wfn.org | Vatican leader says ecumenical movement is in 'crisis'

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Note #7170 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

21-May-2002
02188

Vatican leader says ecumenical movement is in 'crisis'

Ecumenical education is key to Christian unity, Kasper says

by C. Christopher Epting
Episcopal News Service

CLEVELAND - In his address to the National Workshop on Christian Unity here May 21, Cardinal Walter Kasper of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on Christian Unity warned that the ecumenical movement is in "crisis" as we enter the 21st century.  

This crisis should be understood in its original sense as an opportunity having both positive and negative possibilities, being "on the knife edge," he said.

Kasper said that positive signs include the signing of the Joint Declaration on Justification between the Catholics and Lutherans, ecumenical events of the Jubilee Year, the fact that the 20th century has been one of martyrdom in all the churches (and the blood of the martyrs is, after all, the seed of the church, he added), Pope John Paul II's extensive travels on behalf of church unity, and the prayer for world peace in Assisi occurring for the second time last January.

The papal encyclical "Ut unum sint" points out at the very least that churches and ecclesial communities are no longer enemies but friends, Kasper argued.  Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox has shown signs of promise, yet today there are disagreements and even accusations of proselytism which hamper results.   

He said that conversations between Catholics and evangelicals have revealed that while these two groups of Christians are far apart ecclesiologically, they often share much in their understandings of the authority of Scripture and certain ethical issues.

Solid ecumenical education

Kasper said developments which can impede the ecumenical movement in this new situation include the fact that 35 years have passed since Vatican II and 65 years have passed since the creation of the World Council of Churches.  Many younger theologians and pastors take ecumenism and ecumenical progress for granted and, for them, many of the theological barriers are really no longer impediments.  "In this context," he said, "it is important that solid ecumenical education take place so that we do not forget our history."

Kasper also addressed what he called "a new emphasis on identity."  A great question for many today is, "Who am I?"   This finds its expression ecclesiastically in Orthodox churches  regaining a sense of their own identity, post Communism.  And we see it also in certain German Lutheran opposition to the Joint Declaration on Justification, he added.  

It is important, in this context, to assert that ecumenism today does not mean a loss of identity, but a certain unity in diversity, Kasper said.  Next, it is true today that all ecumenism cannot be done internationally and from a centralized location.  Local churches must take up their responsibilities in the ecumenical dialogue.

Transitional period

Kasper said he believes that we must live for now in the midst of this present transitional situation, a time of real but imperfect communion.  
He spoke of this very word "communion" as the new ecumenical vision.  Nonetheless, churches and ecclesial communities can mean somewhat different things by this concept.  

Certainly, he said, it refers to a kind of Trinitarian unity in diversity and diversity in unity.  But some emphasize a somewhat "secular" use of the term, meaning a horizontal set of relationships while others want to hold that in tension with the vertical dimension, since "koinonia" does not merely mean "communion" but "participation." (i.e. koinonia with the Father).  The sacraments express this "vertical" dimension, Kasper said.

Reformation churches have emphasized the local congregation as being the essence of the church, but even in these expressions often a wider supervisory role and understanding of "episcope" has developed, according to Kasper. 

Catholics believe that the "local church" (the people in communion with their bishop) is the fullness of the church but that such churches cannot be isolated but must be in communion with all other bishops and local churches. The one church and the diversity of local churches exist at one and the same time, he noted.

At the present time there seems to be no real consensus from churches and ecclesial communities in response to the Pope's call for dialogue about the eventual nature of a renewed Papal primacy which could be shared by all, according to Kasper. 

So, we are in this transitional period, an "already but not yet time" of ecumenism, he said. There is no perfect church and we can all learn from one another.  The goal is not uniformity but to transform "contradictory" elements into "complementary" ones.

Next steps for this new age

"Real but imperfect communion" must manifest itself in "real" life, said Kasper, suggesting six "next steps" for this new age:

1.	We must share best practices; we can already share together much more than we presently do and we should get on with that.

2.	Ecumenical work can still be done together through conciliar bodies, national and world councils of churches.

3.	We can continue our present dialogues seeking the nature and purpose of the church.

4.	The "ministry question" remains central.  For Roman Catholics, episcopacy is central but much can be learned from Orthodoxy and the Reformation churches about "synodality" and the bishop in council.

5.	There must be intra as well as inter renewal.  Renewal and reform must take place in all our churches individually as well as together.

6.	And finally, we must remember that ecumenism is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  "Spiritual ecumenism" such as that we often find in and through monastic communities must be emphasized.

Cardinal Kasper concluded by reminding his audience that "patience is the little sister of Christian hope."  He said he believes that one day unity will come as God's gift and as unexpectedly as the fall of the Berlin wall which surprised so many.  "Until then," he said, "the ecumenical journey remains a joint pilgrimage toward that catholicity which Christ wills for his church."

(Bishop C. Christopher Epting is deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Episcopal Church) 
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