| Upon the adoption of the policy statement "The Canadian Council of Churches as Forum" (cf. previous document), two members of the Orthodox Church in America who are delegates to the CCC reported back to their Archdiocese at its 1996 Assembly. Their enthusiastic report, excerpted below, testifies to the direct influence which the structural changes in the CCC could have on Orthodox participation. |
1) Official actions in the new model CCC: ECUMENISM AS FORUM
The most important development in the CCC during the past three years is the change in the Basis, or definition, of the ecumenical agenda to a model of "Forum". In "Forum", each member church is accountable, and responsible for the doctrines, views, and priorities for action which its delegates bring to the discussions and votes of the ecumenical body; common programmes, actions, or statements of the CCC then become those matters on which substantial agreement can be reached, and churches have in each case the choice to opt in or opt out. This means that delegates must be able, and empowered to speak with the authoritative voice of their church. This new definition is a revolutionary change for ecumenism: where the former goal or agenda was to discover (or worse, to "create") a common ecclesiology which would make possible the reunion of all Christians, the new agenda makes Christians responsible witnesses for the Communion in which they truly encounter Christ; the duty of every delegate is now to bring that witness boldly to the discussions, and then also to listen -- lovingly, humbly, respectfully -- to the witness of fellow Christians in order to hear what truth can be learned from their grasp of salvation. In the old agenda, the central body defined and set common programmes for all the members; in the new Forum agenda, the churches themselves set the priorities. In some ways, this new move is back to square one -- ecumenism becomes a group of churches meeting together to get to know each other, maybe for the first time -- but this is not retrogressive; in fact, it is a maturation of the ecumenical project.
We needed to explain this context in some detail, because it is all-important for understanding the significance of the activities of the OCA delegates to the CCC during the past three years. The shift to the "Forum" model is an historic turning-point for the role of orthodoxy in ecumenical dialogue. Where in the past Orthodox often were obliged to play the role of conservative critics "Putting on the brakes," in Forum the Orthodox witness is recognized -- and valued -- as a very authentic voice which emphasizes the centrality of Faith as the key ecumenical issue. The Orthodox are now not perceived by other churches in the dialogue as slightly exotic, stubborn traditionalists but rather as strong spokespeople for Traditional Christianity, and hence as major, not marginal, voices in Forum.
Another key development at the CCC which has enhanced this new recognition of Orthodoxy is that during the past two years, the Orthodox delegates from various jurisdictions -- including Oriental and Chalcedonian Orthodox, Orthodox of many ethnic backgrounds -- have decided to make their responses to issues in a single Orthodox voice, not as five or six "competing" churches. This has been of great benefit for the non-Orthodox churches because it revealed to them the fundamental unity and solidity of Orthodox Faith rather than a superficial and inaccurate emphasis on a splintered institution; in fact our co-operative actions have brought home this very same point to us, the pan-Orthodox delegates; almost to our astonishment, we find ourselves revitalized when we caucus on issues of key theological and ecclesiological importance by our ability, time after time, to come up with very strong common statements.
A practical application of these developments was seen at the May, 1996 meeting of the Governing Board of the CCC. The commission on Faith and Witness presented to the delegates who constitute the Board a statement on Euthanasia for official approval. In the old agenda, the Board would simply have voted to accept the statement and released it at once as the voice of the CCC; in the new Forum agenda, the Board’s (unanimous) approval meant that each delegate now had to take the statement back to the magisterial body of their home church to get authentic approval. For the Orthodox, this of course meant submitting the statement to our six respective bishops for endorsement; but the "unofficial pan-Orthodox caucus" of delegates chose a bold step: we drafted one single letter, signed by all of us, which was submitted in duplicate to each of the bishops.
The climax of these developments of the past three years can be seen in the action of the CCC Governing Board which created an ad hoc committee to develop the first principles of an agenda for a Forum model; the Board unanimously requested that an Orthodox delegate (Schneider) be one of the five members chosen to carry out this key defining task, which will influence the future course of Canadian ecumenical action. There was general agreement that the ICA should take on this role, as the Orthodox group most representative of the local culture. The work of this committee is still ongoing, but it has already produced a key set of questions about principles, requesting each member church to provide an authentic, magisterial response. To date, the only official response to arrive is that of Bishop Seraphim of Ottowa and All Canada, speaking on behalf of the OCA.1 This response has been warmly appreciated, and several other Orthodox jurisdictions are considering using it as a model.
In addition to these fundamental faith and ecclesiology issues, the CCC also addresses itself to the Promotion of Christian common responses and actions on issues of Justice and Peace, and here as well the Orthodox delegates cooperate fully (within the boundaries imposed by the duty to witness the Orthodox Tradition). An OCA delegate (Ignatieff) has been an active participant in this aspect of the CCC programme, and was until recently a member of Operation Ploughshares, the interchurch coalition on peaceful solutions. The most recent report of this project detailed its important advocacy in matters of violent conflict, land mine abolition monitoring of arms sales, and sizes of military forces. Other important Justice and Peace activities of the past three years have concerned Human Rights, nuclear abolition, and world development (especially in Sudan, Cuba, and the Middle East); eventually, the CCC may be seeking consultative NCO status with the United nations, freeing it from being an adjunct body under the World Council of churches.
2) The official OCA voice in ecumenical study-situations
The most important event of this type during the past triennium was the November, 1995 colloquium on "Gospel and Culture" held at the University of Toronto (sponsored by the CCC as a preliminary Canadian stage in a world-wide dialogue of the World Council of Churches). The OCA was asked to present one of the Official study-papers for this meeting. Preparing this report taught us how absolutely fundamental an issue "Gospel and Culture" is for Orthodoxy. This is especially true for the OCA, given its missionary history and its mandate to be the local autocephalous church; and in practical terms it is especially problematical for the Archdiocese of Canada, given our national sociology of multiculturalism and the diverse range of ethnic and cultural issues which characterize such a large number of our parishes.
Another event of very great ecumenical impact can be discussed under this heading. As part of its move toward Forum, the CCC Governing Board decided that at each meeting, one of the member churches would be given a full session to self-present for the benefit of the other member churches -- putting into action the above-mentioned "getting-to-know-each-other" fundamental first step. Another change in the same spirit was that prayer would not use amorphous nondescript "universalist" texts, but would rather follow the authentic offices and texts for Prayer Services used by the member churches when they are at home, each church taking a turn. We felt that the best possible introduction to Orthodoxy was not to lecture but to help others experience and grasp as fully as possible the Church at Prayer, so at the November 1995 meeting of the Board we celebrated Great Vespers with Litya and the Blessing of 5 loaves. The experience was astonishing in its quality, of unity, climaxing when all present sought and received the final blessing. The event also furthered the "pan-Orthodox ecumenism" which is developing through participation in the CCC, since (with Bishop Seraphim’s blessing) Fr. Nicholas was supported by fellow priests from the Greek Archdiocese and Armenian Apostolic Church and by Deacon Morcos from the Coptic church.
Finally, the bond of pan-Orthodox unity in action forged at the CCC has led to unofficial exchanges of dialogue and study between Orthodox parishes in the Greater Toronto region; this may justly be called "ecumenical" because it includes both Oriental and "Chalcedonian" churches, and is helping to bring to the attention of the faithful the current developments which seem to be leading toward restoration of communion.
Editor’s note