GENEVA—Monday’s plenary session of the February 13–20 Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was supposed to have disposed of the business of five committees and be completed by 5:30. Instead, the session devolved into an example of parliamentary process gone awry, followed by a marathon closed-door session that stretched well into the night. By the end of the evening, nobody was around to hear the surprise news—the announced retirement of WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia.
The first bit of business—approving some routine nominations and working through a few suggested amendments to the constitution—was docketed for perhaps 45 minutes. After 80 minutes of debating issues like placing membership in abeyance or suspending it, considering forming a “reflection process” to possibly lead to drafting amendments, and whether to delete “standing” from a “standing committee,” the item was sent back to committee so that “it can be presented in a more engaging and clear manner” another day.
Intrepid IRD reporter James Berkley finds himself on the outside looking in during Monday’s marathon closed session meeting. |
The problem was a group of detailed constitutional amendments not clearly formatted, found on two sets of papers, and requiring reference to a third set. Without clear motions and debate, but more of a free-form “What do you think about this?” method of consideration, hardly anybody knew what was going on.
Even moderator Walter Altmann had to ask the presenter repeatedly which page was being referenced. Those operating a video projector couldn’t keep up with what part to project, and their projected version looked different than the paper version.
At another point, a delegate was seeking some clarity. She asked the presenter a question with two possibilities, and she wanted to know which one was the correct answer. “Is it this?” she asked, referring to one possibility. “Or is it that?” she asked again, referring to a second possibility.
The answer she got to her either-or question? “I think that is the understanding,” she was told.
All this chaos and frustration came about because of a WCC commitment not to use standard parliamentary procedure. The process became such a tangled mess that eventually delegate Sion Rhys Evans of the Church of Wales rose to confess wearily with the most dignified diction, “Mr. Moderator: I’m rather losing the will to live, here.”
Evans certainly wasn’t the only one in the room so wearied by an unfathomable process. Upon his saying that the presentation needed to be done better in order for anyone to understand what is going on, an outbreak of orange cards erupted around him and across the room. Orange cards are the way other delegates can show their warm agreement with a statement, and Evans had their agreement!
After a few more feeble attempts to come to some kind of conclusion about amendments and a few more questions asked from the floor, the moderator realized the mood of the body was to do what Evans had requested. With deep humility and good nature, the flummoxed presenter also graciously agreed, and the matter was remanded to the custody of the committee until it could be brought back with clarity.
After the Central Committee had spent twice the docketed time to get nowhere, the longsuffering Altman summed up the experience with classic understatement: “Thank you. That was not totally easy.” His wry chuckle that followed told of a moderator ready to leave such lack of productivity behind. But on Monday, that was not to be the case.
Closed for Business
At 11:00 a.m., the Central Committee entered an intended 90 minutes docketed for a closed session to deal with personnel matters. Staff, guests, observers, helpers, and the press were all invited to leave the room, and the doors were closed. The doors essentially remained barred until sometime between 7:00 and 8:30 that evening. The delegates were let out briefly for a late lunch and a couple of coffee breaks, but each time, they resumed their meeting in closed session. When I finally gave up and went back to my hotel at 7:00 p.m. after a futile day, there was no sign of when the closed session would end, other than empty delegate buses idling at the curb.
Eventually around 8:30 at night, a brief e-mail message from Juan Michel, the WCC Media Relations Director,announced the plans of the WCC General Secretary, Samuel Kobia, to resign at the end of 2008 when his four-year first term will expire. The news release mentioned unspecified personal reasons for the retirement of the 61-year-old Kobia and said a nominating team would soon be formed.
Thus, the Central Committee expended about eight hours coming to consensus on the General Secretary’s performance and his resignation. There obviously must have been a serious division of opinions resistant to easy consensus. To their credit, the Central Committee members worked away on their decision until they had one. To their detriment, however, the group, having expended approximately 12 hours of labor on Monday, will still be about five hours behind the docket when it takes up its considerable work again on Tuesday, with only a day and a half left before final adjournment.
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