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The Many Facets of Worldwide Ecumenism Bridge-Building Between the Vatican and the World Council of Churches

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The Many Facets of Worldwide Ecumenism Bridge-Building Between the Vatican and the World Council of Churches Louvain Studies 38 (2014): 269-288 doi: 10.2143/LS.38.3.3105908 © 2014 by Louvain Studies, all rights reserved The Many Facets of Worldwide Ecumenism Bridge-Building between the Vatican and the World Council of Churches Annemarie C. Mayer Abstract. — The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Nevertheless, ever since Vatican II the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) has been working closely with different bodies of the WCC on a continuous basis. Taking as its point of departure the latest Assembly, this article investigates the roots of the cooperation between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church, has a closer look at the institutional bridges between the two partners, highlights some specific features shaping their cooperation, and reflects on the status quo of the ecumenical movement in light of the contempo- rary challenges that both partners in this ongoing cooperation have to face. Bodies with Catholic cooperation like the Joint Working Group, the Faith and Order Commission, and the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism man- aged to present major results of their work during the months leading up to the 10th Assembly of the WCC in 2013. Yet through these institutional bridges also the Catholic Church is currently challenged to take into account the many facets of worldwide ecumenism in order to start new ecumenically ground-breaking initia- tives together with her multilateral ecumenical partner, the WCC. On the evening of October 25, 2013 eighteen people were waiting at Fiumicino Airport for the night flight of Korean Air from Rome to Seoul. They were the so-called ‘delegated observers’ from the Vatican who were travelling to the 10th Assembly of the WCC in Busan. In Korea, the group was joined by six ‘local delegated observers’, and together with Cardinal Koch, who was invited as a guest of the WCC, these twenty-five people formed the largest delegation that the Vatican ever sent to one of the WCC assemblies. This happened exactly 85 years after the encyclical Mortalium Animos in which Pius XI explicitly warned against any Catholic participation in the modern ecumenical movement: some are more easily deceived by the outward appearance of good when there is question of fostering unity among all Christians. […] 998312.indb8312.indb 226969 22/09/15/09/15 009:029:02 270 ANNEMARIE C. MAYER Is it not right, it is often repeated, indeed, even consonant with duty that all who invoke the name of Christ should abstain from mutual reproaches and at long last be united in mutual charity? […] These things and others that class of men who are known as pan-Christians continually repeat and amplify; and these men, so far from being quite few and scattered, have increased to the dimensions of an entire class […] Who then can conceive a Christian Federation, the members of which retain each his own opinions and private judgment, even in matters which concern the object of faith, even though they be repug- nant to the opinions of the rest? And in what manner, We ask, can men who follow contrary opinions, belong to one and the same Fed- eration of the faithful? […] it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics.1 Given such a verdict, how did it ever happen that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the World Coun- cil of Churches (WCC) came to work together? In order to answer this question, first I want briefly to introduce the dramatis personae, so to speak, while retracing the roots of the cooperation (I). Then I will move on to the institutional bridges between the WCC and PCPCU, present- ing also some fruits from the most recent ecumenical cooperation (II). In addition, a few brief comments will characterize the special features of the cooperation (III). I shall conclude with a look at the current state of the worldwide ecumenical movement (IV). I. The Roots of the Cooperation Attempting to answer the question of how the collaboration between PCPCU and WCC ever came about despite an assessment like that of Mortalium Animos requires us not only to look back at the Sec- ond Vatican Council, but to go even further back and actually ask two related questions: How did the WCC come into being? And, since when and in what form has the Catholic Church cooperated with the WCC? 1. How Did the WCC Come into Existence? In 1910, the first World Missionary Conference was held in Edin- burgh. This event is commonly regarded as the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement. More than 1200 participants met under the 1. Pius XI, Encyclical Mortalium Animos, On Religious Unity (January 6th, 1928) http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_ enc_19280106_mortalium-animos_en.html (accessed September 24, 2014). 998312.indb8312.indb 227070 22/09/15/09/15 009:029:02 THE MANY FACETS OF WORLDWIDE ECUMENISM 271 chairmanship of the American Methodist John Mott (1865-1955). Only seventeen delegates came from mission areas. No Catholic and Orthodox representatives were present, despite the conference’s global claim. Only Geremia Bonomelli (1831-1914), at that time the Catholic Bishop of Cremona, sent a personal message. The most important result of this first World Missionary Conference consisted in combining ecumenical and international concerns.2 These were programmatically formulated as three basic ecumenical concerns: the evangelisation of all humankind, commitment to peace and social justice, and the unity of the Church itself. In the following decades, these concerns were pursued by the International Missionary Council and the Movements for Life and Work and for Faith and Order, respectively. In Mortalium Animos Pius XI makes implicit reference to the first official meetings of these move- ments. In the beginning decades these three movements evolved further as three parallel strands of the ecumenical movement. In the International Missionary Council, the legally independent missionary societies worked together with the churches. In the orbit of imperialist colonial policy, the modern missionary movement had exported Western denominationalism to Asia, Africa, and Latin America and partly caused a local denominational confusion which had grown unmanageable. Rather than reproducing the confessional divisions or competing with each other and poaching converts, the common aim now was one interdenominational commitment to evangelising the whole world in the present generation.3 The understanding of mission, which has since been developed by the World Mission Conferences, is holistic and does not only aim at the conversion of individuals, but also at social commitment in order to change the world and at a common Christian witness to other religions. Even during the turmoil of the First World War the bonds of con- tact were not severed, due to common initiatives to promote peace. One of the main organizers of such initiatives was the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931). In 1919, he suggested cre- ating a “World Council of Churches”4 representing all Christians. 2. These two aims were combined by the mission societies even before the League of Nations was established in 1920. 3. Cf. the influential book by John R. Mott, Evangelization of the World in This Generation (New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1900). 4. In choosing this name actually a suggestion made by Samuel McCrea Cavert was followed, cf. “Report of the Committee of Thirty-Five (Westfield College, Lon- don),” in Willem A. Visser ’t Hooft, The Genesis and Formation of the World Council of Churches (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1982), 104. 998312.indb8312.indb 227171 22/09/15/09/15 009:029:02 272 ANNEMARIE C. MAYER In 1925, this proposal led to the first World Conference on Life and Work, which took place in Stockholm. Chaired by Söderblom, 661 del- egates from 37 countries (among them now also some Orthodox) worked in seven “sections” on peace-related political, economic, and social issues. The message of this conference emphasizes that “The nearer we draw to the Crucified, the nearer we come to one another, in however varied colours the Light of the World may be reflected in our faith.”5 Furthermore, as another direct result of the Edinburgh 1910 World Mission Conference – at the initiative of the Anglican Mission Bishop Charles H. Brent (1862-1929) – the American churches invited to a world conference: Similarities and differences in faith and church order should be assessed by comparing the churches based on their commitment to Jesus Christ. The Movement of Faith and Order was about to address these issues consciously in contrast to the Life and Work Movement, in which questions of faith and ecclesial ministry tended to be postponed while in their place common witness prevailed according to the watchword ‘doctrine divides while service unites’. Yet it was only after the First World War that a meeting became possible. Above all the Orthodox churches now also affirmed their willingness to cooperate; in 1920, the Ecumenical Patriarchate sent an encyclical Unto the Churches of Christ Everywhere,6 which encouraged the churches to establish a federation along the lines of the League of Nations founded in Geneva in the same year. The first World Conference on Faith and Order took place in Laus- anne in 1927. With 394 participants from 108 countries, it stood for a global concept of ecumenism. The preamble proves the optimism to achieve church unity: “We thank God and rejoice over agreements reached; upon our agreements we build. Where the reports record dif- ferences, we call upon the Christian world to an earnest reconsideration of the conflicting opinions now held, and a strenuous endeavour to reach the truth as it is in God’s mind, which should be the foundation of the Church’s unity.”7 The course for establishing a World Council of Churches was thus set.
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