Faith and Order Conference Determined Not to Turn Back on Tough Issues of Unity
Episcopal News Service. September 17, 1993 [93165]
Is the movement for church unity running out of steam? Have the discussions become so academic that they are losing any practical implications? Why is it taking so long to take the obvious next step, mutual recognition of baptism?
Those were a few of the questions on the minds of the 200 official delegates from Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic churches to the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order as they prepared to wrestle with the realities of a radically altered world -- and some serious doubts about the commitment of the churches to the quest for church unity.
Gathering August 3-15 in Santiago de Compostela, a city that for almost a thousand years has been a destination of pilgrims to the tomb of St. James the Apostle, some of the best theological minds of the ecumenical movement celebrated the advances since the last Faith and Order meeting 30 years ago but were shaken by predictions that the movement for church unity was losing its way.
"It is within the context of a world in turmoil and a fragile ecumenical movement, lacking direction, that we must consider the task of this conference," Dr. Mary Tanner, general secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity and moderator of the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC, warned in her opening address. While the full participation by Roman Catholics and the sharp increases in representation by women and Third World theologians "gives a greater wholeness to our gathering," there is "growing disillusionment" with "official ecumenism in the ecumenical movement," she said.
Eight regional consultations prior to the conference uncovered specific examples of the disillusionment. Among the issues cited were competitive evangelism and anguish at the decision of Anglicans to ordain women to the priesthood and episcopate. She said it was "unnerving" that some were saying that "the search for visible unity itself is misplaced and unattainable."
"Whatever we say must speak to the realities of our world and the realities of this ecumenical scene," Tanner said, ending her address, asking a question that would haunt the 10-day meeting: "Do our churches really want unity and if so are they prepared to take costly steps towards koinonia in faith, life and witness?"
The conference's closing statement addressed the "concern for the waning commitments to Christian unity" with a determination that there was "no turning back" from the goal of visible unity or "engagement in the struggles of the world." Those who came to Spain looking for a clear blueprint for unity left the meeting empty-handed and, in some cases, frustrated and impatient.
Much of the tension at the conference stemmed from a growing impatience among those who were convinced that the Faith and Order movement was ready for a major breakthrough, perhaps recognition of baptism or agreement on the Nicene Creed. Veterans of the movement, on the other hand, argued that the pilgrimage is a long one that takes time. They urged patience.
Yet some persistent voices of impatience emerged during the dozens of speeches, sermons and those voices infused the plenary and small group discussions. Third World theologians especially were critical at the academic tone of the proceedings. An African interrupted one plenary, yelling that the discussion made no sense when his people were dying. His cry of anguish hung frozen in the air and the discussion moved on without a response.
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town addressed the growing concerns of many that the search for church unity must be tied to justice issues. "We have no option but to work and pray that we might all be one -- and yet there seems to be a universal inertia in the ecumenical movement. There are conversations, discussions and plans galore but hardly anywhere has anything of much significance actually happened. There have been near betrothals and engagements but hardly any nuptials, least of all consummations," he said. "It has seemed that toes have been dipped in the water and then the courage or the will to take the plunge into the stream has failed."
Speaking from his South African context, Tutu added that "there can be no question at all that a united church is a far more effective agent for justice and peace against oppression and injustice. It may be that we will find our most meaningful unity as we strive together for justice and peace." Tutu contended that true progress may come "as Christians face together the daunting problems in their locality."
Prof. Elizabeth Templeton of Scotland, who spoke at the 1988 Lambeth Conference and the 1990 House of Bishops meeting, used a more charming style of impatience. She urged participants to look for signs of God in common life. "If Faith and Order has a contribution to make to the life of the world, it is by articulating how this common life is not accident or mere human construct, but gift and invitation," she said. She added, however, that she had detected a "malaise" among some people who had devoted their lives to ecumenical communication, fostering doubts that the Faith and Order movement could "deliver the goods" even for the church, let alone for common life.
The Rev. Rena Karefa-Smart, a parish priest and ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington (DC), was much more blunt. She told delegates that the ecumenical movement had gone astray by "losing the vision of radical change" that marked its beginnings nearly 50 years ago. She said that the conference theme, "Towards Koinonia in Faith, Life and Witness," actually "convicts us of missing the mark." She said that the ecumenical movement had "wandered away from the goal of union -- koinonia now."
A former staff member of the WCC and its Programme to Combat Racism, Karefa-Smart said that the reluctance of the churches to deal honestly and openly with issues such as racism and power and the ordination of women is leading to "widespread apathy and disappointment" with the ecumenical movement" among those who are looking for more tangible results in church life. She called for a "re-visioning the ecumenical task."
Karefa-Smart was reacting, in part, to a prepared greeting from Archbishop Iakovos, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America that claimed that the ecumenical movement had lost its original vision and was caught in an "ideological vortex." He singled out the Programme to Combat Racism as an example of "unprecedented activism" by the WCC in response to people caught in the "radical changes in the political and economic life of the world."
"For the moment we continue to rend Christ's robe with theological and ethical liberalism, ill-considered ordinations, heretofore unknown to the policy of the church, with scandals, both financial and sexual, with persistent discussions over the recognition of avowedly homosexual communities -- all of which impede the way towards a genuinely new future," Iakovos scolded.
Iakovos was not alone in expressing his discomfort with the direction of the Faith and Order movement. Other Orthodox leaders may have been more subtle during their addresses or while participating in the four small groups which were charged to produce a final document.
The tensions spilled out during the closing plenary and threatened to derail the attempt to adopt the final message. Greek Orthodox Archbishop Stylianos of Australia, delegate of the Ecumenical Patriarch and chair of the Orthodox delegation, read a protest statement. He said that the Orthodox were "deeply offended, if not wounded, by the way some speakers expressed their views" during the conference.
"While most of us tried to speak at least in a polite way, in order to avoid offending sisters and brothers of other traditions, some of the speakers allowed themselves to present their views as if they were the new prophets of the Christian era who were entitled to put all of us aside as if we were the betrayers of the Christian mandate," Stylianos charged.
The Orthodox were openly frustrated by those who persistently chide them for what they perceive as resistance to any move towards sharing the Eucharist or considering the ordination of women.
Archbishop Aram Keshishian, the Armenian Orthodox primate of Lebanon who is moderator of the WCC Central Committee, was less strident but also critical of what he described as the "secularistic trends within the ecumenical movement." Such a trend towards activism could lead to "selfisolation" and the danger of Faith and Order as a movement becoming "selfcentered and self-contented."
Keshishian admitted that "after so many years of enormous and arduous work, the absence of a major breakthrough may lead the churches to impatience, disappointment and stagnation" that could "overshadow the vertical dimension of the ecumenical movement and marginalize the question of unity." He and others find hope, however, in the progress of dialogues among churches on the local level.
After generations of discussion there is still no common conception of unity because "we have a different understanding of the church," Keshishian observed. "The pivotal question is not, therefore, what is the nature of the unity we seek, but what is the nature of the church. Clearly, our ecclesiological perceptions condition our vision of unity." Putting his finger on the source of frustration for many participants, he said that unity is a goal for some and a given reality for others.
While the landmark Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM) document adopted at Lima in 1982 "remains the most widely circulated and seriously treated ecumenical document in the ecumenical history," Keshishian is convinced that BEM is "an invitation and urgent call addressed to the churches for mutual recognition. The churches should realize that the BEM process presents a decisive turning point in the history of the ecumenical movement and is a real test of their seriousness about the ecumenical movement in general and the question of unity in particular."
The Rev. Prof. J. Robert Wright of New York's General Theological Seminary, who with Dr. Julia Gatta of Connecticut represented the Episcopal Church at the conference, is convinced that the decisions of a conference don't penetrate very far "unless you ask for a response at the highest level. What's missing is a reception process that has teeth in it -- like the BEM process," he said in an interview.
During the conference a tall, gaunt German theologian moved quietly among delegates, greeting old friends and making new ones. In what may have been the most eagerly awaited address to the conference on the future of the Faith and Order movement, WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser said that the churches of Europe and North America that formed the WCC in 1948 "have been gripped by deep uncertainty and spiritual paralysis." As a result many of them have retreated back into their tradition.
"Church unity for them means above all preserving continuity with their roots, holding the community together and resisting the forces of disintegration," Raiser said. While adhering to the goals of visible unity, they hesitate to take steps that "would lead to a real ecumenical breakthrough."
Raiser contended that "a new ecumenical reality has developed in the midst of and between the churches in the past 25 years, and this is now seeking to express itself and demanding insistently to be recognized." He said that only a new approach will break the stalemate in the quest for visible unity, one that reaches out to different Christian cultures, especially the Pentecostals and Evangelicals.
The WCC itself was formed by two movements -- Faith and Order and Life and Work -- that joined forces in 1948 and the creative tension between the two has been evident ever since. Many veteran observers of the ecumenical movement are convinced that the WCC at this time in its history is divided between two agendas that don't talk with each other.
Raiser must harmonize those who cling to a relatively narrow agenda for Faith and Order with those who are insisting that the new Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation emphasis developed a few years ago at a major conference in Seoul be given priority.
A small group of theologians eager to reconcile the two elements met last February in Denmark and issued a 17-page report that explored what they called "the cleft between ecumenical forces committed to visible church unity and those focused on witness, service and moral struggle."
Father Jean Tillard, the irascible French Roman Catholic theologian who is vice-moderator of the Faith and Order Commission, told of meeting a friend at the Santiago airport before the conference. The friend suggested that it was quite courageous for Tillard to attend the funeral of the Faith and Order movement.
In an article in the English Roman Catholic magazine, The Tablet, Tillard said the conference turned out to be "a healthy stage on the long ecumenical pilgrimage, not a funeral." He said that he told his friend that "Faith and Order is still alive, communion is still the final goal."
Tillard said that "it is now clear that the walls created by harsh historical conflict or polemical confessional struggles are no longer walls of hatred or religious detestation." He contended that the climate now allows "frank and profound discussion of the most difficult issues," citing the universal primacy of the Pope as a good example.
Dr. Lewis Mudge of the Presbyterian Church's San Francisco Seminary agreed with Tillard's argument that unity will come in degrees and steps. Mudge and others are convinced that the first step must be a formal, mutual recognition of baptism. Some even expressed surprise that the possibility did not emerge among the proposals at Santiago. "We are just about there," Mudge said.
While admitting that the reports from the four sections are bland, Mudge said that they are important because they define the "theological atmosphere of a given time."
Anglicans have helped define that climate by "contributing an Anglican spirit that constantly strives for a middle way of reconciliation in ecumenical discussions," said Wright. And they have something invested in the Faith and Order movement "because we were the moving force behind its formation around the turn of the century." He counted 30 Anglicans at Santiago.
As delegates headed for the airport, briefcases groaning with reports and speeches, they basked in new friendships and a deeper sense of how long and treacherous the road to unity will be.
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