Early memories of the Ecumenical Centre: 1978

You were supposed to wait until it reached the door of your office before getting out to get your cup. My office was on the fourth floor of Lac, at the end of the corridor, so I was about the last to get served. My hunch is that this coffee service was a relic of the famous "Dutch mafia" from the time of Dr Visser 't Hooft, because it was something very common in the Netherlands. 

Not only the coffee, by the way. Also the "ecumenical tea" in the afternoon, at half past three. But that was served in the cafeteria. The tea was usually not to write home about, but it was a good moment to meet colleagues. And talking abour Dr Visser 't Hooft, who was retired by then, he had an office in the building, and during tea he would sit there every afternoon, always at the same table. We, the Dutch colleagues, would address him affectionately as “domineem,” the word we use to call our pastor.

I came to work with the WCC (at the Africa Desk in CICARWS) from Madagascar, where I had served in the church for 13 years, often in the bush visiting local churches and development projects. On the ground, in direct touch with the life of the people and the church. The first six months or so I could not imagine how one could serve the same cause, sitting at a desk on the fourth floor of the Ecumenical Centre, watching the Jura mountains. All I wanted was to go back to the field. Well, at least, there was no lack of that. I travelled so much for the Africa Desk that after a year, going down to tea in the cafeteria, someone asked me if I was a visitor.

One of the good things of "the old days" was the Ecumenical Centre Staff Association. In the summer the association organized barbecues on the terrace of the cafeteria, and at least once a year, a cabaret in the conference hall. I remember Philip Potter playing the bank director in a sketch on the boycott of the Swiss banks investing in apartheid South Africa. The bank director had no idea what the WCC was all about. When he was told that it was an organization of the churches Philip, leaving the script for what it was, said: “Oh I see, well you know, we at the bank, we also do in savings…”

When I arrived, the WCC had a staff of about 360. Besides the Lutheran World Federation with about 100, there were several smaller ecumenical organizations like the Conference of European Churches, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, World Student Christian Federation, Internship in Mission. There were hardly any other tenants.  The heart of the world church was beating in the corridors of the Ecumenical Centre. Every day you would hear news, come across visitors from anywhere in the world. The Ecumenical Centre was the world church in a nutshell.