Hundreds of people gathered at Amsterdam’s Nieue Kerk this week to mark the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches in the place where it was founded.
Coming from across the globe, they attended a service held under the banner of “Walking, Praying and Working Together” during which Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, gave a sermon on the theme of “The Love of Christ Compels Us”.
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit gives a sermon in Amsterdam’s Nieue Kerk at a service celebrating 70 years of the WCC. PICTURE: Albin Hillert/WCC.
“The assembly message from Amsterdam shows that the delegates were bold in speaking to the reality of the world…” Tveit told the gathering. “Their faith was a hope, against the realities of many of their recent experiences.”
Tveit paid tribute to the contributions the churches made to peace. Taking place just three years after the end of World War II, those at the first assembly, he said, “knew that the need for reconciliation was urgent but difficult”.
“Still, it was the core of the ministry of the church. They knew they were called to be peacemakers. They were convinced that overcoming the forces dividing humanity and also threatening relationships within and among the churches would require that they themselves had to be united in love.”
Tveit said that while the opening service was, “a festive moment, a new beginning after the horrors of war”, for many of those who attended, “there was also a much longer history that had to be addressed in a world fellowship of churches”.
“For example, they knew that the ‘golden age’ of the Netherlands and many other countries represented involved also colonialism and the slave trade,” he said. “The assembly could not be silent about the dehumanising forces of racism and greed that so many had experienced around the world. And the delegates did not shy away from addressing them in the work of their sections and in the message itself.”
In a prayer, Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee, lamented the situation in much of the world today but expressed confidence in the ability of the WCC fellowship to unite people in peace.
“My eyes hurt when the creation you so love and cherish is abused and misused,” she prayed. “I hear the cries of the men and women; boys and girls in the slave markets, on the run from violence; shouting: ‘Where is God?’“
Hundreds took part in a “peace walk” through Amsterdam. PICTURE: Albin Hillert/WCC.
She also asked for forgiveness for the refusal to see strangers as our neighbours. “Almighty God, help us to open our hearts and doors to share your love with the poor materially, to speak truth in humility to the poor rich; to be present with the elderly and lonely people.”
Earlier, hundreds took part in a “walk of peace” through Amsterdam, beginning at the city’s Protestant Church and ending at Dam Square. The walk paused at several houses and buildings along the way, including a synagogue, the Sant’ Egidio Community and the Armenian Church.
Aboum told those gathered that the establishment of the WCC took place “because our ancestors believed in a peaceful and prosperous future in spite of the World War I and II experiences and devastation inflicted on the people and nature”.
“Our founding mothers and fathers had hope.”
The first assembly was held in the church in 1948 and featured 351 delegates, representing 145 churches from 44 countries. The WCC today represents more than 500 million Christians living in more than 110 countries and territories across the world. It has 350 member churches.
