Mobilizing morality: The world council of churches and its program to combat racism, 1969-1994

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 23, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 863-909

  Welch Jr , Claude E ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

APARTHEID; HUMAN RIGHT; RACISM; SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITION; SOUTH AFRICA;

HUMAN RIGHTS; MORALITY; RACISM; RELIGION;

EID: 0042383204     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (142)

1. Editorial, RAND DAILY MAIL, 7 Sept. 1970; Archives of the World Council of Churches, Box 4223.3.01/1, folder 5. (Subsequent references to materials from these archives will be simply by box number.)
2. Justice Annie Jiagge (Ghana), Moderator of the Commission for the Programme to Combat Racism, transcript of interview with WCC media person Charles Faber; Box 4223.3.06/4, unnumbered folder.
3. The Reverend Paul Verghese (India), typescript marked "Not for circulation," Box 4223.2.02/1, folder 3c, at 1. This statement did not represent an official stand of the PCR, but the view of one of its members, whose proposals were voted down at the fourth meeting of the Commissioners of the Programme to Combat Racism (Zurich, 13-17 May 1973). I have quoted it because it represented an important perspective on what the PCR was attempting to accomplish - and because this was the view held by the many vociferous critics of the WCC. As the first director of the PCR told me, "[this statement] raised my hairs, I got very worried, this was exactly what we did not want." Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, First Director of the Programme to Combat Racism, in Geneva, Switz. (2 Oct. 2000).
4. "Activists frame issues by identifying and providing convincing explanations for powerful symbolic events, which in turn become catalysts in the growth of networks. Symbolic interpretation is part of the process of persuasion by which networks create awareness and expand their constituencies." MARGARET E. KECK & KATHRYN SIKKINK, ACTIVISTS BEYOND BORDERS: ADVOCACY NETWORKS IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 22 (1998).
5. Id. at 8.
6. In this article, I shall concentrate on southern Africa, since the PCR selected this area as its primary focus at its inception, and maintained this emphasis until the PCR was administratively swallowed into a broader Unit of the WCC and majority rule was achieved throughout this geographic region. Note the adjective "primary." Approximately half the funds expected by the PCR, through its Special Fund, Programme Projects list, and commitment of staff time, went to southern Africa. Nonetheless, from the beginning the PCR gave attention to matters such as indigenous peoples and land rights, racism in developed countries (the United States being a regular subject of concern), the distribution of economic power that underlay many racist practices, etc. Also, I should note that the PCR, established in 1969 for a period of five years, was not the first institutional initiative of the WCC in this general area. It established a Secretariat on Race and Ethnic Relations in 1954, following the Evanston Assembly, headed for several years by the Japanese-American theologian Dr. Daisuke Kitagawa. For details, see Box 4223.0.01, devoted to the history of the Secretariat on Race and Ethnic Relations, 1954-1960; it contains fourteen subdivisions.
7. Not that major changes in economic power or distribution occurred! As I shall briefly indicate at the end of this article, the WCC continues to express concern about post-apartheid South Africa. As the WCC's Central Committee agreed in Johannesburg in early 1994, "However miraculous, such sweeping change does not yet constitute justice. The deep-seated economic and social problems created by apartheid's multi-layered, highly structured system of exploitation, oppression and social fragmentation are even more resistant to change than the formal political structures." WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-FIFTH MEETING, 20-28 JAN. 1994, JOHANNESBURG 72 (1994).
8. I have applied this framework to two much larger and better-known human rights NCOs, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. See Claude E. Welch, Jr., Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch: A Comparison, in NGOs AND HUMAN RIGHTS: PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE 85-118 (Claude E. Welch, Jr. ed., 2001).
9. See JOHANNES MORSINK, THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: ORIGINS, DRAFTING, AND INTENT (1999).
10. Perhaps most telling here is ALASTAIR SPARKS, THE MIND OF SOUTH AFRICA (1990). He depicts how apartheid emerged as part of Afrikaner belief, "the sacral nationalism of a chosen people in their promised land, imbued with a sense of divine mission and equipped with a utopian ideology for reordering society that amounted to a civil religion." To quote Daniel Malan, First Nationalist Party Prime Minister, "the history of the Afrikaner reveals a will and a determination which makes one feel that Afrikanerdom is not the work of men but the creation of God." Id. at 31. Oppressor and oppressed alike utilized dramatically different interpretations of Christian belief. "The one has produced the apartheid civil religion with its claim that the Afrikaner has a divine right to its own separate existence; the other, no less fervently and potently, a black theology of liberation which claims that Christ's mission on earth was to identify with the poor and the oppressed. As the two nationalisms square up to each other, it is as much a theological civil war as a political and military one." Id. at 278. "Nowhere else in the world except perhaps in Poland is the Christian church so closely identified with a people's struggle for freedom." Id. at 289. See also Charles Villa-Vicencio, South Africa's Theologized Nationalism, 29 ECUMENICAL REV. 373 (1977); the author claims that, "The South African political problem is essentially a theological one!" Id. at 373.
11. Perhaps most telling here is ALASTAIR SPARKS, THE MIND OF SOUTH AFRICA (1990). He depicts how apartheid emerged as part of Afrikaner belief, "the sacral nationalism of a chosen people in their promised land, imbued with a sense of divine mission and equipped with a utopian ideology for reordering society that amounted to a civil religion." To quote Daniel Malan, First Nationalist Party Prime Minister, "the history of the Afrikaner reveals a will and a determination which makes one feel that Afrikanerdom is not the work of men but the creation of God." Id. at 31. Oppressor and oppressed alike utilized dramatically different interpretations of Christian belief. "The one has produced the apartheid civil religion with its claim that the Afrikaner has a divine right to its own separate existence; the other, no less fervently and potently, a black theology of liberation which claims that Christ's mission on earth was to identify with the poor and the oppressed. As the two nationalisms square up to each other, it is as much a theological civil war as a political and military one." Id. at 278. "Nowhere else in the world except perhaps in Poland is the Christian church so closely identified with a people's struggle for freedom." Id. at 289. See also Charles Villa-Vicencio, South Africa's Theologized Nationalism, 29 ECUMENICAL REV. 373 (1977); the author claims that, "The South African political problem is essentially a theological one!" Id. at 373.
12. THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES HELD AT AMSTERDAM AUGUST 22ND TO SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1948, at 12-15 (W.A. Visser 'T Hooft ed., 1949). More specifically, Life and Work (meeting in Oxford in July 1937) and Faith and Order (meeting in Edinburgh at the same time) decided to unite; the "WCC 'in process of formation'" was established in 1938. The International Missionary Council associated itself officially with the WCC in 1948, and merged into it in 1961. A fourth stream came with the 1971 merger of the World Council of Christian Education into the WCC.
13. For details, see A HISTORY OF THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT 1517-1948, at 701-19 (Ruth Rouse & Stephen Charles Neill eds., 3d ed. 1986).
14. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, THE ROLE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 3 (1986).
15. It was here that John Calvin taught and preached for many years, establishing thereby the broad grouping of "reform" churches that constituted, after Lutheranism, the second major wave of Protestant denominations.
16. Prospective member churches must have at least 25,000 members, while associate member churches (which cannot vote in the Assembly) must have at least 10,000 members. In geographic terms, 112 member churches are based in Africa, eighty-five in Asia, fourteen in the Caribbean, 126 in Europe, twenty-eight in Latin America, thirteen in the Middle East, thirty-one in North America, and twenty in the Pacific. Calculated from names listed at the WCC's web site, available at 〈http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/ who/mch-e.html〉 (visited 21 Aug. 2000).
17. An invitation was extended to the Vatican to send representatives to the inaugural meeting, but Papal permission was not granted. According to McDonnell, the WCC was "wholly Protestant in origin. The Roman Catholic Church feared that the new organization would merely confirm division and canonize theological contradictions." JOHN J. MCDONNELL, C.M., THE WORLD COUNCIL Of CHURCHES AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 13 (1985). Obviously, the larger membership of the Catholic Church (approximately 1.2 billion versus the 400 million of the WCC member denominations), its historic continuity and the centralization of leadership in the Holy See give it a unique position - and a subject beyond the scope of this article. See also Ronald Preston, Convergence and Divergence in Social Theology: The Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, 40 ECUMENICAL REV. 194 (1988); Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P., A Basis beyond the Basis: Roman Catholic/World Council of Churches Collaboration, 37 ECUMENICAL REV. 213 (1985).
18. An invitation was extended to the Vatican to send representatives to the inaugural meeting, but Papal permission was not granted. According to McDonnell, the WCC was "wholly Protestant in origin. The Roman Catholic Church feared that the new organization would merely confirm division and canonize theological contradictions." JOHN J. MCDONNELL, C.M., THE WORLD COUNCIL Of CHURCHES AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 13 (1985). Obviously, the larger membership of the Catholic Church (approximately 1.2 billion versus the 400 million of the WCC member denominations), its historic continuity and the centralization of leadership in the Holy See give it a unique position - and a subject beyond the scope of this article. See also Ronald Preston, Convergence and Divergence in Social Theology: The Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, 40 ECUMENICAL REV. 194 (1988); Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P., A Basis beyond the Basis: Roman Catholic/World Council of Churches Collaboration, 37 ECUMENICAL REV. 213 (1985).
19. An invitation was extended to the Vatican to send representatives to the inaugural meeting, but Papal permission was not granted. According to McDonnell, the WCC was "wholly Protestant in origin. The Roman Catholic Church feared that the new organization would merely confirm division and canonize theological contradictions." JOHN J. MCDONNELL, C.M., THE WORLD COUNCIL Of CHURCHES AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 13 (1985). Obviously, the larger membership of the Catholic Church (approximately 1.2 billion versus the 400 million of the WCC member denominations), its historic continuity and the centralization of leadership in the Holy See give it a unique position - and a subject beyond the scope of this article. See also Ronald Preston, Convergence and Divergence in Social Theology: The Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, 40 ECUMENICAL REV. 194 (1988); Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P., A Basis beyond the Basis: Roman Catholic/World Council of Churches Collaboration, 37 ECUMENICAL REV. 213 (1985).
20. The World Council of Churches, brochure published by the WCC, n.d.; information also available at supra note 15 (website).
21. In its early days, the WCC debated heatedly its role vis-à-vis the member churches. The 1950 statement "The Church, the Churches, and the World Council of Churches" proclaimed directly that the WCC "is not and must never become a super-church . . . [and] cannot and should not be based on any one particular conception of the church . . . membership does not imply the acceptance of a specific doctrine concerning the nature of church unity." This strict "ecclesiological neutrality" exists uneasily with contrary current toward greater coordination. For example, the 1998 Assembly in Harare adopted a less limited definition: The primary purpose of the fellowship of churches in the World Council of Churches is to call one another to visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and common life in Christ, through witness and service to the world, and to advance towards that unity in order that the world may believe. Available at 〈http://www.wcc-coe/wcc/who/histor-e.html〉 (visited 20 Aug. 2000). As will be shown below, many critics of the PCR accused it of trying to impose "political" values beyond the WCC's powers.
22. The following give a flavor of the rapidly growing literature: Kenneth Anderson, The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society, 11 EUR. J. INT'L L. 91 (2000). Ann Marie Clark et al., The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and Women, 51 WORLD POL. 1 (1998); Paul Ghils, International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System, 44 INT'L SOC. SCI. J. 417 (1992); LAURA MACDONALD, SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA (1997); Diane Otto, Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Nations System: The Emerging Role of International Civil Society, 18 HUM. Rts. Q. 197 (1996); Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
23. The following give a flavor of the rapidly growing literature: Kenneth Anderson, The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society, 11 EUR. J. INT'L L. 91 (2000). Ann Marie Clark et al., The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and Women, 51 WORLD POL. 1 (1998); Paul Ghils, International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System, 44 INT'L SOC. SCI. J. 417 (1992); LAURA MACDONALD, SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA (1997); Diane Otto, Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Nations System: The Emerging Role of International Civil Society, 18 HUM. Rts. Q. 197 (1996); Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
24. The following give a flavor of the rapidly growing literature: Kenneth Anderson, The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society, 11 EUR. J. INT'L L. 91 (2000). Ann Marie Clark et al., The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and Women, 51 WORLD POL. 1 (1998); Paul Ghils, International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System, 44 INT'L SOC. SCI. J. 417 (1992); LAURA MACDONALD, SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA (1997); Diane Otto, Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Nations System: The Emerging Role of International Civil Society, 18 HUM. Rts. Q. 197 (1996); Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
25. The following give a flavor of the rapidly growing literature: Kenneth Anderson, The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society, 11 EUR. J. INT'L L. 91 (2000). Ann Marie Clark et al., The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and Women, 51 WORLD POL. 1 (1998); Paul Ghils, International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System, 44 INT'L SOC. SCI. J. 417 (1992); LAURA MACDONALD, SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA (1997); Diane Otto, Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Nations System: The Emerging Role of International Civil Society, 18 HUM. Rts. Q. 197 (1996); Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
26. The following give a flavor of the rapidly growing literature: Kenneth Anderson, The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society, 11 EUR. J. INT'L L. 91 (2000). Ann Marie Clark et al., The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and Women, 51 WORLD POL. 1 (1998); Paul Ghils, International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System, 44 INT'L SOC. SCI. J. 417 (1992); LAURA MACDONALD, SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA (1997); Diane Otto, Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Nations System: The Emerging Role of International Civil Society, 18 HUM. Rts. Q. 197 (1996); Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
27. The following give a flavor of the rapidly growing literature: Kenneth Anderson, The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-governmental Organizations and the Idea of International Civil Society, 11 EUR. J. INT'L L. 91 (2000). Ann Marie Clark et al., The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and Women, 51 WORLD POL. 1 (1998); Paul Ghils, International Civil Society: International Non-Governmental Organizations in the International System, 44 INT'L SOC. SCI. J. 417 (1992); LAURA MACDONALD, SUPPORTING CIVIL SOCIETY: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA (1997); Diane Otto, Nongovernmental Organizations in the United Nations System: The Emerging Role of International Civil Society, 18 HUM. Rts. Q. 197 (1996); Richard Price, Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines, 52 INT'L ORG. 613 (1998).
28. See Paul A. Crow, Jr., Eugene Carson Blake: Apostle of Christian Unity, 38 ECUMENICAL REV. 234 (1986).
29. Id. at 234. For fuller details, see R. DOUGLAS BRACKENRIDGE, EUGENE CARSON BLAKE: PROPHET WITH PORTFOLIO (1978). Before entering seminary, Blake taught at a Christian college in Lahore, Pakistan (then in India); served prestigious and large congregations in Albany, NY, Pasadena, and San Francisco; was elected Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in the US and later the United Presbyterian Church in the US (despite its title, a position he made powerful); and was President of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the US.
30. BRACKENRIDGE, supra note 21, at 149; Crow, supra note 20, at 231.
31. This does not mean the World Council was oblivious to the issue of racism. For example, the WCC's first General Secretary wrote about race under a commission from UNESCO in the early 1950s; see WILLEM ADOLPH VISSER'T HOOFT, THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT AND THE RACIAL PROBLEM (1954). Far more important, I believe, was the 1966 WCC-sponsored world conference on Church and Society, held in Geneva. It differed "from all previous ecumenical conferences": churches of Asia, Africa, and Latin America were deliberately represented out of proportion to their size; a majority of the delegates were laymen and women; the conference itself, though called by the WCC, was directed to speak unofficially, for itself and not for either the World Council or the churches that had selected most of the participants. Overall, 40 percent of the delegates came from the Third World; 16 percent from Eastern Europe; and only 30 percent from Western Europe and North America. As Bennett observes, "This was something new in church history." John C. Bennett, The Geneva Conference of 1966 as a Climactic Event, 37 ECUMENICAL REV. 27 (1985).
32. This does not mean the World Council was oblivious to the issue of racism. For example, the WCC's first General Secretary wrote about race under a commission from UNESCO in the early 1950s; see WILLEM ADOLPH VISSER'T HOOFT, THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT AND THE RACIAL PROBLEM (1954). Far more important, I believe, was the 1966 WCC-sponsored world conference on Church and Society, held in Geneva. It differed "from all previous ecumenical conferences": churches of Asia, Africa, and Latin America were deliberately represented out of proportion to their size; a majority of the delegates were laymen and women; the conference itself, though called by the WCC, was directed to speak unofficially, for itself and not for either the World Council or the churches that had selected most of the participants. Overall, 40 percent of the delegates came from the Third World; 16 percent from Eastern Europe; and only 30 percent from Western Europe and North America. As Bennett observes, "This was something new in church history." John C. Bennett, The Geneva Conference of 1966 as a Climactic Event, 37 ECUMENICAL REV. 27 (1985).
33. A few samples should suffice, drawn mostly from the handy summary BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS: WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES' STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS ON RACISM 1948-1985 (Ans J. van der Bent ed., 1986). • 1948: If the Church can overcome the national and social barriers which now divide it, can help society to overcome those barriers. This is especially clear in the case of racial distinction. It is here that the Church has failed most lamentably, where it has reflected and then by its example sanctified the racial prejudice that is rampant in the world. Id. at 21. • 1948: Against such actions [of flagrant violations of human rights], whether of governments, officials, or the general public, the churches must take a firm and vigorous stand, through local action, in cooperation with churches in other lands, and through international institutions of legal order. • 1954: The Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches declares its conviction that any form of segregation based on race, colour or ethnic origin is contrary to the gospel. The Assembly urges the Church within its membership to renounce all forms of segregation or discrimination and to work for their abolition within their own life and within society. Id. THE EVANSTOM REPORT: THE SECOND ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, 1954, at 158 (W.A. Visser't Hooft ed., 1955). Breaking Down the Walls omits this bland statement on race relations, which was subsequently reaffirmed at New Delhi. • 1961: Racism and the consequent affronts to human dignity in the modern world often cause oppressed people to resort to violence when they have no other option. We urge all those in power to refrain from the use of violence and to avoid provoking it . . . we call upon all Christians to encourage and support all efforts which seek through the non-violent way, to combat human indignities and to construct a community permeated by justice and reconciliation.
34. A few samples should suffice, drawn mostly from the handy summary BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS: WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES' STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS ON RACISM 1948-1985 (Ans J. van der Bent ed., 1986). • 1948: If the Church can overcome the national and social barriers which now divide it, can help society to overcome those barriers. This is especially clear in the case of racial distinction. It is here that the Church has failed most lamentably, where it has reflected and then by its example sanctified the racial prejudice that is rampant in the world. Id. at 21. • 1948: Against such actions [of flagrant violations of human rights], whether of governments, officials, or the general public, the churches must take a firm and vigorous stand, through local action, in cooperation with churches in other lands, and through international institutions of legal order. • 1954: The Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches declares its conviction that any form of segregation based on race, colour or ethnic origin is contrary to the gospel. The Assembly urges the Church within its membership to renounce all forms of segregation or discrimination and to work for their abolition within their own life and within society. Id. THE EVANSTOM REPORT: THE SECOND ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, 1954, at 158 (W.A. Visser't Hooft ed., 1955). Breaking Down the Walls omits this bland statement on race relations, which was subsequently reaffirmed at New Delhi. • 1961: Racism and the consequent affronts to human dignity in the modern world often cause oppressed people to resort to violence when they have no other option. We urge all those in power to refrain from the use of violence and to avoid provoking it . . . we call upon all Christians to encourage and support all efforts which seek through the non-violent way, to combat human indignities and to construct a community permeated by justice and reconciliation.
35. A few samples should suffice, drawn mostly from the handy summary BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS: WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES' STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS ON RACISM 1948-1985 (Ans J. van der Bent ed., 1986). • 1948: If the Church can overcome the national and social barriers which now divide it, can help society to overcome those barriers. This is especially clear in the case of racial distinction. It is here that the Church has failed most lamentably, where it has reflected and then by its example sanctified the racial prejudice that is rampant in the world. Id. at 21. • 1948: Against such actions [of flagrant violations of human rights], whether of governments, officials, or the general public, the churches must take a firm and vigorous stand, through local action, in cooperation with churches in other lands, and through international institutions of legal order. • 1954: The Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches declares its conviction that any form of segregation based on race, colour or ethnic origin is contrary to the gospel. The Assembly urges the Church within its membership to renounce all forms of segregation or discrimination and to work for their abolition within their own life and within society. Id. THE EVANSTOM REPORT: THE SECOND ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, 1954, at 158 (W.A. Visser't Hooft ed., 1955). Breaking Down the Walls omits this bland statement on race relations, which was subsequently reaffirmed at New Delhi. • 1961: Racism and the consequent affronts to human dignity in the modern world often cause oppressed people to resort to violence when they have no other option. We urge all those in power to refrain from the use of violence and to avoid provoking it . . . we call upon all Christians to encourage and support all efforts which seek through the non-violent way, to combat human indignities and to construct a community permeated by justice and reconciliation.
36. BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS, supra note 24, at 39.
37. Box 4223.1.01/1, Folder 6a. The speech is also reprinted in UNITY OF MANKIND: SPEECHES FROM THE FOURTH ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, UPPSALA 1968, at 51 (Albert H. van den Heuvel ed., 1969).
38. Id. at 52.
39. ELISABETH ADLER, A SMALL BEGINNING: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE PROGRAMME TO COMBAT RACISM 3 (1974). There were 704 voting delegates, double the number that had assembled twenty years earlier in Amsterdam; 235 churches were members. The figures are from THE UPPSALA REPORT 1968: OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE FOURTH ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, UPPSALA, JULY 4-20, 1968, at xv (Norman Goodall ed., 1968).
40. ELISABETH ADLER, A SMALL BEGINNING: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF THE PROGRAMME TO COMBAT RACISM 3 (1974). There were 704 voting delegates, double the number that had assembled twenty years earlier in Amsterdam; 235 churches were members. The figures are from THE UPPSALA REPORT 1968: OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE FOURTH ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, UPPSALA, JULY 4-20, 1968, at xv (Norman Goodall ed., 1968).
41. Of the 146 churches at the 1948 inauguration of the WCC, forty-two came from the Third World; by 1968, of 253, 103 came from the Third World, ADLER, supra note 28, at 5.
42. See Interview with Dwain Epps, Staff Member, Int'l Affairs, World Council of Churches, in Geneva, Switz. (1 Sept. 2000). Crow concurs: "Officially the PCR was the child of the Uppsala Assembly and the Canterbury meeting (1969) of the Central Committee . . . but their decisions merely reflected the conviction of Gene Blake." Crow, supra note 20, at 235.
43. ADLER, supra note 28, at 10.
44. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, First Director of the Programme to Combat Racism, in Geneva, Switz. (22 Aug. 2000). The collator of the official report agrees: The most obvious and widely acknowledged feature of the Assembly was its preoccupation - at times, almost, its obsession - with the revolutionary ferment of our time . . . [the atmospherel was intensified by the need to deal specifically - and the longing to deal rightly - with such agonizing situations as those existing in Nigeria/Biafra, Vietnam, or the Middle East, with the world-wide crisis in race relations, and with the present mood of youth, unmistakably vocal in Uppsala. Goodall, supra note 28, at xvii.
45. See BRACKENRIDGE, supra note 21, at 167.
46. In WCC style, "the Church" refers to the ecumenical movement institutionally embodied in the WCC, of which "the churches" are members.
47. In WCC jargon, a consultation is a multi-day, international conference involving both WCC staff and external consultants, focused on a specific topic, and intended to develop general guidelines within policies established by the periodic Assemblies, for subsequent implementation by staff. A consultation may also be convened to engage in critiques of existing WCC policies and programs. A "global" consultation (such as that carried out in 1980 on racism) is obviously a major event.
48. World Council of Churches, Department on Church and Society, Proposal for a Consultation on Racism-Spring 1969, 1 Nov. 1968; Box 4223.1.01/1, folder 7.
49. As it turned out, McGovern had to split his time between Notting Hill and Paris, where delicate negotiations over Vietnam were taking place. He was not in the chair when the reparations confrontation occurred; vice moderator Jean Fairfax, a member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, had to cope with the situation.
50. Tambo, an active Anglican layman, was invited to replace Mozambiquan leader Eduardo Mondlane, assassinated by a package bomb three days after he had accepted the WCC's invitation to serve as the keynote speaker at Notting Hill. Baldwin Sjollema, Eloquent Action, in A LONG STRUGGLE: THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA 12 (Pauline Webb ed., 1994).
51. Hare is aptly described as "the stinging bee around the bonnet of [President] S.I. Hayakawa at San Francisco State. Robert Nelson, Preparation for Separation and Reparation: The Churches' Response to Racism?, 86 CHRISTIAN CENTURY 862 (1969).
52. O.R. Tambo, Racism as a Major Obstacle to World Community, typescript; Box 4223.1.02/5, folder 1.
53. Declaration of Revolution, Box 4223.1.02/4, folder 8. The name George Black was a pseudonym; the participants were drawn from the activist US organization SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Council).
54. Nelson, supra note 39, at 863.
55. Roman Catholics: Burden of Responsibility, TIME, 6 June 1969, at 88. The Guardian called the consultation "part teach-in, part penitence, part act of redemption and part morality play with unscripted episodes from Black Power," quoted in 19 ECUMENICAI PRESS SERVICE, 29 May 1969.
56. Roman Catholics: Burden of Responsibility, TIME, 6 June 1969, at 88. The Guardian called the consultation "part teach-in, part penitence, part act of redemption and part morality play with unscripted episodes from Black Power," quoted in 19 ECUMENICAI PRESS SERVICE, 29 May 1969.
57. Box 4223.1.02/2, folder 1.
58. Report on the World Council of Churches Sponsored Consultation on Racism held in Notting Hill, London, 19-24 May 1969 to the Central Committee Meeting in August 1969; Box 4223.1.03/1, folder 2, at 1-2; it is also reprinted in BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS, supra note 24, at 36-37.
59. Typescript, Notes of Racism Discussion in Central Committee, 14 Aug. 1969, Canterbury; Box 4223.1.03/1, Folder 1, passim. Perhaps the pithiest comment came from the Swiss J. Rossel: "We have to realize that the Notting Hill Consultation has given us a new and explosive definition of racism that goes far deeper - hits us deep in our bones. How can we communicate?" Id. at 2.
60. WORLD COUNCII Of CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE TWENTY-THIRD MEETING, UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY, CANTERBURY, GREAT BRITAIN, 12-22 AUGUST 1969, at 36-37 (1969).
61. See "Notes of Racism Discussion in Central Committee." Additional details can be found in Box 4223.1.03/2, folder 2, "Plan for an ecumenical programme for the elimination of racism." The proposals from the WCC Staff Executive Group included a five-year program to 1) focus on selected problem areas "to express ecumenical concern and to assist in formulating guide lines for ecumenical understanding and action"; 2) focus on specific issues such as "reparations" and the meaning of racial identity; 3) examine ways by which churches can support opponents of racism and meet needs of victims; 4) examine WCC programs, budgets and structures to see whether they support struggle against racism; and 5) collect and circulate best analyses. This would require three staff members, with a total annual budget of $150,000. The Staff Executive Group also proposed to set aside $294,021, 20 percent of free reserves, for transfer to organizations representative of oppressed racial groups. Appendix I includes the coordinator programme, covering all WCC Divisions and Departments. Appendix II has "possible ways of involvement by the churches." Here is the genesis of the advocacy network, as well as a reminder of the standard fashion in which the WCC operates, which is through actions largely initiated through member churches. For the approved final version of the plan, see WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 47, at 270-77. A not insignificant change at Canterbury came in the name - note the shift from the proposed "elimination of racism" to the official "Ecumenical Programme to Combat Racism."
62. In light of the firestorm of publicity that was to mark the first grants made under the Special Fund, I am intrigued by one editor's pen in a draft prepared for the Canterbury Central Committee meeting. Box 4223.1.02/6, folder 13 is a marked-up copy of "Recommendations of the Central Committee to the World Council of Churches." This document calls for a "new ecumenical programme for the elimination of racism," based on the conviction that "the facts about racism and the struggle for racial justice (including the involvement of the churches) must be presented to our constituency in a more systematic and effective way" (cross-out in the original). Quite the reverse. The world learned about the PCR far more dramatically than systematically!
63. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 3.
64. Id. for information about Rev. Marshall; other information from WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 47, at 38-39.
65. Confidential minutes, Working Committee, Department on Church and Society, meeting in Zurich 9 July 1969, at 2; Box 4223.1.03/2, unnumbered folder.
66. ADLER, supra note 28, at 13.
67. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 3.
68. Recommendations by the International Advisory Committee for the PCR to the WCC Executive Committee Regarding the Special Fund, Box 4223.2.01/1, folder 12. They are reprinted in BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS, supra note 24, at 41-42.
69. Confidential, Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches, 31 August-4 September 1970, Meeting held in Arnoldshain, Germany (Geneva: WCC, 1970), at 12-13. Sjollema commented that the appeal for contributions to the Special Fund "had met with a disappointing response and a new drive for income was urgently needed." Without question, the uproar following announcement of the grants changed the level of awareness - and, in a relatively brief period, expanded the resources available to both the Special Fund and the Programme Projects list. The Executive Committee was sensitive to the issues raised by many critics before the explosion of publicity. In the dry words of the minutes, "Concern was expressed by several members that the funds might be used by some of the more militant organizations for violent purposes, and it was urged that the criteria should state explicitly that this was outside the intention of the fund and grants should not be so used." Id. at 13. The specific allocations and brief descriptions of the projects and organizations appear on pages 53-58.
70. ADLER, supra note 28, at 40.
71. There are, in addition, approximately 150 boxes of largely unsorted material; naturally, my search through these has been less thorough.
72. Of the $200,000 allocated, all from WCC reserves, $120,000 went to liberation movements, including UNITA, the MPLA and GRAE in Angola; the PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau; FRELIMO of Mozambique; SWAPO of Namibia; the Luthuli Memorial Foundation of the ANC of South Africa; and ZANU and ZAPU of Zimbabwe.
73. Press Clippings in Box 4223.3.01/1, folder 5.
74. Statement of 24 Sept 1970; translated version in Box 4223.3.01, folder 6. A valuable collection of reactions can be found in CHRISTEL MEYERS-HERWATZ, DIE REZEPTION DES ANTIRASSISMUS-PROGRAMMS IN DER EKD (The Reception of Anti-Racism Programs in the German Evangelical Church) (1979). She asserts directly, "The decision [at Arnoldshain], more than any previous or subsequent decision, resulted in the near division [Zerreissprobe] of the former ecumenical movement, created much more publicity for the WCC - at least in West Germany - than any of its previous actions, endangered the unity of the EKD and led to a public divergence between the leaders of the German provincial churches." Id. at 9; author's translation. The EKD's reaction seems particularly puzzling in view of the courageous stand taken by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other concerned German clergy against the Nazi regime. They were willing to use violence to combat tyranny. As Sparks points out, "There is much in Bonhoeffer's life of struggle and witness against the tyranny of the Third Reich that has helped shape the thinking of the black Christians involved in mapping out a theology of resistance to apartheid." SPARKS, supra note 10, at 281. As we shall see, not all German church members reacted in the same fashion as their establishment. The conflict in West Germany was intense. Some of the strongest views from German opponents of the WCC can be found in REICH GOTTES ODER WELTGEMEINSCHAFT? DIE BERLINER OEKUMENE-ERKLAERUNG ZUR UTOPISCHEN VISION DES WELTKIRCHENRATES (Kingdom of God or World Community? The Berlin Ecumenical Manifesto on the Utopian Vision of the World Council of Churches) (Walter Kuenneth & Peter Beyerhaus eds., 1975).
75. Statement of 24 Sept 1970; translated version in Box 4223.3.01, folder 6. A valuable collection of reactions can be found in CHRISTEL MEYERS-HERWATZ, DIE REZEPTION DES ANTIRASSISMUS-PROGRAMMS IN DER EKD (The Reception of Anti-Racism Programs in the German Evangelical Church) (1979). She asserts directly, "The decision [at Arnoldshain], more than any previous or subsequent decision, resulted in the near division [Zerreissprobe] of the former ecumenical movement, created much more publicity for the WCC - at least in West Germany - than any of its previous actions, endangered the unity of the EKD and led to a public divergence between the leaders of the German provincial churches." Id. at 9; author's translation. The EKD's reaction seems particularly puzzling in view of the courageous stand taken by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other concerned German clergy against the Nazi regime. They were willing to use violence to combat tyranny. As Sparks points out, "There is much in Bonhoeffer's life of struggle and witness against the tyranny of the Third Reich that has helped shape the thinking of the black Christians involved in mapping out a theology of resistance to apartheid." SPARKS, supra note 10, at 281. As we shall see, not all German church members reacted in the same fashion as their establishment. The conflict in West Germany was intense. Some of the strongest views from German opponents of the WCC can be found in REICH GOTTES ODER WELTGEMEINSCHAFT? DIE BERLINER OEKUMENE-ERKLAERUNG ZUR UTOPISCHEN VISION DES WELTKIRCHENRATES (Kingdom of God or World Community? The Berlin Ecumenical Manifesto on the Utopian Vision of the World Council of Churches) (Walter Kuenneth & Peter Beyerhaus eds., 1975).
76. The decision to use WCC reserves as the first installment of PCR funding derived naturally from the urgency felt at Uppsala and Notting Hill, with the sense the WCC itself should prove its commitment first and set an example for member churches. It came as a unanimous recommendation of WCC staff to the Central Committee. Notes of Racism Discussion in Central Committee, 14 Aug. 1969, Box 4223.1.03/1, folder 1. The initial proposal was for 20 percent of the reserves, namely $185,000, subsequently rounded up to $200,000. In terms of specific allocations recommended by the Advisory Committee, grants of $20,000 each were recommended for the MPLA and GRAE of Angola, and the PAIGC of Guinee-Bissao [sic]; $15,000 to the Mozambique Institute of Frelimo; $10,000 each to the ANC of South Africa, UNITA of Angola, and ZANU and ZAPU of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe); and $5000 to SWAPO in South West Africa (Namibia). Recommendations by the International Advisory Committee for the PCR to the WCC Executive Committee Regarding the Special Fund, Box 4223.2.01/1, folder 12, at 4-6. Other grants went to groups supporting the struggle against racism in Australia, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan, Colombia, and Zambia.
77. Critics of the PCR and the WCC often asked why so little attention seemed to be given to (for example) Eastern Europe. The World Council's response stressed the ways in which the ideologues of apartheid claimed it had Biblical justification. South Africa presented itself to the world as a "Christian" nation battling "Communism" and "terrorism." Unpacking the normative and political presumptions of these terms was one of the major tasks of the PCR.
78. ADLER, supra note 28, at 44.
79. The major white-dominated Afrikaner (Dutch Reformed) churches, notably the NGK (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk), withdrew their memberships of the WCC in 1960-1961, following a consultation at Cottesloe of WCC's South African member churches. This meeting, Sparks points out, witnessed "the most intense and soul-searching [debates] that had ever been held in South Africa on the question of race at that time." The Cottesloe statement unequivocally rejected church apartheid as unchristian. Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd, furious at the statement, leaned heavily on the Dutch Reformed churches, which recanted and shortly thereafter withdrew from the WCC. SPARKS, supra note 10, at 283-84. The denominations that remained in the WCC and the South African Council of Churches were thus largely either largely white, English-speaking churches, or "mission" Dutch reformed denominations directed at non-white populations. In 1970, the Arnoldshain decisions touched off vigorous debates in the former. The usual result for the English-speaking churches (after lengthy debate) was a decision to retain membership in the WCC but to end their contributions to the WCC. ZOLILE MBALI, THE CHURCHES AND RACISM: A BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE 48 (1987). For example, after a tense three-hour debate, the Synod of the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa decided 140-6 to retain membership in the WCC, but voted to withhold its annual grant of R550 ($768) "until the reasons for the financial aid were explained." Box 4223.3.01, folder 6. On the other hand, no similar protests came from the "mission" churches, whose membership was 80 percent or more Black (including, in the South African parlance of that time, "Coloured" and "Bantu" persons). Without question, the WCC's stance heartened them.
80. For the full text of the EKD's statement, see CHRISTIAN WALTHER, RASSISMUS, 85-88 (1971).
81. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MEETING, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, JANUARY 10TH-21ST, 1971, at 54 (1971). It is also republished in BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS, supra note 24, at 42. Notably, the resolution was accepted without dissent and with no recorded abstentions - but only after protracted and at times difficult debate, summarized at 52-58 of the official minutes.
82. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MEETING, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, JANUARY 10TH-21ST, 1971, at 54 (1971). It is also republished in BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS, supra note 24, at 42. Notably, the resolution was accepted without dissent and with no recorded abstentions - but only after protracted and at times difficult debate, summarized at 52-58 of the official minutes.
83. "Confidential, Income, Special Fund to Combat Racism," Box 4223.2.01/2, folder 19. In 1971, no less than $274,500 in projects were proposed. Box 4223.2.01/6, folder 9c, Confidential Summary Record Third Meeting - Commission on the Programme to Combat Racism - 23-28 April 1972, in New York," Appendix V, at 2-4.
84. ADLER, supra note 28, at 16.
85. According to one harsh critic, "It is hard to judge whether the resolution accepted by the Central Committee in Addis Ababa in 1971 was intended to go part of the way to meeting the criticisms which had been made by accepting them as a real theological concern, or whether it was no more than a stage in anaesthetizing dissent before it had had time to take hold within the churches." George Austin, World Council of Churches' Programme to Combat Racism, 105 CONFLICT STUD. 10 (1979).
86. To reiterate, grants made through the Special Fund went directly as lump sums to liberation movement, with no detailed pre-or post-audit. They were to be used for humanitarian purposes-but critics asserted that this would only release other funds for political or military purposes. One of the clearest statements of the philosophy involved dates from the sixth meeting of the PCR Advisory Commission in 1976. Clear Racism must be combated by those who are its victims. Partnership between victims and others who are concerned, must include trust on the part of the others, since they have no means of standing in the victim's shoes and no ability to speak from within suffering. Since PCR grants are made for solidarity with the victims (they take the form of money to indicate the sharing of power with the powerless) it would be contradictory to demand an account of the way in which the money had been used. PCR and Special Fund grants are given to humanitarian purposes only, and this is made clear to the recipients. Report of sub-hearing on combating racism, in Confidential Minutes, Core Group on the Programme to Combat Racism, Bossey (Geneva) Switzerland, 16-21 May 1976"; Box 4223.2.03/3, folder 2, at 24. Earlier, in the very important 1969 meeting of the Central Committee at Canterbury, the sentiment was expressed in these terms: Churches which have benefited from racially exploitative economic systems should immediately allocate a significant portion of their total resources, without employing paternalistic mechanisms of control, to organizations of the racially oppressed or organizations supporting victims of racial injustice (emphasis added). Plan for an Ecumenical Program to Combat Racism, reprinted in SPARKS, supra note 10, at 40.
87. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 3 & 32. Although Sjollema has lived in Switzerland for over thirty years, he is himself Dutch, a sociologist trained at the University of Utrecht. "Prepaid Reply" took its name from (largely) lay disagreement with the conservative stance taken by Dutch Protestant church leaders, who were reluctant to take steps against the objections of white-led churches in South Africa, and were similarly disinclined to oppose major banks. The "reply" was thus in part a protest against "business as usual" theology, and "prepaid" referred to the funding raised by volunteers that the Dutch church hierarchy had refused to appropriate. "Prepaid Reply" was active as well in Dutch campaigns to encourage banks to stop lending to the South African government and its agencies; for details, see WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND BANK LOANS TO APARTHEID 55-56 (Alexander Kirby ed., 1977); Donna Katzin, Economic Strategies: An Evolving Prophetic Partnership between South African and US Churches, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 58, 58-68; David Haslam, Mobilizing the European Churches, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 69, 69-83.
88. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 3 & 32. Although Sjollema has lived in Switzerland for over thirty years, he is himself Dutch, a sociologist trained at the University of Utrecht. "Prepaid Reply" took its name from (largely) lay disagreement with the conservative stance taken by Dutch Protestant church leaders, who were reluctant to take steps against the objections of white-led churches in South Africa, and were similarly disinclined to oppose major banks. The "reply" was thus in part a protest against "business as usual" theology, and "prepaid" referred to the funding raised by volunteers that the Dutch church hierarchy had refused to appropriate. "Prepaid Reply" was active as well in Dutch campaigns to encourage banks to stop lending to the South African government and its agencies; for details, see WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND BANK LOANS TO APARTHEID 55-56 (Alexander Kirby ed., 1977); Donna Katzin, Economic Strategies: An Evolving Prophetic Partnership between South African and US Churches, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 58, 58-68; David Haslam, Mobilizing the European Churches, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 69, 69-83.
89. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 3 & 32. Although Sjollema has lived in Switzerland for over thirty years, he is himself Dutch, a sociologist trained at the University of Utrecht. "Prepaid Reply" took its name from (largely) lay disagreement with the conservative stance taken by Dutch Protestant church leaders, who were reluctant to take steps against the objections of white-led churches in South Africa, and were similarly disinclined to oppose major banks. The "reply" was thus in part a protest against "business as usual" theology, and "prepaid" referred to the funding raised by volunteers that the Dutch church hierarchy had refused to appropriate. "Prepaid Reply" was active as well in Dutch campaigns to encourage banks to stop lending to the South African government and its agencies; for details, see WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND BANK LOANS TO APARTHEID 55-56 (Alexander Kirby ed., 1977); Donna Katzin, Economic Strategies: An Evolving Prophetic Partnership between South African and US Churches, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 58, 58-68; David Haslam, Mobilizing the European Churches, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 69, 69-83.
90. As Haslam observes, the PCR "acted both as catalyst for and conscience of the churches" in the Netherlands. Id. at 77.
91. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 3 & 32. Between 1970 and 1976, the Special Fund recieved $2,210,369. The largest donors included the World Council itself (the initial $200,000), the Ducth Interkerkelijk Vredesberaad ($211,430 in 1975, $179,420 the preceding year) and the American United Methodist Church ($50,000). In national terms, the Netherlands provided well over 40 percent of the total ($958,261), followed by the Federal Republic of Germany ($270,593), Sweden ($227,370), the United States ($166,492) and Canada ($153,148); the United Kingdom was conspicuously low ($25,195). Especially striking is the large number of small gifts from Germany - a sign of the extent of popular mobilization. Box 4223.2.04/5, Special Fund to Combat Racism, Grants made 1970-1976, in Confidential, Commission on the Programme to Combat Racism, Minutes, Egham, Surrey, England, 17-23 April 1977, at 67-81.
92. "Confidential, Commission on the Programme to combat Racism, Minutes, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, 14-19 May 1979," at 15; Box 4223.3.04/5, folder 1. As this report went on to say, in a fashion reminiscent of the 1970 Arnoldshain controversy, Information and communication about this grant with the constituencies (including our Commissioners) proved to be insufficient. It gave unnecessary, although unavoidable, support to the critics of the Fund. Several aspects played a role (the timing, the announcement of one separate grant, the accompanying press release indicating that the grant was made on political grounds, the strong emotional relationship with leaders of the internal situation in some churches, the lack of information on the part of the churches on the real situation in Rhodesia and the systematic misrepresentation of facts in the press, the question of violence)." Id. at 19.
93. ADLER, supra note 28, at 64-66.
94. See Statement from the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches Uppsala (1968); SPARKS, supra note 10, at 34.
95. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 47, at 273.
96. Regional Working Croups or Committees, paper circulated at the second meeting of the PCR Commission, Box 4223.2.01/4, folder 3, at 1. Such groups would "identify, monitor, evaluate and provide support for programmes designed to combat racism." Id. at 2. What was needed, of course, were persons willing and able to organize them!
97. Confidential Summary Record of the Second Meeting of the Commission for the Programme to Combat Racism, from 22-26 March 1971, in Geneva, Box 4223.2.01/4, folder 8, at 8.
98. Confidential Summary Record Third Meeting - Commission on the Programme to Combat Racism - 23-28 April 1972, in New York, Box 4223.2.01/6, folder 9c, at 6. The other priorities included (1) racial oppression of Indians in Latin American countries; (2) African liberation in southern Africa; (3) land rights (for Aborigines and Maoris) in Australia and New Zealand; and (4) investment analyses by the World Council and the member churches. Alas, there is not sufficient time or space to examine all facets of the PCR's activities; southern Africa accounted for approximately half its staff time and expenditures. The WCC could, and did, encourage national councils of churches and regional groups such as the East Asian Council of Churches or the Latin American Council of Churches to take the leading role in other country-specific areas.
99. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 72, at 7.
100. See WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, TIME TO WITHDRAW: INVESTMENT IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 7 (1973).
101. The relevant resolution referred specially to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
102. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH MEETING, UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS, 13-23; AUGUST, 1972 at 28-30 (1972); reprinted in SPARKS, supra note 10, at 46; figures on the total WCC Portfolio from Box 4223.2.02/2, folder 2.2. In typical dry fashion, the minutes of the Central Committee report a "long discussion in which a strong divergence of views was expressed" on having paragraph ii of the relevant resolution amended to read, Urges all member churches, Christian agencies and individual Christians outside South Africa to use all their influence, including stockholder action and disinvestment, to press corporations either to operate policies which will promote inter-racial social justice or to withdraw investments from and cease trading with these countries (emphasis added). No less than twenty-six persons spoke on this proposed amendment, adoption of which would have placed the WCC squarely on both sides of street, arguing both for engagement (as in encouraging the Sullivan principles) and for withdrawal. The exact vote was not reported, but an "overwhelming majority" supported the original draft.
103. EABC was the parent bank to some of Western Europe's most important banks, including the Deutsche Bank (Germany), Société Générale (France), Midland Bank (UK), Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank (Netherlands), Société Générale des Banques (Belgium), and the Creditanstalt-Bankverein (Austria). Between late 1970 until mid-1972, it had provided loans of $210 million to the South African government and its agencies, according to a publication of the Corporate Information Center of the US National Council of Churches. See NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, THE FRANKFURT DOCUMENTS: SECRET BANK LOANS TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT (1972).
104. The "really tough" decision made on bank boycotts in Berlin was "horrendously contentious," according to one close observer. For many Germans, it was "almost anathema" to do so, for two reasons: (1) German thinking that churches shouldn't "mess around" with things like banks, which were the province of government; (2) German firms were heavily involved in banking in South Africa, meaning economic consequences could follow any boycott. To bring this question on the agenda expressly in Berlin was Blake's choice. The debate proved "far more heated" than reported in the minutes, and even looked like it would lose; but in the crucial vote a small number German delegates split and voted in favor. The result was "a breakthrough." Interview with Dwain Epps, supra note 30. Some additional evidence comes from the file, more than two inches thick, of written observations about the work of the Special Fund, prepared as part of evaluating the Programme to Combat Racism as a whole. Three-quarters of the documents come from Germany, most of them critical. See Background Document, Proposed Continuation of the Programme to Combat Racism, World Council of Churches, Unit II Meeting, West Berlin, Germany, 7-9 August 1974, Box 4223.5.01/5, folder 1.
105. Interview with Baldwin Sjollema, supra note 32.
106. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 72, at 21.
107. Id. at 22.
108. Id. at 26.
109. Confidential Plan for a Southern Africa Research Action Project, prepared by Baldwin Sjollema for the first meeting of the Advisory Committee for the Ecumenical Programme to Combat Racism, Geneva 31 May-3 June 1970, Box 4223.2.01/1, folder 4. Sjollema proposed spending $430,000 over four years on southern Africa research, analyzing material on the role, activities and needs of liberation movements, on military alliances, and on the role of cultural links between southern Africa and western nations in reinforcing racism.
110. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 72, at 43.
111. For obvious reasons, the WCC was far more willing to seek direct contacts with private companies with headquarters or branches in their own countries than to interact with the government of South Africa. Engagement with the private sector and domestic government, and isolation of the South African regime, constituted the yin and yang of NGO policy.
112. Rough typescript summary of the second meeting of the Commission for the Programme to Combat Racism, 1971, Box 4223.2.01/3, folder 2a, at 20.
113. Id. at 21.
114. Box 4223.2.01/3, folder 2b, at 44.
115. Box 4223.2.07/8, unnumbered folder. The matter is not referred to even in the confidential official minutes. Young apparently did not respond in writing - at least, I could not find any follow-up - although PCR Director Sjollema did speak with Young at length in New York City subsequently. Young was not reappointed as a Commissioner when his term expired.
116. See BALDWIN SJOLLEMA, ISOLATING APARTHEID: WESTERN COLLABORATION WITH SOUTH AFRICA: POLICY DECISIONS BY THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES AND CHURCH RESPONSES 130 (1982).
117. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES MINUTES OF THE THIRTY-FIRST MEETING, KINGSTON, JAMAICA, 1-11 JANUARY, 1979 (1979); reprinted in SPARKS, supra note 10, at 67.
118. An excellent case study is RENATE PRATT, IN GOOD FAITH: CANADIAN CHURCHES AGAINST APARTHEID (1997). For an earlier compendium of efforts, see also SJOLLEMA, supra note 99, at 69-99, (summarizing popular actions taken in eleven Western countries).
119. According to the director of the PCR during its first decade, PCR had helped to internationalize the struggle of racially oppressed by making the churches conscious of this; the future role of the WCC and the PCR would be less as initiator than as monitor, supporter and mediator in local, national and regional initiatives. The 1980 meeting signaled an end to ten crucial yrs in which the WCC was in an almost continuously exposed position, taking in tow its member churches on issues of racism and apartheid. Sjollema, supra note 38, at 31.
120. SPARKS, supra note 10, at 350. Sampson asserts that Chase's decision "was not political." See ANTHONY SAMPSON, MANDELA: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY 333 (1999). disagree, for, other things being equal, the bank had little to gain by continued participation in propping up South Africa, and reacted to popular pressures. According to Mandela, in an interview with Sampson, "I did not expect such massive support from bankers. It was an indication of the impact which the ANC and other political organizations had made on the international community." Id. at 333. I should also note that neither Mandela in NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NELSON MANDELA (1994) nor Sampson discusses either the WCC or the South African Council of Churches in detail in their massive volumes. Samson does praise the Reverend Frank Chikane (head of the SACC) as the "star" of the September 1987 conference of internal and external ANC leaders, SAMPSON, supra note 103, at 361.
121. SPARKS, supra note 10, at 350. Sampson asserts that Chase's decision "was not political." See ANTHONY SAMPSON, MANDELA: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY 333 (1999). disagree, for, other things being equal, the bank had little to gain by continued participation in propping up South Africa, and reacted to popular pressures. According to Mandela, in an interview with Sampson, "I did not expect such massive support from bankers. It was an indication of the impact which the ANC and other political organizations had made on the international community." Id. at 333. I should also note that neither Mandela in NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NELSON MANDELA (1994) nor Sampson discusses either the WCC or the South African Council of Churches in detail in their massive volumes. Samson does praise the Reverend Frank Chikane (head of the SACC) as the "star" of the September 1987 conference of internal and external ANC leaders, SAMPSON, supra note 103, at 361.
122. See SJOLLEMA, supra note 99, at 35-38.
123. Pityana was the "closest associate of Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement" in South Africa. SPARKS, supra note 10, at 251. Born in the "depressed industrial town." (id. at 344) of Uitenhage 7 August 1945, Pityana was banned by the government in 1973, as part of the official crackdown on Black Consciousness. Trained for the clergy while in exile, he was appointed as a Commissioner of the PCR in 1987, and as director of the PCR from 4 May 1988 until the end of 1992. He currently serves as Director of the National Commission on Human Rights in South Africa. His writings exemplify the strand of Christian consciousness aptly described by Sparks in his fascinating chapter, A Theological Civil War, id. at 278-97. A good example of the religious basis on which Desmond Tutu, Frank Chikane, Allan Boesak, Beyers Naudé, and other South African theologians countered apartheid can be found in Pityana's paper, Theological Foundations of Action for Racial Justice, fifteen single-spaced pages, Box 4223.2.07/1, folder 13, Commission of the Programme to Combat Racism, Minutes, Madras, India, 17 October 1989 (Geneva: WCC, 1989) Appendix III. See also WORLD COUNCIL Of CHURCHES & UNESCO, THE ROLE of RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE DISMANTLING OF APARTHEID (World Council of Churches and UNESCO, n.p., n.d.) (papers presented at a seminar in Geneva 22-25 Nov. 1991).
124. Pityana was the "closest associate of Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement" in South Africa. SPARKS, supra note 10, at 251. Born in the "depressed industrial town." (id. at 344) of Uitenhage 7 August 1945, Pityana was banned by the government in 1973, as part of the official crackdown on Black Consciousness. Trained for the clergy while in exile, he was appointed as a Commissioner of the PCR in 1987, and as director of the PCR from 4 May 1988 until the end of 1992. He currently serves as Director of the National Commission on Human Rights in South Africa. His writings exemplify the strand of Christian consciousness aptly described by Sparks in his fascinating chapter, A Theological Civil War, id. at 278-97. A good example of the religious basis on which Desmond Tutu, Frank Chikane, Allan Boesak, Beyers Naudé, and other South African theologians countered apartheid can be found in Pityana's paper, Theological Foundations of Action for Racial Justice, fifteen single-spaced pages, Box 4223.2.07/1, folder 13, Commission of the Programme to Combat Racism, Minutes, Madras, India, 17 October 1989 (Geneva: WCC, 1989) Appendix III. See also WORLD COUNCIL Of CHURCHES & UNESCO, THE ROLE of RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE DISMANTLING OF APARTHEID (World Council of Churches and UNESCO, n.p., n.d.) (papers presented at a seminar in Geneva 22-25 Nov. 1991).
125. Minutes, Meeting of the PCR Commission, Los Angeles, USA, 17-24 January 1988, at 6, Box 4223.2.06, folder 3.
126. Box 4223.2.08/12, Confidential, Minutes of the PCR Executive Officer's Meeting, London 14-18 June 1989, Appendix II.
127. For the truly avid analyst, there are more than 150 boxes of correspondence in the WCC archives dealing with the Special Fund and PCR campaigns, including applications for support from liberation movements and support groups. The Commission could recommend funding of only a portion of the applications made to it. For many years, the PAC campaigned publicly and privately for increased allocations, in particular for parity with the ANC. UNITA of Angola pressed likewise for greater funding. By the late 1980s, the PAC had turned to vilification of the PCR and its staff members, in a fashion that was "truly ugly." Interview with Dwain Epps, supra note 30.
128. Castro's strongly preferred strategy was for conciliation. His concern about the PCR's seeming countenancing of violence was widely known. In public, he supported the PCR, but behind the scenes he raised numerous questions. For example, consider the following statement by Castro: In my first press conference after my election to this office, a journalist asked me whether because of my known pacifism I was going to change anything in the Programme to Combat Racism. Implicit in his question was the caricature of PCR as an activity which supports violent action. I answered him that no way would I change anything in PCR unless it were to strengthen that work considerably, because I could not find a better service for peace in the WCC than that rendered by PCR in its support for the claims of the humble and above all in its condemnation of racial discrimination as violent action exercised against the people. Emilio Castro, Report of the General Secretary, 42 ECUMENICAI REV. 345 (1990).
129. Box 4223.2.08/12, Confidential, Minutes of the PCR Executive Officer's Meeting, London 14-18 June 1989, Appendix I, at 3. In the end, the PCR Commission recommended granting $100,000 to the ANC, $67,000 to the PAC, $20,000 to SACTU (South African Congress of Trade Unions), and $165,000 to SWAPO (South West African Peoples Organization). Appendix III of the Minutes is a letter from Justice Annie Jiagge, chair of the PCR Executive Committee to Dr. Emilio Castro, General Secretary, indicating that the PCR Executive Committee had not approved a grant to Broadwater Farm, owing to negative publicity about it provided by the BBC. The friction over this grant, as indicated in the conclusion of this article, likely affected the decision to reduce the PCR's autonomy by reorganization.
130. In real terms, income support for Council was down over 20 percent from 1984 to 1995. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-SIXTH MEETING, 14-22 SEPTEMBER 1995, GENEVA 15 (1995).
131. As pointed out in the 1979 meeting of the Central Committee, the World Council is primarily a broker and channel for programs and projects proposed by member churches, running at that point at approximately 90M Swiss francs per year. Operations in Geneva under direct WCC responsibility cost about 25M Swiss francs, of which only 5M Swiss francs were received completely undesignated from member churches. Thus, none of the transmittals for programs and projects and only 20 percent of WCC operations fell within the full control of the Executive Committee and the Central Committee. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE TWENTY-NINTH MEETING, 10-18 AUGUST, 1976, GENEVA 70 (1976).
132. The Committee on Programmatic Reorganization identified strength in the wide range of sub-units and noted that their relative autonomy has enabled them to develop strong identity; however, there were too many program thrusts, difficulty in promoting overall emphasis or sense of direction, and no mechanism for opening up new concerns or screening existing program. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-FIRST MEETING, 25-30 MARCH 1990, GENEVA 162-63 (1990). The proposals were rejected (see summary of discussion, at 84-90). The following year, revised proposals were adopted; the PCR became part of Unit II, focused on "justice, peace and creation." Priorities for the Unit included economic justice, indigenous peoples and land rights, "koinonia without racism," human rights, concerns and perspectives of women, etc. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-THIRD MEETING, 20-27 SEPTEMBER 1991, GENEVA 182-87 (1991). Most notably, a unified budget was presented for the entire area, with no specific mention of the PCR. Id. at 205.
133. The Committee on Programmatic Reorganization identified strength in the wide range of sub-units and noted that their relative autonomy has enabled them to develop strong identity; however, there were too many program thrusts, difficulty in promoting overall emphasis or sense of direction, and no mechanism for opening up new concerns or screening existing program. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-FIRST MEETING, 25-30 MARCH 1990, GENEVA 162-63 (1990). The proposals were rejected (see summary of discussion, at 84-90). The following year, revised proposals were adopted; the PCR became part of Unit II, focused on "justice, peace and creation." Priorities for the Unit included economic justice, indigenous peoples and land rights, "koinonia without racism," human rights, concerns and perspectives of women, etc. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-THIRD MEETING, 20-27 SEPTEMBER 1991, GENEVA 182-87 (1991). Most notably, a unified budget was presented for the entire area, with no specific mention of the PCR. Id. at 205.
134. Unsorted box of PCR correspondence marked Racism in the Americas Conference, Logistics, Follow-Up, WCC archives.
135. See WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, MINUTES AND REPORTS OF THE FORTY-FIFTH MEETING, 20-28 JANUARY 1994, JOHANNESBURG 111 (1994).
136. As the First Director aptly noted, "The PCR quickly became identified with southern Africa and was seen by some as a kind of church anti-apartheid movement. Programmes and projects with oppressed racial groups in Australia, New Zealand and North and South America, relating mainly to land rights, were hardly mentioned by its critics." Sjollema, supra note 38, at 15.
137. Rev. Bob Scott of New Zealand, who joined the PCR staff in 1989, is part Maori; Rev. Eugenio Poma-Añaguaya of Bolivia, who joined the PCR staff in 1994, is full-blooded Aymara. I am grateful to both of them for spending extended time with me in interviews, which I shall utilize in subsequent analyses. Their work continues a variety of other PCR initiatives not explored in this article, such as two symposia on land rights in the Americas in the 1970s, and encouragement of solidarity with Dalit peoples starting in the late 1980s.
138. According to Jeane Sindab, "Women, by declaring their intentions to struggle for their liberation as women, have by no means left the struggle against racism. They have simply added another dimension to the anti-racist struggle by insisting that anti-sexism be a part of it." WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, WOMEN UNDER RACISM: A DECADE OF VISIBLE ACTION 1 (1990).
139. WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, supra note 72, at 6; the words come from Alexander Kirby. As one of hundreds of examples, consider the Vancouver Assembly's statement on southern Africa, which called on churches "to intensify their witness against apartheid and continuing oppression in South Africa and Namibia, and to deepen their solidarity with those forces . . . which oppose apartheid and racism and which struggle for liberation." What specifically would such "witness" and "solidarity" entail? Vacuous generalizations of this sort can mask serious divisions about strategy, and in that respect play a unifying role. Expressed in a different way, words unite, actions divide. On the other hand, the specific steps advocated by the PCR and by various national campaigns did mobilize and unite large numbers of people, many of whom had not previously been identified with World Council efforts.
140. The important example came in the 1974 consultation on "Human rights and Christian responsibility," held in St. Poelten, Austria; see selected papers from it published in 27 ECUMENICAL REV. (1975).
141. "Experience has shown that the WCC and its member churches do not find it easy to move quickly from a prophetic stance to acts of witness and service. We have not been sufficiently vigilant in recognizing the continuing task after the main struggle against racism. The case of South Africa has been the most difficult and persistent because so many interests have been involved. The process of change to a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic society working for the common good will be stubbornly long and arduous." Philip Potter, The Task Ahead, in A LONG STRUGGLE, supra note 38, at 116, 125.
142. See STANLEY COHEN, DENIAL AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: THE IMPACT Of INFORMATION ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS (1995).