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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 - 13/10/2009 7:49:37

FAITH AND ORDER: EMERGING COHERENCE AND CHANGES OF PATTERNS

The Faith and Order Plenary Commission meeting, which took place in  Kolympari, Crete, 7-13 October 2009, has come to an end. Participants  noted an emerging coherence between the three current studies on Nature  and Mission of the Church, Sources of Authority and Moral Discernment in  the Churches. A tendency to give more space to an "ecclesiology from  below" based on the concrete experience of "being church in a particular  context", rather than describing the church theoretically "from above",  was encouraged.

Reporting from their group work, commissioners reaffirmed the central  importance of The Nature and Mission of the Church, the attempt to  formulate an understanding of the church that may be widely accepted by  the churches. This 2005 document has been distributed to all the commission 's member churches, and Faith and Order is still gathering responses. For  most of the commissioners, more work is needed before this document can  become a "convergence document".

Among the comments that received most attention was Metropolitan Geevarghes e Coorilos's suggestion to look at the reality of the church not only  "from above", but also "from below", taking into account the daily  experience of "being church" in particular contexts, citing the example of  his Dalit church in Kerala, India.

As deliberations moved forward, the connection between this reflection on  "the church" and the other studies became clearer. When it comes to making  decisions, particularly in the area of Moral Discernment, the church is  informed by its Sources of Authority.

Among these sources, Faith and Order concentrated its attention on how  "Fathers and Mothers of the Church" can be perceived ecumenically. The  study Sources of Authority: Tradition and traditions will open new  perspectives both for churches familiar with patristic studies and for  churches that are now rediscovering the teaching of our predecessors in  faith.

By looking at case studies in the divisive area of Moral Discernment in  the Churches, many group participants identified other sources of  authority that churches were in fact also referring to, such as the  sciences, as well as contextual understandings of the role that the church  should play in society. Results from group work by the Plenary Commission  will become part of this study, which is still in an early stage. It is  hoped that a better understanding of how decisions are made will create an  atmosphere in which dialogue is more likely than division.

The meeting was closed by prayer, during which the Rev. Dr Susan Durber  invited the audience to look at Jesus as a guest, a stranger visiting us.  "In some of our contexts, and in different ways, the church now seems more  to be in the 'guest' than the 'host' position", she observed. "We are  learning now how to be those who are dependent on the hospitality of  others. Hospitality is not simply the generous gift of the wealthy and  powerful, it is also the skill and grace of the weaker ones", she said.

A report and a message will be sent to churches and made available online  within a few days.

>More on the Faith and Order meeting:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/crete2009

>Available articles:

Text and Context: The Nature and Mission of the Church:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/faith-and-order-plenary-commiss ion-2009/news/en/article/6795/text-and-context-the-nat.html

Seeking Christian unity in an Orthodox setting:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/faith-and-order-plenary-commiss ion-2009/news/en/article/6795/seeking-christian-unity-i.html

Common parents in the faith:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/faith-and-order-plenary-commiss ion-2009/news/en/article/6795/common-parents-in-the-fai.html

Faith and Order: Facets of Faithfulness:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/faith-and-order-plenary-commiss ion-2009/news/en/article/6795/faith-and-order-facets-o.html

Faith and Order today: Mary Tanner on miracles of the ecumenical movement:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/faith-and-order-plenary-commiss ion-2009/news/en/article/6795/faith-and-order-today-ma.html

One foot in the past and one in the future:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/faith-and-order-plenary-commiss ion-2009/news/en/article/6795/one-foot-in-the-past-and.html

Feature articles to come:

Faith and Order inaugurates moral discernment study

>Presentations and documents:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7206

Photo gallery (high resolution pictures available free of charge):
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/photo-galleries/faith-and-order-crete-2009 .html

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

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.