Thursday, March 09, 2006
What's changed since 1959???
It's interesting-
On the plane home, Bishop Bagrat Galstanian (Primate of the Armenian Church of Canada) gave me a book called "Building Bridges: The Ecumenical Journey of Karekin I" It is the life writings of a former Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia. In his book he writes about his time studying at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford:
"I must say here that the ecumenical spirit in Christianity has not gained yet its proper place in the thinking of ordinary Christians in the pews. Generally speaking, the ecumenical way of Christian thought and life has not come home yet to many of them. They are not very familiar with it. That spirit has to be fostered in every possible way. Otherwise the whole endeavor of the World Council of Churches may be reduced to an activity of "headquarters" and the concern of "top people" in the Church."
What is really interesting - is that Karekin I wrote that in 1959! Part of me sighed when I read that, because what we accomplished (or didn't) in Porto Alegre aside - coming home it is still like this in my congregation.
I was skeptical about the possibility of a universal church before I went to Brazil - but I saw such potential for love and unity, at the same time as I saw equal potential for hatred, division and intolerance. When I saw the latter most clearly was interestingly enough at a regional level. I think the global goals of ecumenism are much easier to achieve in some sense than the local or regional. One thing the Canadian delegates and I talked about in the last days of the assembly was the lack of accountability of member churches to take action on any of the recommendations of the WCC. It is a problem, because the WCC should not have "jurisdiction" over any member organization. Yet - at the same time - it is the actions of the member churches and the regions which give power to the WCC. How do we resolve this problem?
Just my thoughts this morning as I sift through the mountain of paperwork I brought home with me.
On the plane home, Bishop Bagrat Galstanian (Primate of the Armenian Church of Canada) gave me a book called "Building Bridges: The Ecumenical Journey of Karekin I" It is the life writings of a former Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia. In his book he writes about his time studying at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford:
"I must say here that the ecumenical spirit in Christianity has not gained yet its proper place in the thinking of ordinary Christians in the pews. Generally speaking, the ecumenical way of Christian thought and life has not come home yet to many of them. They are not very familiar with it. That spirit has to be fostered in every possible way. Otherwise the whole endeavor of the World Council of Churches may be reduced to an activity of "headquarters" and the concern of "top people" in the Church."
What is really interesting - is that Karekin I wrote that in 1959! Part of me sighed when I read that, because what we accomplished (or didn't) in Porto Alegre aside - coming home it is still like this in my congregation.
I was skeptical about the possibility of a universal church before I went to Brazil - but I saw such potential for love and unity, at the same time as I saw equal potential for hatred, division and intolerance. When I saw the latter most clearly was interestingly enough at a regional level. I think the global goals of ecumenism are much easier to achieve in some sense than the local or regional. One thing the Canadian delegates and I talked about in the last days of the assembly was the lack of accountability of member churches to take action on any of the recommendations of the WCC. It is a problem, because the WCC should not have "jurisdiction" over any member organization. Yet - at the same time - it is the actions of the member churches and the regions which give power to the WCC. How do we resolve this problem?
Just my thoughts this morning as I sift through the mountain of paperwork I brought home with me.
