WCC is unable to gain agreement on women's ordination and gay marriage

It is difficult for the World Council of Churches to put forward a view on the issue of same-sex marriage and female clergy, the head of the Christian grouping has told journalists in Moscow after meeting Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I.

Speaking at a media conference on 30 June, the WCC general secretary, the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the Russian Orthodox leader responsible for ecumenical dialogue, dealt with challenges facing the world's largest ecumenical organization and inter-Christian dialogue in general.

In response to a question from a Russian journalist about same-sex marriage and female clergy, Tveit said that the WCC cannot express a position until there is a consensus and that opinions within the organization vary.

"The WCC has 350 churches," he said. "We work on … establishing consensus. That means that the council doesn't have an opinion on issues that have not been discussed or have not been discussed to the level of consensus. The World Council of Churches does not have a position on either of the questions you raised."

Tveit noted that different churches had different positions on such issues. He said the WCC had a role in fostering conversations, and in opening space for discussing issues where churches have different viewpoints. "I don't foresee that the World Council of Churches will have one point of view on either of these issues in the near future," he stated.

Tveit was on the final day of his first official visit to Russia, which began on 27 June. He had attended the opening of the WCC's Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration, hosted by the Russian Orthodox Church and which continues to the end of the week.

The committee discusses the participation of Orthodox churches in the work of the WCC, which represents some 560 million Christians. Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran, has made contacts with Orthodox churches a priority since he assumed his position in January.

The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest member of the WCC, whose 349 churches are principally Anglican, Orthodox, and Protestant.

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