c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Two major North American Christian denominations _ one from Canada and one from the U.S. _ will be at the center of an expected typhoon of controversy over homosexuality at the upcoming World Council of Churches assembly in Zimbabwe.

The United Church of Canada and United Church of Christ, which are among the few Christian denominations in the world that ordain sexually active gays and lesbians, will be raising the stormy topic of homosexuality in a country where President Robert Mugabe has criticized the WCC for allowing any sort of discussion of the issue.

Mugabe, a Christian, recently said homosexuals were lower than jungle animals.”Will not God punish us for such practices?”he said. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment in Zimbabwe.

Marion Best, a former moderator of the United Church of Canada and a current member of the World Council of Churches executive committee, said she worries homosexuality could create an even bigger explosion in Zimbabwe than it did at the recent once-a-decade Lambeth meeting in England of 800 Anglican bishops.

The WCC, which meets every seven years, represents 400 million Christians from more than 300 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox denominations.

United Church of Canada staff member David Hallman admits he’s anxious as he prepares to lead a contentious workshop on homosexuality when the WCC gathers in early December at the University of Harare.

The Ontario-based United Church of Canada staff member _ who is openly gay _ has had to worry about both his personal safety and his chances of entering the politically volatile, mostly-Christian African nation.

Mugabe, elected leader of Zimbabwe in 1980 after the once white-ruled country changed its name from the colonial Rhodesia, is under pressure from many Christians in his country to cancel the WCC meeting.”Mugabe accuses the WCC of bringing Western decadent values to Africa,”Hallman said.

So far the WCC has been able to sign what some consider a fragile memorandum of agreement with the Zimbabwe government. It’s meant to ensure that none of the WCC assembly’s 4,000 participants, including hundreds from Canada and the U.S., will be detained or harassed in Zimbabwe for either being homosexual or speaking up about it.

Still, the subject of homosexuality is not being permitted on the official agenda of the WCC assembly _ in part because of opposition by Mugabe, but also because, as Best said, most of the African and Asian church leaders as well as representatives from Orthodox denominations in the WCC are deeply opposed to homosexuality, saying it is condemned in the Bible.

Instead of being discussed at WCC plenary meetings, homosexuality will be the focus of workshops, called pedares.

Two years ago the United Church of Canada _ the largest Protestant denomination in Canada, with 800,000 members _ asked the United Church of Christ, one of the United States’ most liberal mainline Protestant denominations, for help in running the two workshops. One will be on human rights and homosexuals, the other on educating church members about homosexuals.

The North American denominations have also convinced the Congregationalist Church of South Africa and the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa to participate in the workshops.

The two African denominations are among the few on that continent to express tolerant attitudes to homosexuals.

As at Lambeth, Best expects there will be a showdown at the assembly between more liberal Western church leaders and more conservative Christians from Africa and Asia. They will be joined in opposition to enhanced homosexual rights by Orthodox Christians from countries such as Russia and Greece.

Hallman, who works as an ecology specialist for both the United Church of Canada and the World Council of Churches, said the WCC has received warnings that the 4,000-person assembly will be disrupted by anti-homosexual militants, some of whom are Christians.”I’m very nervous, and my partner, who isn’t going, is even more nervous for me,”said Hallman.”But I feel it’s an obligation for me as a United Church person to deal constructively and spiritually with this issue. It’s important for people to see we are real human beings.” The WCC’s general secretary, the Rev. Konrad Raiser, said Saturday (Sept. 19) the organization cannot”close its eyes”to the issue of homosexuality.

In answer to questions at a symposium _ Faith in the City: Fifty Years of the World Council of Churches in a Secularized Western Context _ held in Amsterdam to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the WCC in the Dutch city, Raiser described the issue as a challenge to the ecumenical movement.

His remarks were seen as indicating a growing willingness by the WCC’s leadership to face up to an issue which the organization has generally regarded as too divisive for its member churches to tackle in open debate.

Hallman said Mugabe shut down an earlier conference in Harare that included participation by the banned gay-rights group, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe. The group has expressed interest in taking part in the WCC event.

Canadian Senator Lois Wilson, a former moderator of the United Church of Canada and former president of the WCC, will chair one of the workshops on homosexual rights.

Outspoken United Church Moderator Bill Phipps and Canadian Anglican Primate Michael Peers, both of whom have said they favor homosexuals taking a greater role in church life, will also attend the assembly and monitor the workshops on homosexuality.

But both Best and Hallman said they worry the homosexuality controversy will overshadow equally important issues at the WCC assembly.

These include how to respond to Third World debt, persecution of Christians in Muslim-led and Asian countries, global warming, dialogue over the relationship between science and religion, the churches’ response to the AIDS crisis and a host of theological concerns over what it means to be a Christian in a pluralistic world.

With the strain growing with the WCC between Western Protestants and the Orthodox churches, as well as between Western church leaders and African and Asian denominations, Best believes the future of the WCC will be determined in Zimbabwe.

As for the homosexuality debate, Hallman insists he is not trying to cause controversy by leading a workshop on the subject.”If homosexuality becomes a huge issue at the assembly,”he said,”it will not be because we made it one, but because the opposition did.”

DEA END TODD