Ecclesiology and Ethics

These texts are the fruit of the joint study programme on Ecclesiology and Ethics conducted by Faith and Order and the WCC's Justice, Peace and Creation team. The results of meetings in Rønde, Denmark; Jerusalem, Israel; and Johannesburg, South Africa, they explore how the churches are called to be a community of ethical reflection - and engagement - in today's world.

These texts are the fruit of the joint study programme on Ecclesiology and Ethics conducted by Faith and Order and the WCC's Justice, Peace and Creation team. The results of meetings in Rønde, Denmark; Jerusalem, Israel; and Johannesburg, South Africa, they explore how the churches are called to be a community of ethical reflection - and engagement - in today's world.

Costly Unity

Introduction
I. JPIC and the church as moral community
II. Koinonia and its implications
III. Different analyses and responses
Conclusion
Appendix I
Appendix II
List of Participants
Notes

Costly Commitment

Preface
I. Introduction: The relation of ecclesiology and ethics
II. Basic convictions
III. The question of "Koinonia-generating involvement"
IV. Eucharist, covenant and ethical engagement
V. The ethical character of the ekklesia:Reflections on moral formation and discernment
List of Participants
Notes

Costly Obedience

Introduction
I. The meaning of moral formation in church and world
II. Formation and malformation in our encounters with the public world
III. Eucharist and baptism as contexts of formation
IV. Toward communion in moral witnessing
List of Participants
Notes

The status of these texts

These reports are not "official statements" of the World Council of Churches or any of its member churches. Each report was produced at a meeting of experts - theologians, ethicists, church leaders, persons active in Christian witness - coming from a wide diversity of Christian traditions, churches, and regions of the world. The purpose of the meetings, and of these texts, was not to develop a "common" position or to produce a unanimously-agreed statement on specific ethical issues. The goals were rather to explore the issues; to provide a "space" for the churches to share their positions, look for common ground, and clarify points on which they disagree; to suggest some approaches to the issues which the churches might find helpful in their own reflection, to stimulate further discussion, and to provide material for such discussion.

The texts have been published in book form under the title Ecclesiology and Ethics: Ecumenical Ethical Engagement, Moral Formation and the Nature of the Church, Thomas F. Best and Martin Robra, eds., Geneva, WCC Publications, ©1997. ISBN 2-8254-1216-3.