God, in your grace, transform the world
A report, by Val Ogden, of her visit to the
World Council of Churches Ninth Assembly,
held at Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 14-23 February 2006.
An introduction
I made it to the opening session of the Assembly with thirty seconds to spare. Thanks to Lufthansa cancelling the first leg of my journey, and onward connections suitably up the spout, I eventually pitched up at the vast plenary hall straight off the last of three flights, having trundled a suitcase at high speed, in 32ºC, through the Pontifical University campus, still in travel clothes, clutching a passport and registration form that I was assured would match me with a hotel room somewhere in Porto Alegre that night. Gently steaming, I squeezed into the first vacant seat to hand next to someone who, his Conference tag informed me, was a development worker from Sweden. He shifted his chair away a fraction, and who could blame him. ‘Ah,’ he said, with a benevolent smile. ‘I think just now is your arriving?’
In some ways that pace, set on arrival, continued throughout the 10 days of the Assembly. I had gone, supported by the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) and the Methodist Church in Britain’s Formation in World Mission programme (FiWM), as a mutirão (workshop) participant, to do four things.
(i) to run a mutirão on Ecumenical Formation in Mission
(ii) to participate in the extensive mutirão programme running alongside the Assembly
(iii) to network on behalf of the new Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies (SOCMS)
(iv) to update my knowledge of the WCC and the wider ecumenical movement in the 21st century
I think all four aims were achieved, and more besides.
It was an extraordinary opportunity to meet and engage with a huge cross-section of God’s church worldwide. Four thousand participants in all came to the Assembly, not all as official delegates by any means, but all committed to the ecumenical movement, this event and their part in it. This report cannot hope to give a complete picture of the Assembly. For that, there is ample information, especially concerning statistics and official decisions, on the Assembly website, or that of the World Council of Churches itself. Both sites are well worth a visit.
What this piece sets out to do is (a) report back on how the four aspirations above were met, and (b) offer some helpful connections, I hope, between the experience I was so privileged to have personally and how that might, in some small way, feed into the (re)thinking and (re)shaping of SOCMS, USPG and FiWM as we try to be faithful and visionary in living the Gospel and being partners in God’s mission.
Preparation
In preparing for the Assembly, I read:
I spoke to or had e-mail briefings from
I watched City of God on DVD, a powerful movie about a young photographer’s life in Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious slum.
I learned (very) basic Brazilian Portuguese
Inevitably, I felt there was a great deal more preparation that could have been done. That said, I saw nothing of Brazil that I felt unprepared for, mainly because I saw nothing of Brazil. The Conference experience is always somewhat sanitised and detached; this one taking place in a highly efficient, squeaky clean, superbly resourced Pontifical University campus, with participants whisked back and forth to their hotels in air conditioned coaches. And, of course, when sisters and brothers from widely differing parts of the worldwide church meet each other on such ‘neutral’ rather than ‘home’ territory, it is a very different kind of meeting and experience that they have. Not one to be dismissed, but never to be regarded as anything like authentic. The WCC should never forget that.
Programme
The table below records the personal programme of events that I chose to attend from the Assembly’s huge range of options. At some points, mutirão participants were part of the main Assembly, eg. for general plenaries, or as observers in debates, if we so wished. At other times, we were pursuing a separate programme of bible studies and workshops from an extensive menu. Every day I was faced with the impossible choice of what not to go to. When the programme refers to ‘networking,’ this indicates time spent in significant conversations with people about the work of SOCMS or mission education in general. Contacts made or renewed included those from the Theological College of Lanka, Pacific Theological College, Fiji, and the Myanmar Institute of Theology, to name three at random. Time and again, conversations were easy to strike up because so many people have a Selly Oak connection and speak of time spent there with gratitude and affection. I was challenged yet again to consider how this precious heritage can be built on effectively. Selly Oak must never be our straightjacket, but it can certainly be our springboard.
Personal timetable
14/06 Opening plenary, opening worship
15/06 Worship. Bible study. Mutirão preparation with Garland Pierce.
Lunch with USPG missionary Richard Fermer. Deliver mutirão on Ecumenical
Formation. Plenary: General Secretary's report.
Rehearsal with Anglican choir
16/06 Worship. Bible study. Ecumenical conversation: Emerging forms of
Ecumenism (1), Networking. Mutirão; Wider ecumenism, promise or threat?
Mutiãro: HIV & AIDS, leadership roles for pastors, ministers and priests
Prayer.
17/06 Worship, Bible study, visit of President Lula, Ecumenical conversation (2)
as above, Mutirão: Commitment to visible unity and loyalty to own Church
traditions. Mutirão: Spirituality and global trade. Anglican Evening prayer
with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
18/06 Worship. Bible study. Ecumenical Conversation (3) as above. Networking.
Mutirão: Globalisation and militarism. Methodist Confessional gathering
Prayer
19/06 Worship and lunch with host churches. Latin American Plenary.
Dinner and celebration with Latin American churches; open air
concert
20/06 Worship. Bible study. Plenary: Church unity. Networking.
Mutirão; Orthodoxy and the unity of the church.
Mutirão; More money for God - fundraising.
Prayer
21/06 Worship. Bible study. Plenary: God, in your grace. Networking.
Mutirão; Dialogue for peaceful change
Mutirão; How to become a corruption free church
Mutirão; E-learning communities - new ways of being ecumenical
Prayer
22/06 Worship. Bible study. Mutirão; Global, contextual songs.
Networking
Decision plenaries (observer)
Prayer
23/06 Worship. Decision plenaries (observer). Networking.
Mutirão; How beautiful do human beings have to be for God to be mindful
of them?
Closing worship
(i) Mutirão on Ecumenical Formation in Mission
About fifty people representing a good mix of regions and churches attended this workshop led by myself and Revd Garland Pierce who works in Education Ministries with the National Council of Churches in the US. He was also much involved in the Young Ecumenists programme running through the Assembly. We wanted to create an opportunity for people to revisit and analyse their formation as disciples of Christ, their formation denominationally and/or ecumenically and make some assessment of how that had influenced their understanding of mission. We used images from The Christ We Share pack and a range of mission definitions, on small laminated cards for people to choose from and discuss. The conversation then took shape around four key questions:
I have to say, the conversation buzzed and ninety minutes simply flew by. With hindsight, I wish I had asked for participants’ permission to tape the group responses for further reflection, but only have notes. Particularly memorable were a number of testimonies; of an ordained woman from West Africa, raised in the shadow of a mission hospital, and struggling in adulthood with the legacy of her childhood ‘missionary formation’ while at the same time wanting her congregation to be ‘formed for mission’ now in very new ways. Of a former Catholic priest from Northern Ireland who came to Brazil as a missionary thirty years before, left the priesthood to marry a Brazilian woman and raise a family, and described his personal, ecumenical journey from ‘rigidity’ to ‘openness’ as ‘truly miraculous.’ And of a seminary professor, who finds no value in ‘mission’ as a concept in academia or in church life anymore, loaded and flawed as it is, and pleaded for new vocabulary. ‘Anything but mission!’ he implored.
On evaluation forms, the workshop was commended for its practical and participatory nature, stimulating discussion questions, and the quality of the resources used. The Christ We Share
pack was much sought after. It made me wonder what priority the Methodist Church and USPG might give in the future to funding and producing other distinctive, quality resources for use in ecumenical mission education? My own evaluation of the workshop concludes that it would have been a much more thorough piece of work had we met with the same group of people on, say, three occasions, to honour the narratives being shared and work with them more intensively. The Assembly format for the official Ecumenical Conversations worked this way, with the same enablers and participants tackling the same theme over three sessions. Assembly organisers had obviously wanted to include as many mutirão workshops as possible in the programme, but in their desire to create many spaces and include all comers, they possibly sacrificed a more sacred kind of space which is less pressurised, more hospitable, and likely to bear better fruit.
(ii) The Mutirão Programme in general
The official description of what the Mutirão programme set out to achieve, according to the Assembly website is, to my mind, rather vague and woolly.
The Mutirão was open to any person, congregation or organization wishing to accompany the Assembly in a spirit of ecumenical sharing, celebration and formation.
What did the Mutirão offer the Assembly?
The Mutirão offered workshops and seminars, cultural events and exhibits to all participants in the Assembly. It provided a space for home groups to meet. It provided an opportunity to deepen substantive reflections on the theme of the Assembly and the plenaries presented in the first half of the event. Delegates were encouraged to participate in the Mutirão offerings and to bring these reflections into the decision-making process.
As an integral part of the Assembly, the workshop offerings in the Mutirão were intended to supplement and accompany the Assembly deliberations. Assembly insights and deliberations helped guide the work of the many churches and ecumenical organizations which participated in the Mutirão.
A constant talking point was whether the interplay envisaged between mutirão and mainstream Assembly was achieved at all, and I guess the jury is still out on that one. In their own right, however, many of the workshops were a great success, exposing participants to a wealth of new material, or creating forums to engage around common issues with others from different regional and confessional perspectives. The United College of the Ascension has long valued the ‘global classroom’ and SOCMS will seek to recreate it. The mutirão workshops proved to be very effective global classrooms indeed. This report now describes and reviews two of the mutirão events I attended, and I would be happy to share materials and reflections about others, should this be requested.
(a) Dialogue for peaceful change (DPC) – pathways to overcome division
Workshops tapping into the energies of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence were plentiful. This one was hosted skillfully by OIKOSNET, a movement based in Belgium, clearly with access to US money, whose strapline reads; There is no alternative to dialogue. Wary of turning this report into a website cut and paste exercise, I nevertheless think this extract from the Oikosnet web material makes for a helpful introduction, though some of the jargon is mildly irritating.
PORTFOLIO OF GLOBAL PROGRAMMES
1. For the coming years Oikosnet identifies and embraces future Leadership Resource Development programmes (GLRD) as a primary programmatic focus and emphasis (to be evaluated after five years).
Oikosnet sees its contribution to and role for the wider Ecumenical movement as a global leadership resource development agency.
Oikosnet offers to the WCC, to churches, donor agencies and other partners from civil society an ongoing dialogue about key issues for future Leadership Resource Development programmes and invites them to send especially younger and emerging leaders to these programmes.
Building on a proven track record (e.g. CLLTs) in this field, Oikosnet will develop and carry out a coordinated set of respective programme activities, including the following key elements:.
2. Realizing the potential of the communication model developed in the pilot phase of its ongoing Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC) project, Oikosnet will in 2007 carry out a global leadership development programme of six training courses in Dialogue for Peaceful Change (Middle East / Africa / Latin America / South East Asia (Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) / South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) / Euro-American (-Caribbean).
3. Starting in 2008, Oikosnet will carry out one Global Leadership Resource Development programme every other year. The nature and focus as well as the leadership team of the 2008 programme will be selected in 2006. Criteria for participation, venue, screening procedures and the programme to be in place at least one year before the event (because of visa, funding, etc.).
Oikosnet is developing a multi-year work plan and designing a structured and coordinated procedure for carrying out these activities.
4. Oikosnet sees – for its own constituencies as well as in a wider context – the need to foster a culture of Communication and Collaboration.
Oikosnet will create a Communication Platform for its member centres and partners (set up a sharepoint website for global communication, exchange and learning)
Oikosnet centres must be able to communicate and collaborate directly with each other, thus fostering a culture of communication and a sense of being part of a global network.
Oikosnet will also develop a virtual learning space (the Oikosnet Virtual Academy).
The mutirão set out to give a taster of how the DPC project works, with concrete examples of its ‘success’ being shared by facilitators who have worked with groups from Chile, among Ayta communities in the Philippines, and among Christians and Muslims in Bethlehem. ‘What drives conflict?’ we were asked. ‘What drives peace?’ And very soon, whiteboards, flipcharts and powerpoint presentations were overflowing with the kind of mapping, graphs, charts and wordplay familiar to anyone who has ever attended courses on conflict resolution. FEARS drive conflict, we were told:
F = freedom E = Economics A = Alienation R = Rivalry S = Scapegoating
Conflict reduction requires PREVENTION-INTERVENTION-MEDIATION-TRANSFORMATION.
And so on.
It would be easy to be just a little cynical and sceptical about the neat formulations and packages, but testimonies from real work in the regions proved powerful. Personally I believe this kind of process and training, when it is culturally sensitive and not synthetically imposed, can be transformative and a work of the Spirit. I was fascinated to pick up on some of Oikosnet’s language in the light of what we are aiming to do through SOCMS, Queens and through the sponsoring bodies in response to partner church priorities. The commitment to ‘future Leadership Resource Development programmes… thus fostering a culture of communication and a sense of being part of a global network..’ sounded awfully familiar! Again and again I was challenged to think about what realistic connections we can make with partners whose vision and values we share. And what might a DPC process offer to our Communion and Connexion as they deal with divisions and look for resolutions? What happens when clergy or other church leaders in conflict truly face their FEARS? I felt this workshop was for me both revision and revitalising and I shall continue to draw on its insights.
(b) How beautiful do humans have to be for God to be mindful of them?
If a workshop on Dialogue for Peaceful Change was fairly predictable WCC fare, the mutirão on beauty was a great surprise to me. Emerging out of WCC Faith and Order studies on anthropology, the mutirão key speaker was Dr Niveo Steffen, one of Brazil’s leading plastic surgeons. He spoke, as a widely acclaimed medical professional and as a practising Catholic, about the 20% of 14-24 year olds in Brazil, many of them from poor communities, who request cosmetic surgery each year in ever relentless pursuit of the body beautiful, a desire fuelled mercilessly by Brazil’s beach culture. ‘We simply don’t know the affect of all this on our society,’ he admitted. We were told that in 2004, 15% of all Brazilian 14-18 year olds underwent some kind of reconstructive or reparative surgery, considered necessary, eg. after accidents or burns. But a further 11% of all Brazilian 14-18 year olds requested and underwent some form of estetic (cosmetic) surgery, and out of that cohort, 9% requested reshaping of the ears and 11% of the nose. Dr Steffen spoke of the very careful evaluation that needs to be done when 14-18 year olds request cosmetic surgery, not least from his own faith perspective, and yet he was prepared to recognise within that request, the anthropological ‘truth’ that ‘each race has its way of looking at beauty and, if we are honest, most of us want to conform to the “medium” of that group.’ The theological ‘truth’ that we are all made in God’s image, even when that image is distorted or unconventional, is not one that convinces Brazilian adolescents, he concluded.
It was fascinating stuff. It also generated more fiery passion than any other mutirão I attended. At the end of Dr Steffen’s presentation, I glanced at the participants to my left and to my right, realising that I had chosen to sit - though not intentionally - slap bang in the centre block of the lecture hall. On the left were a group of, by anyone’s perception, extraordinarily ‘glamorous’ (politically correct terminology is going to be a nightmare here…) Brazilian women, in ‘stunning’, fashion-statement clothes, designer sunglasses and Gucci handbags. I now recalled, on entering the lecture theatre, that I had noticed this group talking animatedly to Dr Steffen, laughing and exchanging welcome kisses. They had to be former patients, I concluded. This turned out to be correct. To my right, in marked contrast, were a group of women dressed much more ‘basically’ and ‘unpretentiously’ in, cotton t-shirts; variously sloganed, loose skirts or baggy trousers, flat sandals, and with not a speck of lipstick or nail polish between them. They’re likely to give Dr Steffen a run for his money, I thought. And they did.
It was a robust exchange of views, an all too brief summary of which is given here, from my notes of the event. The group to my right accused the speaker of completely missing the point; that notions of beauty become a ‘political’ issue in our highly globalised world and that his profession only buys into the oppression of women, especially younger girls, and exploits their vulnerability. They questioned the kind of Catholic faith that he purported to live by, accusing him of acting out a manipulative theology of beauty where diversity and difference is no longer valued, and ultimately of making a great deal of money out of the vulnerable. The group to my left leapt to Dr Steffen’s defence. They all, in their own lives, had reason to be grateful to him for some form of reparative or corrective surgery, undergone of their own free will. Many women have no desire to be seen as ‘different’ or ‘deformed,’ they argued. The desire to ‘conform’ and be accepted is healthy and natural. God made us with bodies that we should make the best of. If the gifts and skills of plastic surgeons can remove the misery that people trapped in damaged or unattractive bodies feel, why will God not honour that? Ninety minutes was no way long enough.
Did I have a view? (At the risk of being too flippant, I have to say that as my head clocked from side to side, trying to follow the ping-pong action of the debate and retain some sense of balance, I became quite confused about whether I should give Dr Steffen a good slap or book in with him for some liposuction).
But flippancy will not suffice, because somewhere in this extraordinary exchange I felt there was a real yearning after truth; a real desire to reclaim notions of beauty, and an absolute goldmine of theology and biblical material to be tapped which, sadly to my mind, we didn’t even start to tackle. I am prompted now to investigate much more thoroughly the increasing amount of contemporary literature on theology, anthropology and beauty, and I hope very much that the WCC will continue to mine this rich seam to inform and guide our churches, because these issues maim all our societies
Without beauty, without majesty (we saw him),
no looks to attract our eyes;
a thing despised and rejected by mortals
a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering,
a man to make people screen their faces;
he was despised and we took no account of him.
And yet ours were the sufferings he bore,
ours the sorrows he carried. (Isaiah 52)
(iii) Networking on behalf of the new Selly Oak Centre for Mission Studies (SOCMS)
I took 1000 publicity cards on behalf of SOCMS and distributed all but 170. I targeted the Anglican, Methodist and United Church confessional gatherings particularly. Martin Conway, former President of the Selly Oak Federation and an Assembly translator volunteered to assist with personal rather than random distribution and I was grateful to him. That being said, as the week progressed, the Assembly was slowly submerged under a sea of pamphlets and promotional material from a myriad of organisations with the same idea in mind…
I also distributed a limited amount of USPG material; copies of Transmission, the latest Lent course etc. I assumed that, from the ‘other side’ our official Methodist delegates were doing the equivalent! My notebook records 76 useful e-mail contacts and jottings from 18 ‘significant’ conversations. These included, to name just three, Mr Abraham Chikasa, Zambian Council of Churches (and an old friend, so very easy networking), the Revd Dr Magali da Cunha (Methodist Seminary, Sao Paulo), and Canon Janice Price, Churches Commission on Mission. Many more conversations turned themselves around to Selly Oak, quite easily, and there was great interest in a new Centre for Mission Studies. ‘Will there be scholarships?’ was a frequent question.
It is accurate, I feel, to identify five common threads that ran through the networking conversations and on which I shall continue to reflect.
1 the tension between or complementary nature of denominational and ecumenical formation
2 the growing and innovative range of courses in theology and mission in the global South
3 the ongoing desire to study in Britain and be exposed to British life
4 the stress and despair generated by church politics
5 the joyful commitment to evangelistic outreach and church growth
Sometimes, the priorities raised in these conversations and those presented by the Assembly plenaries did not seem to have any easy meeting point. A comment overheard at the end of one of the decision plenaries has stayed with me; referring to an eloquent speech made by a senior clergyman about interfaith understanding. As he walked back to his seat from the microphone, the man behind me whispered to his neighbour ‘Of course, they say that here, but when they’re back home next week, nothing will change.’
(iv) Updating my knowledge of the WCC and the wider ecumenical movement in the 21st
century
Having studied Ecumenics formally over 14 years ago, I was glad to experience a WCC Assembly for the first time, and a 21st century one at that. Again, choosing what to comment on out of a vast selection of material, I share some thoughts on (a) the hosting Latin American churches and the WCC, (b) the formal ecumenical conversation I took part in, and (c) the changing nature of the ecumenical movement.
(a) Conselho Latino-Americano de Igrejas (CLAI)
All participants at the 9th Assembly were greeted by the Latin American Council of Churches in a letter which shared insights that churches in the region hoped would underpin the Council’s work. They said:
I found this ‘We have learned…’ litany to be the most powerful piece of writing I picked up during the whole Assembly. What would the British churches have written to the rest of the world, I mused, should we have been hosting the WCC in 2006? We have learned….what? My knowledge of Latin America is scant. This was my first visit. I have absorbed theologies of liberation largely through the filter of British academia. What impressed me so much was the profound confidence (which is not at all the same as arrogance) of the Latin American churches in hosting the Assembly; able to say and demonstrate that ‘We have a gospel to proclaim. It is a gospel shaped by our complex history, lived out in our challenging circumstances, and one the WCC needs to learn from too.’ Brazil’s hospitality was commendable. We were fed, watered and cared for very well. More profound was the holistic hospitality of the Latin American churches who found a way of saying that when you stay with us and share with us, your very soul and your very faith will be fed also. That ecumenical challenge has really hit me afresh since the Assembly. How can one part of the oikoumene truly feed another?
(b) Ecumenical conversation: Emerging forms of ecumenism
We met three times over the ten days, under the firm hand of H.G. Bishop Yeznik Petrosyan, Armenian Apostolic Church, and received contributions from the Revd Dr Odair Mateus Pedroso, WARC, Ms Linda Hartke, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Revd Dr Herman Shastri, Council of Churches of Malaysia, and the Revd Prof Emmanuel Clapsis, Holy Cross School of Orthodox Theology, Boston, US. The aim of the conversations was summarised as follows;
Ecumenical Conversations provide a space for delegates to share their experiences in addressing key concerns for the future of the churches and their common witness and action. How do the churches respond, individually and ecumenically, to the diverse and rapidly changing realities of the world? What are the main concerns today that require action by the churches together because they challenge the very being of the church, tear people apart and set them against each other, but also because they urge the churches to be faithful to the call to become and to be one in Christ so that the world may believe (John 17:21)? What are the issues that are of vital importance for children and youth because they are crucial for their own future and for the lives of generations to come? All who participate are invited to share their concerns and insights, being fully responsible both to their churches and people at home and to the common calling in Christ. In dialogue, the Ecumenical Conversations will become an exciting opportunity for addressing together the prevailing dynamics and trends of today’s world and discerning the signs of the times in the light of faith.
I have to express disappointment that, even over the three days, the conversation I took part in failed to exude the sense of vitality and urgency alluded to here. My impression was of theological division, particularly orthodox/protestant glossed over and of giant questions being thrown out without any sensible process being put in place to retrieve them and give them adequate attention. The conversations were, without doubt, the most frustrating part of the Assembly for me and I am still considering how to redeem the experience and do something positive with it. I am grateful however to one truly inspirational speaker, the Revd Jose Norberto Saracco, who spoke very eloquently and movingly at one point in the conversation. I was able to take down his words verbatim and record them gladly.
We belong to the same church if you too are at the foot of the cross and if your heart beats in time with my heart.
The churches of Latin America have had to develop ecumenical simplicity. Millions of Christians have no understanding of our divisions.
Why don’t we give the Spirit a chance? Oceans of ink and mountains of paper have brought us as far as we can go. Spirit-filled churches and spirit-filled lives are all that’s needed now.
It was worth going to the conversation for this.
(c) The changing nature of the ecumenical movement.
My apologies if you have already visited www.rethinkingmission.org.uk where my reflections on the changing nature of the ecumenical movement already appear. For the unity of this report, however, I include some of the same material. In ‘Called to be the one church’ the WCC declares:
12’. …churches have not always acknowledged their mutual responsibility to one another, and have not always recognized the need to give account to one another of their faith, life, and witness, as well as to articulate the factors that keep them apart.
13. Therefore, the ninth assembly calls upon the World Council of Churches to continue to facilitate deep conversations among various churches. We also invite all of our churches to engage in the hard task of giving a candid account of the relation of their own faith and order to the faith and order of other churches. Each church is asked to articulate the judgments that shape, and even qualify, its relationship to the others. The honest sharing of commonalities, divergences, and differences will help all churches to pursue the things that make for peace and build up the common life. It is time now to take concrete steps.’
Mutual responsibility, deep conversations and honest steps. This kind of language was echoed often and with urgency and sometimes frustration by young ecumenists taking part in the ‘Transforming Ecumenism’ mutirão which ran alongside the official Ecumenical Conversations of the Assembly. One group in particular spoke persuasively and animatedly about their experience of forming a web community dedicated to ecumenical formation, through which they could meet each other virtually before Assembly and plan their participation. Coordinator Adelle Halliday, whom I met in person, describes the experience in her own words.
We are a group of about 20 young adults, representing every region of the world. We are teachers, pastors, theologians, missologists, students, and lay leaders. We are all young adults, and we are all deeply committed to the ecumenical movement. We are from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Armenia, Canada, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Greece, Kenya, Norway, Palestine, Samoa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad, the United States, and Zimbabwe. In our Young Ecumenists Group, we are building on each other’s strengths and are striving to learn from one another in our ecumenical encounters. We are all young adults – our average age is 28 – and I believe that all of us in our own ways have already made tangible contributions to the ecumenical movement. Some of us have served on commissions of the World Council of Churches, many of us work for national churches or ecumenical organizations, some are studying ecumenism and missiology, some are involved in local ecumenical projects, and all of us are impacting this current assembly.
‘Aren’t ecumenical web conversations a bit like Ezekiel’s ‘dry bones?’ mused an older man, somewhat unconvinced. ‘Surely they can’t be classed as “deep” conversation?’ Young ecumenists seemed to think they were. They felt they had encountered each other and discussed candidly common and uncommon issues in faith and church life from their very differing traditions and regions. They felt they had established and maintained a ‘covenant’ with one another in which they promised to research carefully about and prepare and pray for the Assembly. They felt they had been able to do this through the web in a way that was affordable, and accessible (on the whole), and that this had heightened the expectation and exhilaration of actually meeting each other at the Assembly, when the dry bones became enfleshed in real persons, to their great delight. Adelle reflected:
In some ways, our Young Ecumenists Group is an experimental model within the ecumenical movement; we are considering how we can use e-learning technologies to build faith-based collaborative communities of learning; and how a ‘blended’ community that integrates online learning and face-to-face meetings might be replicated in the future.
There is no doubt that the use of new technologies and the possibility of creating web communities and virtual gatherings present a myriad of communication options which ongoing discussions about reconfiguring the ecumenical movement need to address. The possibilities for global networking are already vast, but in a way, that is nothing new. The global network that is the ecumenical movement has always been far larger than the WCC. The WCC’s challenge now must be to discern how best it can continue to make crucial connections and emphasise critical priorities for churches in a world which has the possibility of creating spaces for ecumenical conversation in ways that could never have been envisaged at Amsterdam. The end of an era? Or the transforming grace of God still at work in the journey ‘towards maintaining the coherence of the one ecumenical movement in its diverse manifestations?’ I certainly want to believe in the latter.
Conclusion
I am deeply grateful to the Methodist Formation in World Mission Programme,
through the Revd Gary Hall, and USPG, through its General Secretary, Bishop Michael Doe, for their encouragement, funding and support to attend this Assembly. Thank you. This report ends appropriately with prayer, in the form of the hymn by Shirley Erena Murray that became the Assembly’s theme song. It would be wonderful to think that its petition could one day be realized through us all.
Love is your way, love is your nature, blessing each creature, lighting each day;
Grace is your sign, gift of forgiveness, chalice that changes water to wine.
Pathways we choose, undeserved freedom, earth as our kingdom still we abuse;
Much we have done, gross human error, misuse of power darkens the sun.
Terror and tears, wounds without healing, hearts without feeling mirror our fears;
Life without trust, greed and high prices, conflict and crisis grind us to dust.
Let us stand still, look at each other, sister and brother thwarting your will;
Teach us good care, grace to seek pardon, reclaim your garden, riches to share
God in your grace, God in your mercy, turn us to you to transform the world,
Turn us to you to transform the world.
Val Ogden
April 2006
v.ogden@bham.ac.uk