YEARBOOK
2003: CHURCHES IN THE WORLD
Ecclesiology,
Faith and Order
Mission and Ecumenical Education
Interreligious Relations
Just prior to the WCC central committee meeting in August 2002, the Faith and Order Commission celebrated the 75th anniversary of the first world conference on faith and order. This celebration included a series of events and a service at the cathedral of Lausanne involving worship leaders and participants from local churches as well as from the global fellowship. At the central committee meeting, following plenary presentations on ecclesiology and baptism, Faith and Order was asked to prepare a statement on “The Church” for consideration by the WCC’s ninth assembly in 2006, to carry out further work on the ecumenical implications of baptism, and to develop for the ninth assembly a powerful symbolic act in affirmation of baptism.
In 2002, the first of two consultations on “hermeneutics” and “theological anthropology” were held. A consultation on “authority and authoritative teaching”, involving 25 theologians, was convened in Durau,
Worshippers gathered at the cathedral of Lausanne to mark the 75th anniversary of the first world conference on Faith and Order, held in that city in August 1927. The sermon was delivered by His Beatitude Anastasios, Archibshop of Tirana, Dürres and All Albania.
Romania; the results will be published in 2003 and will be fed into the redrafting process of the ecumenical document “The Nature and Purpose of the Church”. In reaction to the circulation of the current draft, some 40 responses to the document have now been received; the drafting group met in August 2002 to continue this work and agreed to meet again in March 2003.
A major meeting of united and uniting churches was held at Driebergen in the Netherlands, and the resulting communiqué has been shared with WCC member churches, Christian world communions and other appropriate bodies. Faith and Order staff met twice in 2002 with the drafting group of the Ecumenical Disabilities Advocacy Network, furthering the development of “An Interim Theological Statement – A Church of/for All”.
Materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2004 were developed at a meeting of Faith and Order with representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The draft text of the revised Ecumenical Prayer Cycle to be published in 2004 is being completed in cooperation with staff and students of Eden Theological Seminary in the USA. In October 2002, a small workshop on liturgy and worship was held under the auspices of Faith and Order in Faverges, France. During 2002, work also proceeded with the Joint Working Group (RCC/WCC), Orthodox colleges, Christian world communions and in regard to studies on ethnic identity, national identity and the search for unity.
MISSION AND ECUMENICAL EDUCATION
The World Council of Churches is actively engaged in preparation of the conference on world mission and evangelism to be held at Athens in May 2005 on the theme “Called in Christ to Be Reconciled and Healing Communities”. Resources are already being organized and published in the WCC journal International Review of Mission, and invitations are being extended to churches, including the Roman Catholic Church as well as Pentecostal and evangelical bodies not belonging to the WCC. Five streams for the conference have been identified: missiology in general, changing identities, healing and reconciling ministry, search for alternative communities, missional and evangelizing churches.
In 2002, regional coordinators of the Urban Rural Mission programme organized a training workshop on capacity-building, planning, implementing and reporting. Members of the WCC Mission and Evangelism team dealing with HIV/AIDS were active in this workshop. In late 2001 and 2002, a new series of “schools of evangelism” began; the first two such schools were conducted in Cuba and Syria. The WCC also participated in the leadership of international conferences and consultations on Bible study and mission (Geneva), the role of women in mission (Bossey), intercontextual relationships in mission (London), multicultural ministries (Bangkok) and witness in secular and post-modern contexts (Brekkum, Germany). Renewed effort was directed at organizing regional events on mission, health and healing.
In the area of education and ecumenical formation, significant meetings have focused on interfaith education, distribution of ecumenical scholarship resources in Africa, Latin America and other regions, as well as the use of the Internet to provide lay educational opportunities. WCC participants engaged European religious educators in state schools, church-related schools and congregations at a conference in Vienna in May 2002. A lay leadership course on peace-building with visits to Cyprus and the Middle East, postponed after the events of 11 September 2001, was held in June 2002.
The year 2002 brought the 52nd and 53rd sessions of the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies at Bossey. Thirteen students representing the intercultural and interconfessional diversity of the world church focused in the spring on the theme “Called To Be God’s Co-Workers: Our Common Environmental Challenge”. The autumn class profited from a “core course on ecumenics”. In June, nine of ten students completed their degree requirements in the master’s programme in ecumenical studies operated jointly with the theological faculty of the university of Geneva; the Ecumenical Institute is preparing for a doctoral programme to be offered with the university of Geneva beginning in 2004.
Among the topics of the Bossey master’s theses submitted in 2002 were: “Grassroots Ecumenism and Poverty Reduction in Zambia”, “Models of Relationship between Church and State and Their Significance for Today”, “Models of Mission: Willingen 1952 to Bangkok 1973”, “The Rest of Creation: An Ecofeminist Theology of the Sabbath for a Creation in Crisis”, “Ecumenical and Inter-religious Dialogue in Ghana: Prospects and Challenges for Promoting Peace and Reconciliation” and “Religious Pluralism and Jesus Christ: A Dialogue Between Proponents of a Revised Christology”. A variety of short courses and seminars also were conducted at the Ecumenical Institute throughout 2002.
In 2002, WCC Publications produced the long-waited second edition of the Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement as well as the 54th volume of the quarterly journal The Ecumenical Review and a variety of resources supporting the work of the Council and the ecumenical movement.
Since the tragedy of 11 September 2001, people are increasingly aware that we live in a world of religious plurality, in which religious and cultural identities are being reasserted. Inter-religious dialogue has been confirmed as an essential ecumenical undertaking, and it is one that requires steady engagement in order to build relationships, understanding and trust. Such dialogue then becomes a solid foundation for common action and reflection in times of crisis.
Participants in an inter-religious consultation visited a Taoist temple during an April 2002 meeting in Hong Kong. The consultlation drew up criteri a for WCC engagement in international multifaith initiatives.
In light of this, the recent WCC study booklet, “Striving Together in Dialogue: A Christian-Muslim Call to Reflection and Action” proved a solid basis for discussion at local and regional levels, particularly in the context of relations between Christians and Muslims in the Arab world. Two Christian-Muslim seminars were held in Iran in February 2002 to debate the impact of globalization on inter-religious relations and to examine the historical and present state of Christian-Muslim relations. An October high-level consultation on “Christians and Muslims in Dialogue and Beyond” emphasized that real change can and will happen in local communities where Christians and Muslims live, pray, worship and work together.
The question of religion and violence was addressed in two different multifaith seminars, one in St Petersburg, Florida, USA, in February 2002, and another at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, in June 2002. The ambivalent function of religions in relation to violence was underlined. The April 2003 issue of the journal The Ecumenical Review features presentations from St Petersburg. Plans are underway regarding continued inter-religious reflection on the topic of religion and violence.
A study process began in 2002, in concert with Faith and Order and the International Council of Christians and Jews, on the inter-relationship of Jewish-Christian dialogue and the churches’ self-understanding.
The need to develop criteria for participation in international multifaith initatives prompted the WCC to call a multifaith consultation in Hong Kong in April 2002. The consultation took note of the growing interest in multifaith approaches to issues of common concern and the proliferation of different international, inter-religious events and activities. The criteria developed by the consultation try to express the wide variety of purposes involved in multifaith work, discuss collaboration with international inter-religious organizations, reflect on questions related to the possibilities for a common religious agenda, and address the establishment of inter-religious councils.
A newly revised edition of Ecumenical Considerations for Dialogue and Relations with People of Other Religions, formerly titled Guidelines for Dialogue, a popular study and action booklet for dialogue at all levels, is being published in several languages and is available from WCC Publications.
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