PITTSBURGH, July 4, 2012 – In its opening plenary business session, the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Wednesday considered matters recommendations by the Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.
Jane Dempsey Douglas, teaching elder and moderator of that committee, presented the recommendations to the assembly.
As part of the committee’s work, the assembly received greetings from Ms. Natasha Klukach, programme executive of the North American Regional Relations World Council of Churches, on behalf of the World Council of Churches.
“We have to follow in the prophetic witness we are offered in the Gospel,” Klukach said. “That means not being limited by fear or inexperience of the other.”
The assembly’s work included approving a review of the World Council of Churches and an appreciation for its work, as well as an exhortation to the WCC to increase the involvement of women, youth and indigenous people in its leadership and programming.
The Lund Principle was also brought before the assembly. The Lund Principle, developed in Sweden in 1952 at an international ecumenical conference, asks, “Should not the churches act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately?”
The assembly was also asked to approve a commissioner’s resolution, “On a Green Church Ecumenical Network,” which asks the assembly to explore the possibility of the creation of a network of “Green Churches” and report to the 221st General Assembly.
All items brought to the assembly by the Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations were approved unanimously.
