Synopsis of a speech given by ROCOR deacon Nikolai Savchenko, December 2003:
The Moscow Patriarchate (MP) participates in the Protestant (and pagan) World Council of Churches (WCC) as a full member, a member of the higher leadership, involved in the administration, planning, and financing of the entire operation of the WCC. Official representatives of the MP are in the Central Committee of the WCC, which is the administrative organ, determining the policies of the WCC, making official statements on the Faith, and moral evaluations of various phenomena of contemporary life. There are 5 members of the MP in the Central Committee, headed by Bishop Ilarion Alfeev. There are c. 150 members of the CC, including 8 Protestant priestesses. The MP is also a member of the Executive Committee (EC) of the WCC, which undertakes the direct supervision of the entire operation of the WCC and the organization of all activities. There are 24 members of the Executive Committee, incluing Bishop Ilarion and represetnatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Romanian Patriarchate, and (big suprise) the OCA. The last session of the EC with the participation of the representatives of the MP was in August 2003. A new Committee On Prayer was formed, to prepare the text and rite of ecumenical prayer. There are 10 people on this committee, including a representative of the MP, Fr Andrei Eliseev. The vice president of the Committee On Prayer is a Protestant priestess. The Constitution of the WCC considers Orthodox members to be not individuals representing only themselves, but representatives of the entire local Orthodox church in its fullness. Every local church in the WCC is considered a full member of the WCC. According to its own "Basis of the WCC," the WCC is a "fellowship of churches." In 1937, in its original formulation proposed by the committee called Faith and Order, the future WCC was to be considered "a community of REPRSENTATIVES of churches." Its members now, though, are considered part of "a community of churches." So the WCC considers the Orthodox church as part of a wider fellowship, the WCC. The founding documents of the WCC say that it is a body professing ecclesiological significance. The Toronto Statement: The Church, the Churches, and the World Council of Churches: "The member churches enter into spiritual relationships through which they seek to learn from each other and give help to each other, in order that the Body of Christ may be built up and that the life of the churches may be renewed" (4.
. Again, the WCC regards its Orthodox members as the membership of the entire Orthodox Church. At a session of inter-Orthodox consultation in Chambessy in 1991, Part 4 states "The Orthodox churches participate in the WCC's life and activities, only on the understandng that the WCC is a council of churches and not a council of individuals, groups, movements, or religious bodies which are involved in the Council's goal, tasks, and vision" (JOURNAL OF THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE, #1, 1992, p. 62). According to its own guidelines, then, membership in the WCC CANNOT be what the MP says it is, that is, merely participation as a simple obeserver, a bystander, as it were. The rules of the WCC say that every member is a part of their ecumenical fellowship. Membership signifies agreement with the cnstituional principles of the WCC. The Constitution of the WCC states (in Part III) that the Council was formed by member churches to serve the ecumenical movement: "In seeking koinonia (fellowship) in faith and life, witness and service, the churches through the Council will facilitate common witness in each place and in all places, and nurture the growth of an ecumenical consciousness."
In 1998 in Thessaloniki, the All-Orthodox Conference declared the necessity of "reforming" the WCC. Don't get your hopes up: they mean to make it MORE ecumenical. A special committee was established on Orthodox membership in the WCC. Half of this committee consisted of represntatives of the local churches and half of the heterodox. From the Final Report on the Committee: "The commission envisions a Council that will hold churches together in an ecumenical space where churches, through dialogue, continue to break down the barriers that prevent them from recognizing each other as churches that confess the one faith, celebrate one baptism, and administer the one Eucharist(Section A, point 11). Point 30 calls for all to remain members of the WCC, to "renew the commitment to stay together."