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World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 11/05/2005

COMMUNION: AN ANSWER TO GLOBALIZATION

     Free photos available at
     www.mission2005.org

"Avoiding the simplistic interpretations which see globalization and
post-modernity only as a melting-pot or, on the contrary, only as an
inevitable clash of civilizations, we are called to see the present state
of affairs as an occasion for critical creativity."

Facing globalization seen as a monocultural melting-pot on the one hand,
and the rise of the conviction that every single local human context has
its own truth, on the other, Dr Athanasios P. Papathanasiou called the
churches to a critical creativity towards reconciliation.

In his presentation to the plenary on the second day of the Conference on
World Mission and Evangelism being held 9-16 May 2005 by the World Council
of Churches in Athens, Papathanasiou brought an Orthodox contribution to
the debate.

This professor in the Higher Ecclesiastical School in Athens offered an
Orthodox theological viewpoint to this world-wide Orthodox, Protestant,
Roman Catholic, Evangelical and Pentecostal gathering on the theme of
"Come, Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile".

Basing his argumentation on the Eastern fathers, Papathanasiou conceives
all life as "conversion to the Trinitarian mode of existence". This means
that life has to be considered as "paired with relationship".

Papathanasiou therefore called churches and mission bodies at the CWME
conference to encourage the understanding that "authentic existence" is
when "otherness is not something parallel or opposite to [one's own]
identity", but an element of it.

Because the church believes history is illuminated by the light of the
last times (and not the last times being a consequence of history), it
must witness to the hope of resurrection and of the transfiguration of the
whole world.

Therefore, according to Papathanasiou, the church can be "neither an
association of individuals nor a secular organization," but must give a
clear testimony to the Holy Trinity communion. This way of being in
communion is neither an undifferentiated "global-village" nor a simple
juxtaposition of unlinked single local human contexts.

The full text of Athanasios Papathanasiou's address is available on our
website at:
www.mission2005.org > Resources > Documents

Conference website: www.mission2005.org

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.