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Appendix VII
Tutzing
WSCF General Committee
By Margaret Bearlin and Jean Stock
General committee
opened with a service in the
Perhaps some of you
are wondering what a general committee is, what it does and how it functions.
It would be quite wrong to think of it as being merely a business meeting at
which resolutions are proposed, received and adopted. Certainly we had come together
to do this too, because our obedience to God in the Federation asks of us
nothing less than the best in the planning and organization of this work to
which He has called us. An important part of the program at the beginning was
the election of the new executive committee. But this was only part of the
whole program of the conference, the theme of which was 'Jesus Christ the
Reconciler’. Our prayers and Bible studies, addresses and discussion were au
related to this theme. Worship was an integral part of our meetings simply
because we knew that we were dependent on God who has called us to witness for
Jesus Christ and take part in this task of reconciliation amongst students in
different parts of the world. Morning and evening prayers were led in
accordance with the traditions of various confessions. We were reminded of the
unique ecumenical nature of the Federation through our participation in
Orthodox services on two days during the meeting. Each day intercessions were
concerned with the task of the Church and specially the work of Student
Christian Movements in particular areas of the world.
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It was a most
significant meeting for us all. For the first time in the history of the
Federation, all of the related movements were represented. To our great joy,
this included our friends from
One of the most
exciting parts of any Federation meeting is the opportunity for meeting and
talking with other people. We were thrilled to meet D.T. Niles and Kyaw Than
again. We had an opportunity of joining in the farewell party for the latter
who leaves the Federation staff and we were able to take part in the enactment
of "The Life and Times of Kyaw Than" on that occasion. During the meeting,
we welcomed a veteran of the early days of the Federation, who was present at
the first general committee in 1897, and at the age of eighty-four had joined
us in this meeting fifty-nine years later.
To help us focus
our thoughts on the theme and yet keep them in a world perspective there were
several addresses and panel discussions. Rena Karefa Smart told us of the needs
of Africa, where today one-fifth of the world's population is moving slowly
towards political freedom but where Christianity is still a new religion
fighting against syncretism and in some parts against the challenge of Islam.
In the economic struggle, we must not confuse reconciliation with co-existence
nor equate reconciliation with success in public affairs. In an address by M.
Jeanson, editor of a French existentialist magazine, we were reminded that it
is not only Christians who are working for reconciliation. He, as a
non-Christian, challenged the very basis of our faith. The main address on
'Jesus Christ the Reconciler' was given by Dr. Visser't Hooft who spoke of the
Church being the reconciled community showing its power of conciliation over
all forces that divide men from one another. Although the Church is constantly
denying this reality of its own life, we must pray that it again may become the
reconciled community. In the ecumenical movement, we have seen the powers of
reconciliation at work, and the Federation has tried to make these powers
visible.
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Bishop Ting told us
how Chinese Christians have come to a fuller understanding of the meaning of
the Christian faith. 'That it is a truly blessed state for the church to be
dependent on God alone'. They have realized also the need for identification.
Evangelism can only happen in love, and love means identification. To love a
man means to understand him, to enter into the depth of his thinking and
feeling. Only as we love with this love does a platform emerge for the
preaching of the gospel.
In our panel
discussions, students from differing situations told us of problems confronting
them in their countries, as they seek the meaning of reconciliation in the life
of the Church, in social and political questions and in situations of acute
tension.
During the first week,
we broke up into six commissions each of which thoroughly examined one aspect
of the Federation's work. What should be our attitude to different types of
national and local SCM organization, to including Roman Catholics in membership
(as in parts of Latin America) to consultations with secular bodies such as IUS
and WUS, to the inclusion of University teachers in a movement primarily
concerned with students, to the desire for 'holy living' and how we can make
students everywhere in the Federation conscious that they are members one of
another. The recommendations coming from each group were discussed in plenary
session. We debated and deleted, amended and adopted until all resolutions met
with almost unanimous approval - this was reconciliation in practice.
During the second
week, sub-committees worked on the more practical problems concerning finance,
mutual assistance, publications, schools' work, theological education, and the
working together of men and women in the Federation and in the Church. One
sub-committee undertook a survey of all movements within the Federation, which
showed us in a most exciting way, the growth and development of the Federation
in almost all parts of the world. Closely linked with this was the mutual
assistance program, which enables us to show in practice the love for each other,
which we profess.
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We worked very hard
and our relentless but loved chairman, D.T. Niles allowed us only short breaks
for coffee. In our few moments of leisure, those who felt strong enough went
rowing on the Starnberger See or swimming while others simply collapsed on the
rather spacious lawns within the grounds of the Akademie.
For many of us the
most moving experience of the whole general committee was the Lutheran
communion service in which we realized that we are truly one in our need for
the love and forgiveness of God. We are one Body, in spite of divisions among
us. To see people from
As we met together
in these days, we were conscious as never before, of the real significance of
the Federation. In the Federation, we are bound together not merely by mutual
interest but by mutual love, the basis of which is our faith in Jesus Christ.
The unity we realize in the Federation is not something we have created - it
exists, for, as members of the Body of Christ, we are members one of another.
This unity is not dependent on our being together at one time in one place. We
must still, however, realistically consider the issues that divide us, not only
as nations, but in all spheres of life. These divisions however cannot deny our
unity because we are one through Jesus Christ who has reconciled man with God,
and man with man. We can no longer think of the Federation in terms of
organization. Its very existence is a witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ
who cuts across all barriers dividing mankind.
Again, we are
called to think of our task in relation to the whole