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As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Centro Pro Unione, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit spoke on 15 November in Rome about “What Does Mutual Accountability Mean for Christians and the Christian Life?”
The emerging ecumenical category of mutual accountability - aimed at deepening the mutual knowledge and reliability between denominations - is the inspiration for a Centro Pro Unione project, “MAD for Ecumenism,” which establishes a Mutual Accountability Desk.
Tveit spoke of how mutual accountability runs like a golden thread through the decades of the ecumenical movement.
“Mutual accountability denotes a kind of covenantal pledge implicit between and among people in community,” he said. “We can see it at play in our own relations with our friends or spouse or close community.”
Mutual accountability has deep implications for theology, spirituality, and encounters in the world, said Tveit. “In sum, I argue, mutual accountability is a matter of how we in the ecumenical movement seek the truth together by sharing insights into the truth we carry,” he said. “This progressive, collaborative discovery of truth entails as much repentance and self-criticism as it does fidelity to traditions.”
Tveit asked: What does mutual accountability mean for Christian life and discipleship?
“Mutual accountability highlights listening to and learning from each other as a mark of Christian life,” he said, further asking: “What is the authentic Christian life?”
Mutual accountability also reframes discipleship itself, he continued. “My fellow pilgrims, our long pilgrimage is not over,” he said.
Read the full speech by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
Publication The Truth We Owe Each Other by Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
