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For immediate release - 10.10.2009 17:26:14

>FAITH AND ORDER: FACETS OF FAITHFULNESS

by Theodore Gill (*)

Free high resolution photos available, see below
Is there real potential for visible unity among today's
churches, or are cultural and dogmatic differences too great to
be overcome? These were key issues raised on Friday 9 October in
five presentations at the Faith and Order conference in
Kolympari, Greece.

Christians from many theological traditions and regions of the
world gather under the banner of Faith and Order to compare their
perspectives on religious doctrine, worship and faithful action
in the world. Church representatives from five contexts spoke on
Friday as part of the 7-13 October meeting of the Faith and Order
Plenary Commission, an advisory body to the World Council of
Churches. The meeting has brought more than 150 participants to
the Orthodox Academy of Crete.

“Called to Be the One Church” was the stated theme of the
deliberations, yet the variety marking the five speeches bore
witness as much to Christian diversity as to unity. Later
discussions in the plenary and smaller groups questioned the
extent to which the presenters' positions were, as Prof. William
Henn of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome expressed it
to one group, “mutually contradictory, or complementary?”

The speakers ranged in confessional background from Lutheran to
Reformed, from Anglican to Roman Catholic to Eastern Orthodox,
and they came to Crete from many points of the compass: Finland,
South Africa, Cuba, China and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople.

Minna Hietamäki ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7226 )from the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland described a “strong
tendency toward oneness” in the relationships of Finnish
churches, yet she discerned a simultaneous “strong theological
intuition, if you will, of diversity, dynamism and life”. As a
professor she reported that her students often seem more
fascinated by exploration their own identity than seeking unity.
“I think there is still some way to go”, she concluded, “for
us to realize and take in the strangeness of the stranger”.
Nevertheless, she expressed hope that Faith and Order can help
facilitate “encounters where we can, if but for a short moment,
embrace and appreciate the other without losing our own
identity”.

“Christianity begins in South Africa as a divided community,”
according to Maake Masango ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7228
)of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. The early
missionaries imported divisions from Europe, and this was
exacerbated by racism, apartheid and economic classes based on
wealth and poverty. Masango described ways in which theological
institutions began to overcome divisions, establish common
faculties for theological training and unite denominations into
broader churches such as his own. Division still exists, and this
condition demands honesty of Christians as they join in dialogue.
Recalling an English expression, “straight talk does not break
any friendship”, Masango used the example of union talks among
the Protestants of South Africa as an example for frank
discussion within the ecumenical movement.

Marianela de la Paz Cot ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7225 ),
of the Episcopal Church of Cuba, and Maria Ko Ha Fong (
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7227 ), a Silesian sister who
teaches at Catholic institutions in Rome, Hong Kong and the
mainland of China, raised the issue of combining the search for
Christian unity with a concern for Christians' role in promoting
the unity of humanity. 

The Cuban speaker described interchurch and interfaith dialogue
as sources and meeting points of opposing views and potential
polarization, but she argued that this provides “an opportunity
to develop a deeper unity”. Her argument that “revelation is
polyphonic”, and the meaning best discovered in company with
others, aroused criticism during the question period that
followed her address. When must respect for others' beliefs give
way to a prophetic critique of idolatry? How can one balance the
call to extended community with the call to speak truth in the
presence of error? At what point is faith in Christ compromised?
Such questions will be discussed further in coming days.

Sister Maria reminded her audience that two-thirds of the
world's population lives in Asia but that only three percent of
that population is Christian. As a result, “in the Catholic
Churches in Asia in general, the primary emphasis has been given
to inter-religious dialogue, considered to be more urgent and
more important than ecumenical dialogue.” She suggested that the
intersection of dialogues among churches and world faiths may be
found in a focus on the kingdom of God. She expressed the belief
that, “notwithstanding our differences, we can find a measure of
communion in our common confession of faith in Christ and in our
common mission of revealing the presence of the kingdom of God in
the world.”

Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima (

http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7224 )celebrated advances in
Christians' understanding of one another through the ongoing
study of ecclesiology, or the self-understanding of the church.
It is only within recent decades, he reminded younger listeners,
that members of such a wide range of churches have been willing
to sit together and listen to one another with respect. He
underlined an Orthodox contribution to this conversation: a
vision of the church's “unity in multiplicity” taking its
inspiration from the interplay of the persons of the Holy Trinity
who are, at the same time, Three and One. The mission of the one
church in its various manifestations, he said, is “to proclaim
God's purpose for the world and to live it out in historical
contexts and situations”.

>[880 words]

(*) Theodore Gillis senior editor of WCC Publications in Geneva
and a minister ordained by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 

>More on the Crete meeting:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/crete2009

>Dr Minna Hietamäki's presentation:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7226

>Prof Maake Masango's presentation:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7228

Rev. Dr Marianela de la Paz Cot's presentation:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7225

>Sister Maria Ko Ha Fong's presentation:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7227

Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima's presentation:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7224

Photo gallery:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/photo-galleries/faith-and-order-crete-2009.html

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credit is given to the author. 

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6363 media@wcc-coe.org

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