Revista de História da Sociedade e da Cultura (Dec 2024)
The World Council of Churches Assembly in New Delhi 1961 and the German Democratic Republic:
Abstract
The Third Assembly in New Delhi in November/December 1961 marked a watershed in the process of de-Westernisation for the World Council of Churches (WCC), an ecumenical umbrella body founded in Amsterdam in 1948. The acceptance of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as other Eastern Orthodox Churches, into membership, the integration of the International Missionary Council into the WCC and the stronger representation of African, Asian and Latin American Churches made the Assembly a crucial event. There are different historiographical perspectives on the “New Delhi” Assembly, especially in regard to the the political and ecclesial-political course of the meeting. On the one side, there are publications which present the developments in the light of emancipation struggles or as an institutional history. On the other side, there is a research tendency to critically reflect the political involvement of the WCC; some analysts felt that it became characterized by a habit “to blame reflexively the West (…) for problems in the Third World”, while turning a blind eye to human rights’ violations in Eastern socialist states. This article focuses first on the approaches and activities of political authorities in the German Democratic Republic, particularly the secretary of state for ecclesial affairs, Hans Seigewasser, and his department. It is based on documents which today are hosted in the German Federal Archives in Berlin. They provide interesting insights into the selection and observation of delegates and the evaluation of the Assembly by the GDR-authorities. The article then outlines what happened in the aftermath. Against this backdrop, it attempts to assess the significance of these sources and put them into the context of the conference report. In the conclusion, the article argues that while indeed there were strong endeavours by Eastern socialist states to influence ecumenical decisions, the interests of the “progressive forces” were diverse and the alliances fragile. The processes of de-Westernisation of the WCC were embedded in a complex setting of loyalties.
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