The Assembly and it‘s Themes – an Overview

The Assembly is the highest legislative body of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and meets every eight years. Its official task is to review the programs and set the general direction of the WCC’s work, and to elect the presidium and central committee. The latter is the governing body of the WCC between assemblies. The theme of a WCC assembly “also provides a focus for theological reflection, worship and meditation in the context of the assembly. In addition, the theme is considered in planning activities leading up to, during and after the assembly.”

When we think of the themes of previous assemblies of the WCC, something stands out. In the title for Amsterdam (1948) “Man’s Disorder and God’s Design” we find a pair of terms, man (as part of creation) and God. With the theme of the second Assembly in Evanston, America, “Christ – the Hope of the World,” God and man became Christ and the world. Thus, a basic statement of the Christian faith was proclaimed: The hope of the world is Christ. The theme of the Third Assembly in New Delhi, India (1961), “Jesus Christ – the Light of the World” was again Christ-centered, and the conceptual pair is Christ as Light, and the world. It referred for the first time to a specific Bible verse (John 8:12).

The theme of the fourth Assembly (Uppsala, Sweden, 1968) is a direct quotation from the Bible: “Behold, I Make All Things New” (Revelation 21:5). It is not said who is the one who speaks, only that it is the one “who sat on the throne.” The pair of terms, then, is “he who sat on the throne” (and spoke and makes new), and “all things,” which can be understood as referring to the world/creation/cosmos. The theme of the WCC’s fifth assembly in Nairobi, Kenya (1975), “Jesus Christ Frees and Unites” was not a direct quotation from the Bible, but it was a proclamation of a Christian faith conviction: It is Christ who liberates and unites the world/creation. It remains open whether specifically Christians or humanity are meant. The theme of the sixth assembly of the WCC in Vancouver, Canada (1983) is again clearly Christ-oriented: “Jesus Christ – the Life of the World.” The pair of terms is Jesus Christ (as the life) and (the life of) the world. It has a biblical echo in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” The theme articulates a Christian conviction: Jesus Christ means life for the world, even if the world does not want to believe in him.

In the following 30 years (1991-2021), the WCC did not continue this Christ-orientation. During this time, assemblies (Canberra, Australia, 1991; Harare, Zimbabwe, 1998; Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2006; Busan, South Korea, 2013) had nothing explicitly Christological in their themes; thus, the theme of the last assembly to date in Busan was “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.”

The theme of the coming Assembly in Karlsruhe is therefore a return to a Christological theme as last seen in Vancouver. Again, we find a complex pair of concepts: on one side Christ’s love that moves (the world) and on the other reconciliation and unity (for the world). It echoes in part 2 Corinthians 5:18-19: “ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” The theme articulates a fundamental truth of the Christian faith: in Jesus, God has reconciled and united the world. God is the source of all love in the world (cf. 1 John 4:8ff), and the love of Christ shows the form and modality of love. The love of Christians participates in the love of Christ and is a witness to the world.

It is not clear what exactly the verb “moves” means in the context of the “world” and also “world” remains undefined. Thus, one may ask: Does the title mean to assert that all movement in the world is caused by Christ’s love? Theologically, the theme is most interesting, not only because it is deeply Christological, but also because it is so obviously missiological and ties in with the 2018 Arusha Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, “Moving in the Spirit – Called to Transforming Discipleship.” The Arusha conference greatly emphasized discipleship. It is discipleship of Christ, and not expressis verbis “discipleship of God” or “discipleship of the Spirit.” For example, in the brief but important Arusha Conference document Call to Discipleship (2018), “Holy Spirit” is mentioned twice, once it says “God’s Spirit,” but “Jesus,” “Jesus Christ,” and “Christ” occur a total of six times (not including the closing prayer).

The connection between the theme of the World Mission Conference and that of the next Assembly is easy to see: It is specifically about the love of Christ, not the love of God and not the love of the Spirit. In my opinion, this indicates a need for the churches to strengthen their identity in following Christ. The Arusha World Mission Conference presented its notion of “ transforming discipleship,” which is both individual and communal. An individual disciple of Jesus requires an inward transformation in order to share his or her experience with others as a call to transformation and discipleship. As followers of Jesus, we must first be spiritually transformed to become agents of transformation. It is a journey into and out of self, for discipleship does not exist for our own spiritual comfort, but has a transformative impact on us, near us and “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

What does this mean for us and for global Christianity now and in the years to come? “Christ’s love moves, reconciles and unites the world” is a reminder of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer already said more than 80 years ago in his book Discipleship: “A Christianity without the living Jesus Christ necessarily remains a Christianity without discipleship, and a Christianity without discipleship is always a Christianity without Jesus Christ”. This is the discipleship of Jesus, and it is always a Christian witness, that is, mission. David Bosch has rightly stated that “the Christian faith is a missionary faith, or it (is) no faith at all.” So, we cannot be followers of Jesus without experiencing the living Christ and his love for us. The Arusha call to discipleship is a reminder and a call for Christians to remember what following Christ means at this time, and then to participate in this great movement of Christ’s love. Mission is a testimony of this love of Christ in the world, and it is precisely this love in which Christians actively participate, not their own love. All this is part of the mission of the Trinitarian God, missio dei, for the reconciliation and unification of the world.

By Risto Jukko for the EMW Annual Report 2019/2020


About the Author

Dr. Risto Jukko is director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism.

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