Gulf Crisis Intrudes on Agenda of World Council 7th Assembly

Preparations for the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches have been under way for months, even years, but as the opening on Thursday approaches, a major focal point is now likely to be the war in the Persian Gulf.

For leaders of the two-week assembly in Canberra, Australia, the crisis in the Gulf poses a practical question of how to prevent the assembly from disintegrating into a single-issue convocation.

The assembly is convened only once every seven or eight years, and, as in the past, the agenda for 1991 is packed with numerous complex and important issues, among them: the responsibility of churches in caring for the environment; the effect of foreign debt on developing Third World nations; the role of women in the churches; hunger and homelessness, and racism.

About 3,500 people are expected to attend, about 950 of whom are voting delegates of the World Council’s 311 member churches. About half of the official delegates are expected to be lay people, and about 40% are expected to be women.