Page 21 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 67

17. The local Orthodox Churches that are members of the WCC participate
fully and equally in the WCC, contributing with all means at their disposal to
the advancement of peaceful co-existence and co-operation in the major
socio-political challenges. The Orthodox Church readily accepted the WCC’s
decision to respond to her request concerning the establishment of the Special
Commission on Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches,
which was mandated by the Inter-Orthodox Conference held in Thessaloniki
in 1998. The established criteria of the Special Commission, proposed by the
Orthodox and accepted by the WCC, led to the formation of the Permanent
Committee on Consensus and Collaboration. The criteria were approved and
included in the Constitution and Rules of the World Council of Churches.

18. Remaining faithful to her ecclesiology, to the identity of her internal
structure, and to the teaching of the ancient Church of the Seven Ecumenical
Councils, the Orthodox Church’s participation in the WCC does not signify
that she accepts the notion of the “equality of Confessions,” and in no way is
she able to accept the unity of the Church as an inter-confessional
compromise. In this spirit, the unity that is sought within the WCC cannot
simply be the product of theological agreements, but must also be founded on
the unity of faith, preserved in the sacraments and lived out in the Orthodox
Church.
19. The Orthodox Churches that are members of the WCC regard as an
indispensable condition of their participation in the WCC the foundational
article of its Constitution, in accordance with which its members may only be
those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior in accordance
with the Scriptures, and who confess the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, in accordance with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. It is their
deep conviction that the ecclesiological presuppositions of the 1950 Toronto
Statement, On the Church, the Churches and the World Council of Churches, are of
paramount importance for Orthodox participation in the Council. It is
therefore very clear that the WCC does not by any means constitute a “super-
Church.” The purpose of the World Council of Churches is not to negotiate unions
between Churches, which can only be done by the Churches themselves acting on their
own initiative, but to bring Churches into living contact with each other and to promote
the study and discussion of the issues of Church unity. No Church is obliged to change her
ecclesiology on her accession to the Council… Moreover, fom the fact of its inclusion in the
Council, it does not ensue that each Church is obliged to regard the other Churches as
Churches in the true and ful sense of the term. (Toronto Statement, § 2).

19