Federation provides students with network of solidarity
July 7, 2005
By Linda Bloom*
NEW YORK (UMNS) — Christian students were practicing globalization long before that term became a corporate concept.
“It’s not a globalization of greed and of selfishness but a
globalization of solidarity,” said Michael Wallace, an Anglican from New
Zealand and chief executive of the World Student Christian Federation.
That century-old network of solidarity is particularly important today,
he believes, to challenge young people to live out their faith.
“We’re in a climate that encourages young people to be insular,
self-referential and hopeless,” Wallace explained, adding that the World
Student Christian Federation offers “an alternative world view.”
Wallace and Ken Guest, a United Methodist serving as the federation’s
president, spoke about the need to strengthen the student Christian
movement during a June 30 briefing at the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries. They were leaving for Montreal the next day to attend
a meeting of the federation’s North America region.
The Board of Global Ministries has been a longtime supporter of the
World Student Christian Federation, which was organized in 1895 by John
R. Mott, a U.S. Methodist, and Karl Fries of Sweden. Mott, who won the
1946 Nobel Peace Prize, became the federation’s first leader.
As a global community of student Christian movements, the federation
focuses on dialogue and ecumenism as well as issues of social justice
and peace. Headquarters are in Geneva, with regional offices in Hong
Kong; Beirut, Lebanon; Budapest, Hungary; Nairobi, Kenya; and Buenos
Aires, Argentina. Each has a separate staff, budget and program.
National student movements contribute to the financial upkeep.
Wallace, who took office in January, is a third-generation participant
in the World Student Christian Federation and he believes that the
benefits of involvement have not changed much since his grandparents
were active in the 1920s.
“It’s basically the same experience of being challenged and of ‘Sunday
school faith’ falling away and something much stronger taking its
place,” he explained.
The national Christian student movements involved in the federation
“vary wildly” in scale, politics and theology, according to Wallace. The
largest chapter is in Indonesia, with 60,000 members, and the smallest
is in Singapore, with 10 members.
Although the World Student Christian Federation has “a long tradition of
nurturing women’s leadership,” he said, concern arose when no women
were elected as officers during the group’s 2004 assembly.
Now, two women are serving as vice chairpersons, and a global gender
program will be coordinated out of the Africa regional office. The
Asia-Pacific region is hosting an event July 24-31 in the Philippines
addressing violence against women.
A continuing priority for the World Student Christian Federation is
leadership formation. “We have produced many ecumenical leaders, but we
need to produce more,” Wallace explained.
All regional offices work with ecumenical groups in their areas. The
federation also is a member of the World Council of Churches, and the
executive committee will meet in Porte Allegro, Brazil, just before the
WCC assembly there next February. The federation will sponsor four
workshops during the assembly.
Another priority is re-establishing the federation’s work in North
America, according to Guest. “In the United States, we’ve been without
(an ecumenical) student movement for about 30 years,” he said.
The United Methodist Student Movement is an associate member of the
federation, which receives support from the denomination’s campus
ministry programs and Board of Higher Education and Ministry as well as
Global Ministries.
The federation publishes an annual journal, Student World, along with a
book series and twice-yearly newsletter. The general Web site,
www.wscfglobal.org, was under construction in early July, but the some
of the regions have their own Web sites.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio Interview with Michael Wallace
“We are truly ecumenical.”
“We have an alternative world view.”
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