wfn.org | 10 Years after Fall of Berlin Wall, Divisions Pose Threat to Europe

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

1-October-1999 
99322 
 
    10 Years after Fall of Berlin Wall, 
    `New Divisions' Pose Threat to Europe 
 
    Council of European Churches Appeals for Greater Cooperation 
 
    by Stephen Brown 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NYBORG, Denmark - Ten years after the collapse of communism in eastern 
Europe and the disappearance of the Berlin Wall, new divisions are emerging 
which  threaten the security of Europe, according to a gathering of 
representatives from European churches. 
 
    In a statement issued Sept. 25, during a six-day meeting here, the 
central committee of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) appealed to 
political leaders in Europe to "address these problems before it is too 
late and before new divisions become entrenched in Europe," posing new 
threats to the continent's peace and security and imposing "lasting poverty 
and frustration on many of Europe's peoples." 
 
    While many political divisions - such as the continuing occupation of 
northern Cyprus by Turkey - remain in Europe despite the events of 1989, 
new divisions are also emerging "sometimes along cultural, military and 
economic lines, sometimes between or within countries," according to the 
central committee. 
 
 
    The statement highlights a recent report by the United Nations 
Development Program drawing attention to the decline in social indicators 
in many countries in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, including 
a fall in life expectancy in several major countries, a severe rise in 
poverty, the resurgence of diseases such as tuberculosis, and a decline in 
the economic security and political role of women. 
 
    In a separate decision, in the wake of the Kosovo conflict, CEC is to 
explore - in cooperation with other church bodies such as the World Council 
of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church -- initiating a project in South 
East Europe to "help all churches of that region develop their own 
ecumenical awareness and capabilities for peacemaking," CEC's general 
secretary, Keith Clements, told ENI. 
 
    The meeting of the central committee also agreed to increase 
cooperation with another European church body, the Brussels-based Churches' 
Commission on Migrants in Europe (CCME), with the aim of creating a "single 
instrument" to deal with issues of migrants, uprooted people and racism 
"within the framework of CEC," Clements said. 
 
    In part the proposals to step up cooperation were motivated by 
financial reasons, since there were "limited resources" for international 
ecumenical work.  However, Clements said another reason was the need to 
make available the expertise of CCME to a wider constituency of churches. 
 
    CCME had been based largely upon Protestant and Anglican churches in 
Western Europe, Clements said, and had a "very effective history of 
advocacy" vis-a-vis European institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg. 
However, the fact that churches throughout Europe were now being challenged 
to respond to migrants and uprooted people meant there was a need for an 
instrument "which transcends geographical and confessional constituencies." 
 
    CEC brings together more than 120 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and 
Old Catholic churches from all parts of Europe.  During the Cold War, it 
tried to transcend political divisions by bringing together churches from 
Eastern and Western Europe. 
 
    The proposals will be considered later this month by CCME's general 
assembly. 
 
    Clements added that CEC was also seeking to increase its cooperation 
with the World Council of Churches, whose headquarters, like those of CEC, 
are based in the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, and whose membership includes 
many CEC member churches. 

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