WCC-US Conference annual meeting: Living Letters from Young Adults - A Message of Equal Partnership

Group photo of the Shift Your Space participants.

Youth leaders expressed their energy and determination to carry forward the ecumenical vision in the US, and challenged church representatives to take their contribution seriously, in a preparatory gathering for the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) 9^th assembly in 2006.

The young adults, many of whom will attend the WCC assembly, formulated “living letters” to bring back to their churches during a special event “Shift your space – transform the world” held in Chicago, 8-9 October 2005.

For two days, the young people and students “shifted their spaces”, ideas and perspectives through conversations that crossed boundaries and covered the whole globe. The diverse group represented most of the WCC member communions in the US as well as international guests from eight countries.

“We ask the church leaders to step out in faith and act in partnership,” said Michael Neuroth, coordinator of the youth event, in a presentation during the US conference annual meeting of WCC member churches which followed the youth event.

“We recognize that greater youth participation is a reality which all of us must faithfully work toward. Our message is one of thankfulness, equal partnership, and desire to contribute our talents toward the future work of the WCC US conference,” he said

“As young adults people often tell us that we are the future of the church. The future is now. We share your passion, energy, faith and hope,” underlined Ray Ranker, (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America). “We want to be equal partners at the board tables, where decisions are made, at the round tables, where we deliberate, and at the communion table, where we join in fellowship.”

Jay Williams (United Methodist Church) added, “we stand as young people already engaged in ministries of peacemaking and justice in our local communities, in our schools, on our campuses, at our jobs, and in our churches. And as young people, we yearn for spaces where we can regularly connect our faith and our service through our communions and ecumenical connections. We seek to channel our peacemaking efforts through the church, and not solely secular civic organizations.”

During the two-day meeting, which included worship, fellowship, presentations and discussion on ecumenical and social issues, the young adults identified close links between their peace and justice work and that of the WCC. They upheld in particular the vision for a culture of peace promoted by the WCC’s global initiative, “Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation & Peace 2001-2010”.