Interview
What inspires you most about taking on this important role within the WCC?
Rev. Dr Durber: I am honoured to be asked to be an advocate for our fellowship within the European region. There are some places where our work in calling one another to visible unity is well known and others where it is not. I believe that unity begins with relationships so that Christ becomes visible as we look with attention to each other.
My priority will be to make and build relationships. I have been part of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, bringing my Faith and Order experience there, and I hope to go on participating in the breadth of our WCC life and speaking about it wherever I can.
What are the top concerns among churches in Europe?
Rev. Dr Durber: Europe is presently facing the reality of a war within our borders, and a war in which Christians are fighting Christians. The churches are tangled with war and with the problems that have led to it – we are not “above it,” and we must be active in overcoming and ending the violence.
We also fail to notice the many other conflicts that scar our world. I long for a Europe that is not defensive and protective of its own concerns but is open to the wider world. Europe has within it some of the world’s strongest economies and we must do our part in addressing inequality in our world, so hungry for justice.
Many of the churches in Europe, perhaps all of them in different ways, are facing a time of decline in numbers and in our cultural power. We are rediscovering our role as those who are ‘salt’ in the world, rather than the world itself.
How will the WCC 11th Assembly help move you forward on the path of reconciliation and peace?
Rev. Dr Durber: It helps me by reminding me that Europe is one part of a fast moving and complex world. The colonial story of European powers still haunts the ways that we, in Europe, belong to the world.
A gathering like this assembly shows me how I am part of a wider family and that new kinds of relationships within it need to be shaped. My first identity is as someone “in Christ” – and the challenge is to live out my discipleship with faithfulness in this part of our beautiful and hurting world. Christ’s love moves the world – and moves all of us who are Europeans!
Livestream of the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany
