c. 2003 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The Rev. Samuel Kobia has struggled for greater democracy in Kenya and for peace in Sudan. But now, as the first African to lead the World Council of Churches, he faces a more complex battle from his office in staid Geneva as he seeks to heal internal rifts and to re-energize the 55-year-old ecumenical body.

If the association of Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches is praised as an outspoken champion of justice and world peace, it is also an easy bait for censure. From failing to resuscitate its faltering finances and fading appeal, to preaching messages more political than religious, reproaches leveled at the Swiss-based body are many and varied.

“Most Christians under 40 have either never heard of the WCC or consider it an irrelevance,” wrote John Newbury, a Methodist minister and former press officer for the World Council, in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. “Somehow, Kobia has to enthuse the young and educate tomorrow’s ecumenical leaders.”

Whether 56-year-old Kobia _ veteran peace mediator and veteran bureaucrat _ will usher in a sea change when he takes over the 341-member council remains to be seen.

“He’s got the caliber to do his work. But will he be a charismatic man?” asked Marc Spindler, a theology expert based in Bordeaux, France. “I don’t think so, for a moment.

“From what I know, he’s a man of the apparatus,” Spindler added. “But you need a diplomat at the head of the World Council. We don’t need someone who’s going to destroy the foundations.”

Kobia’s own message is one of reconciliation and bridge-building. In remarks before leaving for a trip to the United States, he vowed to strengthen the World Council’s spiritual roots while maintaining its traditional political platforms.

“I would like to see spiritual and ethical foundations guiding our work,” Kobia said in a telephone interview from Geneva. “We have to stand on that foundation, even when we make comments on politics or the economy.”

Few doubt his abilities. A Methodist minister and father of four, Kobia has a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a doctorate in theology, two published books, and a resume peppered with development and peace mediation work.

But for some observers, Kenyan-born Kobia’s biggest sell is his roots in Africa, where the World Council arguably has failed to capitalize on the continent’s Christian boom.

“We’re missing the presence of evangelical or indigenous churches in Africa,” said Jean-Arnold de Clermont, head of the Protestant Federation of France. “That’s why I think it’s so important that Sam Kobia helps us get back in contact with the large majority of African churches.”

As the council’s special representative to Africa, Kobia, too, believes the continent is a top priority. Africa is destined to become “the center” for Christianity this century, he says, even as international Christian organizations increasingly look to the continent for new leaders.

The heads of two other Geneva-based bodies _ the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches _ are both African. “It shouldn’t really surprise any of us,” Kobia added, “if an African is ultimately picked as the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Critics have long claimed the World Council’s stances appear too cerebral for back-to-the-Bible churches mushrooming across Africa, where Christianity is growing faster than any place on Earth.

Middle Eastern and Eastern European Orthodox churches have also complained the council’s message is too liberal and Western-driven. Two _ the Georgian and Bulgarian Orthodox churches _ resigned from the body.

A May critique by the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy also claimed the WCC bureaucrats had “lost touch” with their grass-roots congregations. But Marc Tooley, an IRD staff member who follows the WCC closely, holds out guarded hope for change after the departure of the WCC’s current leader, Konrad Raiser.

“I’m guessing, or hoping, that because he’s a Third World Christian he will be more theologically oriented than Raiser and others, who embodied all that was wrong with the WCC,” he said.

Much of Kobia’s career has been spent climbing the World Council’s ranks and cultivating a role as mediator. In 1991, he chaired Sudan’s sputtering peace talks. Now, with prospects of a peace close at hand, Kobia is helping a new Sudanese council promote dialogue between its northern-based Muslims and Christians and animists in the south.

As the World Council’s next head, Kobia says he wants to forge better ties with Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist communities, not to mention the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican, for one, has responded positively to his call for more collaboration in areas like justice, peace and missionary work.

So how does Kobia _ who also wants to make AIDS prevention a priority _ respond to recent reports the Catholic Church is urging people not to use condoms against the disease?

“It becomes very difficult when a church adopts a policy on the issue of condom use,” Kobia said, without criticizing the Vatican directly. “It creates difficulties for its adherents. These are ethical decisions only they can make.”

On the volatile question of gay clergy, Kobia is similarly careful. The issue has split the Anglican Communion and created regional divisions among other council members. For his part, Kobia says he is “open” to considering gay preachers, but that the matter should be decided on a local level. Ever the diplomat, he shies from revealing his personal position.

“I haven’t had to make that choice really,” he said. “And therefore I continue to be open-minded.”

KRE END BRYANT