Ecumenism alive and well as Pope Benedict XVI visits Edinburgh

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World Council of Churches - News

ECUMENISM ALIVE AND WELL AS POPE BENEDICT XVI VISITS EDINBURGH

For immediate release: 15 September 2010

On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom, three
stalwarts of Scottish ecumenism and the “churches together” movement
met on Tuesday evening to assess church relations today. The three 
church
leaders were Archbishop Mario Conti (Roman Catholic archbishop of
Glasgow), Christine Davis (Religious Society of Friends / Quakers) 
and the
Rev. Dr Sheilagh Kesting (ecumenical officer of the Church of 
Scotland and
former moderator of its General Assembly). They shared reflections 
about
the successes, disappointments and hopes of churches working together 
in
the nation.

The last time a pope visited Edinburgh, Scotland, was in 1982 when the
popular Pope John Paul II was welcomed into the heart of Scottish
Protestantism and made a visit to New College and the theological 
faculty
at the University of Edinburgh.

At the time there was nervousness in the air, particularly among the
leadership of the Church of Scotland who, according to Archbishop 
Conti,
were to meet with John Paul II “on their home turf”.

While the meeting with the pope went perfectly well, the church and
ecumenical landscape of Scotland was in for a sea-change over the next
three decades. This change has marked an improvement in relations
according to these three pioneers of the modern ecumenical movement.

The formal state visit of Pope Benedict XVI will begin when he is 
received
by Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh on Thursday, 16 September. There 
will
be a wide variety of church leaders attending the reception, 
including the
Rev. John Cairns Christie, moderator of General Assembly of the 
Church of
Scotland, and the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the 
World
Council of Churches (WCC).

The three were part of an evening event sponsored by the 20-year-old
organization Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS), the 
national
ecumenical instrument. The event was held in conjunction with this
week’s meeting of the WCC Executive Committee at Carberry Tower, near
Edinburgh.

The presence in Edinburgh of a governing body of the WCC, which 
represents
more than 550 million Christians around the world including Orthodox,
Anglican, Old Catholic, independent and many Protestant groups, and 
its
meeting being held at the same time as the Pope’s visit there, is 
sheer
coincidence.

Still, the circumstance could not go unnoticed as the current pope 
arrives
against an ecclesiastical backdrop that reflects growing cooperation
between churches. The WCC Executive Committee’s visit to the city in
2010 honours the centenary of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary
Conference which historians of Christianity identify as the beginning 
of
the modern ecumenical movement.
Ecumenical progress

When the “churches together” model was adopted in 1990 with the
formation of ACTS, there “were vociferous and in some places quite
unpleasant protests”, said Christine Davis, one of the early
participants in the churches together movement. Archbishop Conti was 
the
first convener of ACTS.

Since then the major denominational groups have been working together 
on a
variety of social and ecclesial initiatives. Davis, while not 
guaranteeing
the behaviour of everyone in relation to the pope’s visit this week,
feels certain there will not be a repeat of the sorts of protests that
occurred in 1990.

She pointed out that today “at one level, the fact we are working
together is taken for granted”. In 2009, “we had a very valuable joint
conference of everyone involved in the churches in Scotland on Calvin:
Catholic and Reformed”, she said. The theme was inspired by the 500th
anniversary of Protestant reformer John Calvin’s birth. “Now, that is
the kind of event which allowed us to be learning together about a 
part of
church history people don’t normally see as having in common.”

Conti for his part views the work of ACTS as becoming the “title for 
the
engagement of the ecumenical movement”. The role of ACTS is all about
“engagement, respect and listening”, he said.

Sheilagh Kesting, who was also involved in the formation of ACTS, 
talked
about landmark developments that grew out of the Swanwick 
consultation in
1992, with “people reporting afterwards about the moment when Cardinal
Hume of England came forward and said the Roman Catholic Church was 
ready
to come into a new ecumenical structure, the churches together, that 
we
now call ACTS”.

The momentum this created, along with the subsequent leadership and
grassroots work of the churches together, has led “the Roman Catholic
church into the ecumenical movement, and this is not something we 
wanted
to go back on”, Kesting said.

Still, ACTS and the churches together movement have not led to unity 
in all
things; there remain stark differences between churches. But what has
happened, according to Conti, is that the churches resist criticizing 
each
other in public and work at respecting their differences and 
discussing
them together.

Today it is more likely churches will consult with each other before 
they
move forward on important matters, according to Kesting. Some of the
disappointments the group felt about the churches together movement is
that it may not be challenging the churches enough, Kesting added.

Conti said that there remain challenges in regard to issues of 
morality and
ethics, such as family values and homosexuality.

Even with these sort of “mismatches” among churches in the same
communities, particularly around ecclesial issues, this sometimes
“baffles people” Davis said, “but it doesn’t stop them from
getting on”.

Despite these challenges, all three ecumenical stalwarts saw hope in 
the
movement of churches together, with ACTS and agencies like the WCC at 
the
forefront. There was strong participation of the churches in 
addressing
social issues such as poverty, Conti observed.

In conclusion, Davis said that churches have to share their resources
better, deal with their own internal divisions, look at broader
inter-religious and secular issues and in the end live out the good 
news
of Jesus Christ, “which is to be extended to everyone we meet”.

ACTS website (Link: 
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=15f5595e8102408cda98 )

WCC member churches in the United Kingdom (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=236a9bc9fa1d1c837c8e )


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 Olav Fykse 
Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, 
Switzerland.



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