WCC’s executive secretary for the Pacific, a post which he held until 2000. He is currently national coordinator of the Association of the Former Nuclear Site Workers of Moruroa.
Simon Dossou
Dossou is an Old Testament professor who did his theological studies in Porto Novo (Benin), Yaoundé (Cameroon) and Lausanne (Switzerland). He has been theological professor in the Yaoundé Faculty of Theology and in the Theological Institute of Porto Novo. Dossou is currently president of the Methodist Church in Benin and chair of the Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in West Africa. He is the author of many books and theological articles.
Patriarch Paulos
Paulos is the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which has a membership of 40 million. He has served as a member of the central committee and the Faith and Order commission, and attended the Nairobi assembly. He has participated in the World Economic Forum and the World Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the United Nations, and has been instrumental in encouraging interfaith dialogue in Ethiopia. He has expressed a strong interest in youth, women’s issues and HIV/AIDS, acting as patron of the national program on HIV/AIDS. He was awarded the Nansen Medal for Africa by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2000.
Soritua Nababan
Nababan’s international ecumenical involvement began with membership in the WCC’s Youth Committee in 1961, followed by service as youth secretary for the Christian Conference of Asia, 1963-1967, and as president 1990-1995. He has been involved at various levels of ecumenical work through the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (general secretary, 1967-1984; general chairman, 1984-1987); the World Council of Churches (vice chairman and then moderator of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, 1968-1985; member and then vice moderator of the Central Committee, 1983-1998); and the Lutheran World Federation (vice president, 1970-1977 and 1984-1991). He has provided leadership to his own church, the largest Protestant church in Indonesia, serving as Ephorus (bishop) from 1987 to 1998.