The Unifying Dutchman

"The self-evidence of ecumenical relations between the churches is now a fact. The World Council has shattered the isolation of the churches." So last week did Dr. Willem Visser 't Hooft sum up the change in ecclesiastical attitudes during the 18 years he has served as general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Visser 't Hooft delivered his valedictory as he prepared to turn over the duties and prerogatives of his office to the Rev. Eugene Carson Blake, 60, the strong-willed U.S. Presbyterian who has been preparing for his new job by studying French at the University of Grenoble. Visser 't Hooft, 66, will remain as a consultant, writing his memoirs on the unity movement, which he says he will "try to make a little more readable than most of the literature on the subject."

Committed Churches. Under Visser 't Hooft's patient, paternal direction, the World Council has grown from a dream of committed individuals to a reality of committed churches, from a modest club of European and American Protestants to a worldwide brotherhood of 217 Christian churches representing every Christian view but that of Rome. And thanks to the continuing dialogue with the Vatican that Visser 't Hooft has carefully fostered, even Roman Catholic participation in the council is no longer beyond hope.

To Visser 't Hooft, one major change in ecclesiastical outlook created by the World Council is that Protestants no longer justify their disunity by saying that they all nonetheless belong to the "invisible church"--the concept of a band of Christian brothers united by baptism and faith but no outward ties. Today, he says, "all churches are aware that a unity that cannot be grasped is just as unbiblical as a faith that is kept hidden. It has now also become impossible to believe that the Western-European type of Christendom is the definite and normative form of Christian life and faith. We have learned that no member can pretend to be the entire body."

Too Many Officers. Visser 't Hooft concedes that much remains to be done. "In spite of decades of ecumenical work," he says, "full community of the great confessions still does not exist. The churches have spent years in dialogue, but only very few have taken the big plunge toward union." One reason for this has been the realization that "there can be no unity until there has been sweeping church renewal"--and traditional structures are "so tough and unbending that renewal often gets stuck halfway." Still another roadblock to progress is that "the ecumenical message has not yet penetrated to grassroots level in the parishes. We have too many officers and not enough soldiers."

Impatient at the slow pace of progress in unity, plenty of young Protestant thinkers, including some on the World Council's staff in Geneva, have wondered whether ecumenism is possible within the framework of existing churches. Visser 't Hooft understands the impatience, but remains convinced that to abandon the church as institution is to abandon the hope of unity for good. "An ecumenical movement not rooted in the churches would just lead to yet another confession and a new division," he insists. "We must forget about the notion that others will do the job of unity for us."

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