The World Council: Visser 't Hooft Stays

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The most critical decision to come before the World Council of Churches since its founding 16 years ago is the choice of a successor to the Rev. Willem Visser 't Hooft, 64, its omnicompetent general secretary. Last week, meeting in the improbable town of Enugu, Nigeria, the council's 100-member central committee showed its deep concern over the decision by rejecting one officially nominated successor and ordering a search for someone else.

Dismay. The man whom these churchmen were expected to nominate is the Rev. Patrick Rodger of Scot land's Episcopal Church, choice of the council's powerful 16-man executive committee at a meeting held in Tutzing, Germany, last August. There were quiet complaints even then about Rodger, a scholarly theologian who has been on the council's staff, as head of its Faith and Order Department, only since 1961. He is well liked in Western ecumenical circles but virtually unknown to Orthodoxy and the "new churches" of Asia and Africa, which are playing an increasingly important role in the council. Surprised by last August's action were Visser 't Hooft, who was not consulted, and Rodger himself, who was given 24 hours to decide whether he would accept the nomination. He said he would.

Why had the churchmen at Tutzing chosen Rodger? Most council observers believed that the executive committee wanted to rearrange the power structure of the ecumenical movement. The general secretary is technically a servant of the council's 209 member churches, but some clerics felt that Visser 't Hooft runs the council as a private fief. With the little-known and unassertive Rodger in office, the executive committee would clearly have more authority.

Altering the Course. At Enugu, op position to Rodger came from the Rus sian Orthodox representatives, who appreciate Visser 't Hooft's great interest in keeping open the lines of communication between churches on both sides of the Iron Curtain. African and Asian leaders were also disturbed about en trusting the secretaryship to an inexperienced ecumenist. "It is not enough to keep the council on course," explained one "new church" spokesman.

"In these times of change, the course must be altered more than once. Visser 't Hooft is a leader who knows how to adapt to all these new situations." With the meeting hopelessly dead locked, the central committee created a nominating committee to check out new candidates — including, if they wish, Patrick Rodger. Visser 't Hooft, who wants to retire, will stay on until his successor is found.