Interview
Rev. Margarithe Veen, from the Netherlands, who led the group in forming the call to prayer, found herself wondering daily about signs of life, justice, and peace against the flow of violence, injustice, and destruction of lives in today’s world.
“It touches me lately to remain open to a life in which simultaneity continues to occur; a simultaneity of light and darkness, of justice and injustice, of a breath of life to continue the strength to live and forces that are so destructive,” she said. “To transform that trust or my faith in wonder to a light that will be given to us, is part of the reality to come to a Bossey-98-call.”
Veen experiences the call also as an invitation to be and to stay as an ecumenical family as a sign of comfort and pastoral care, as a sign of keeping each other’s lives together in dignity as a given gift of life.
The group was called “to share our care and call for justice and peace for each other within all our contexts, stories, and realities,” she explained, “to be a voice called to stand up for the dignity of all humanity in a world where we also experience destruction; to keep experienced peace in the community nearby in today's world where we experience violence and injustices as well.”
The Bossey alumni care for each other,” Veen added, “not just for each other, but for the whole of this inhabited world, for the whole of the oikoumene,” she said. “As the Bossey-98-group, we experienced a special ecumenical time at Bossey thanks to a spirit of care, dignity, justice, and peace, which is still with us, I believe, and maybe a spirit that still carries us in today’s world.”
The group is so close-knit that, when even two or more gather, it feels like they’re all present.
“And that we feel we want to stay nearby each other for signs of care and comfort,” Veen explained. “I believe the ecumenical movement is a sign of peace in itself.”
Keep sharing
She urged people to view—and create—the ecumenical movement as a peace witness in itself.
“A testimony, maybe, shared from passion, inspiration, and conviction,” she said. “Let us also keep sharing the value of the ecumenical movement as it was, is, and will come again and again as a blessing.”
Veen experiences the ecumenical movement filled with care, an open heart, prayers for each other, service where necessary, and the power to overcome barriers of injustices for justice and peace.
“Yes, I think it is important also to stay together and not to lose each other on our ecumenical path,” she said. “Especially when brokenness comes on our way, it is a blessing that we know each other and each other’s value.”
She urged people to keep caring for each other wherever they are, and in whatever situations they face. “To be caretakers in our pastoral community as well, as a given ecumenical community for unity, justice, and peace,” she said. “Yes, to walk together by listening to each of our stories and witnesses.”
Veen also acknowledged that the powers of violence, polarisation, and destruction is active in the world. “I hope that we continue to feel invited to discover and share signs of wonder in our ecumenical community,” she said. “A community in which the dignity for everyone born is so important and signifies signs of justice and peace as a light given to us for today.”
