News
Bob Scott
"We are living in a world that has lost its way" is not a statement by President George W. Bush or His Holiness Pope John Paul or even anti-globalization activists. They are the words, spoken on 3 August 1927, of the preacher at the first meeting of the Faith and Order Commission, a meeting that was sixteen years in preparation.
Bishop Charles H. Brent of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA was saying that unity among churches would only be achieved if they confronted the faith-related questions on which they differed. He beseeched the 400 representatives from 127 Orthodox, Anglican, Reformation and Free churches at the Lausanne, Switzerland, meeting to "keep the purpose of unity firmly in our hearts and look on all Christians of whatever name as brothers beloved. It is thus that, by practising unity, we shall gain unity."
Since then, there has been much debate about church unity. How much ground has been gained? Do the churches speak with a common voice on the issues which exercise us today?
A theological movement
The Faith and Order Movement, created in 1910, joined with the Life and Work Movement in 1948 to form the basis of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Some Faith and Order stalwarts were apprehensive. Would Faith and Order's important theological projects fit into the new WCC structures? They were anxious that theology should not become merely the servant of the church's task to respond to social issues - something they called "horizontalism" and referred to as "the enemy".
Today, most theological thinkers agree that the search for unity in church structures, ministry, sacraments and confessions of faith is as important as the pursuit of justice in a troubled world. Indeed a united and reconciled church is seen as a potent challenge and example to a divided world.
The significance of Faith and Order's work was greatly enhanced by the commitment of the Orthodox family, and the full membership of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church entered the commission in 1968 as a result of the Vatican II process, even though it decided not to become a member of the WCC itself.
Faith and Order has convened a large number of international consultations, working groups and study processes, coming to grips with the different histories, spiritual experiences and understandings of the world-wide Christian fellowship. It has not always been easy. The issues have been at the core of people's understanding of faith. Sometimes views are in opposition. Sometimes they are close but not close enough to claim one voice.
Contributions to unity
A former head of the Faith and Order Commission, Mary Tanner of the United Kingdom, believes that the commission's multilateral conversations have contributed to the formulation of significant statements of faith. Perhaps the most significant, she says, was the one on baptism, eucharist and ministry, or BEM as it came to be called.
BEM's importance is universally acknowledged. Speaking to young theologians in Finland in 1995, Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople said: " We cannot go back to the situation before it; we can only go beyond it." He credited the BEM with having opened the way to other difficult issues such as apostolic succession and episcopacy, because it affirmed baptism as the basis of Christian unity. Tanner agrees. "BEM has contributed to the agreements of bilateral dialogues (between churches) and played a part in drawing churches together both in local ecumenical living and in union schemes," she says.
The late French theologian Max Thurian went even further. "The degree of agreement on matters of faith, and especially on eucharistic faith, is greater than it has ever been and seems to many people sufficient for common eucharist," he wrote.
This raises the question of when a study is finished, having achieved as much agreement as possible. Who has the authority to say that it is time to stop because the process is complete? Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter, "Ut Unum Sint" asked: "How much further we must travel until that blessed day when unity in faith will be attained?"
The Pope identifies areas needing further study before a consensus of faith can be achieved; as it happens, these correspond almost exactly with those identified by the Faith and Order Commission in its current work. But there is still a caution. "The ultimate goal of the ecumenical movement is to re-establish full visible unity among all the baptized," says the encyclical. "All the results so far attained are but one stage of the journey, however promising and positive."
Ground gained
When the 50 years of Faith and Order was celebrated in Lausanne in 1977, there was much cause for celebration of its work. "We have come a long way," said Yves Congar, a French Dominican priest. "We started from a situation of mutual ignorance and even of antagonism and struggle. We must emphasize the importance of the mere fact that there have been conferences and meetings, and contacts at every level over a long period of time."
But the most recent meeting of the commission, in Moshi, Tanzania in 1996, admitted that the challenges remain the same. "Our churches are divided across confessional and denominational lines, but also because of tensions created by political options, ethical issues and social and economic inequalities," says the meeting's final message. "As we enter a new millennium, these challenges require a new approach to the quest for the unity of the churches. Only with realism and humility will we be able to face the coming task."
The commission, which has been described as the most broadly representative theological forum in the world, is currently facilitating a study on ecclesiology, one on ecumenical hermeneutics, one on human nature and the role of human beings within community and creation, and a study on ethnic identity, national identity and the search for unity. Each study outline resonates with the challenges that face the global community today. Says Tanner: "Each of the studies has contributed in its own way to understanding the causes of church divisions... and to understanding aspects of the visible unity of the church." A member of the present commission has called these studies "positive globalization".
On Sunday 25 August, members of the WCC Central Committee will join local Lausanne congregations and present and past Faith and Order commissioners in Lausanne's cathedral to celebrate the 75th anniversary. Says WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, "The anniversary provides an opportunity to make visible the continuing work in the area of faith and order which, to many people's taste, has been too much hidden behind WCC self-preservation, and sometimes overshadowed by mushrooming ecumenical dialogues that pushed aside the multi-lateral dialogues that Faith and Order are so good at."
Looking both backwards and forwards, we recall the words of Bishop Charles Brent: "The call to unity is like the flow of a river - it never ceases... We must move without haste and without rest."
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