The Crisis of the Orthodox Participation in the Ecumenical Movement

THE CRISIS OF THE ORTHODOX PARTICIPATION IN THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

Adelbert Davids

Expectations about the presence and the participation of the Orthodox Churches at the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches [WCC] in December 1998 at Harare, Zimbabwe, ran high. Until recent times most of these churches were member churches of the WCC. But due to internal pressure from conservative groups, the Georgian Orthodox Church has withdrawn from the WCC in May 1997. And by the end of November 1998 the Bulgarian Orthodox Church announced that she had given up her membership earlier that year, which decision became only known officially during the assembly at Harare. There were rumours that other Orthodox Churches would follow the example of the Georgian and the Bulgarian Churches.' This "Orthodox crisis" does not only affect Orthodoxy, which understands itself as the

1 The OrthodoxChurches consist of two "families": the Eastern OrthodoxChurches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The list of Eastern Orthodox member Churches includes now: Church of Greece, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople,Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandriaand All Africa, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antiochand All the East, OrthodoxChurch in Japan, OrthodoxAutocephalous Church of Albania (member since 1994), OrthodoxChurch of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, OrthodoxChurch in America, Church of Cyprus, OrthodoxChurch of Finland, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Romanian Orthodox Church, Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland, Russian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are: Armenian Apostolic Church (Catholicossateof Cilicia), Armenian Apostolic Church (Holy See of Etchmiadzin), Coptic Orthodox Church, Ethiopian OrthodoxTewahedo Church, Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchateof Antioch and All the East. Besidesthese two Orthodox 'families' the ApostolicCatholic AssyrianChurch of the East is also a member church of the WCC. 2 See the paper by the OrthodoxTask Force of the WCC on 'Orthodoxparticipation in the WCC. The current situation: Issues and ways forward' (September, 1998). The report was made to inform the executive committee of the WCC which met at Amersfoort, Netherlands, from 15 tot 18 September 1998. On p. 2 it makes mention of the withdrawalof the Churchof Georgiaand "the impendingwithdrawal" (!) of the Church of Bulgaria, and continues:"Voices within many Orthodoxchurches, in particular lately those of Serbia and Russia, call for immediate withdrawal from the Council, and the Church of Jerusalem,although participating in local ecumenism,has for years abstained from sendingdelegates to WCC meetings". On the situationin post-communistRussia see: William Van den Bercken, 'A new Russianlaw on freedom of religion', Exchange 27 (1998) 311-331. 114

ecclesiological conscience of the one undivided Church of the apostolic and patristic times in the overwhelmingly Protestant world of WCC. It has also serious impacts on the ongoing process towards the self-understanding of the WCC.

Before Canberra

Critical reactions from the Orthodox side on the structure and the methods of the WCC are by no means new. Already during the preparative years of the Sixth Assembly of the WCC which was held in Vancouver in 1983, delegates from the Eastern Orthodox Churches and representatives from the WCC met in a consultation at Sofia, Bulgaria, in May 1981. In their report they clearly put forward the Orthodox points of disagreement.3 In their concern for Christian unity and their faithfulness to the apostolic and patristic teaching the Eastern Orthodox Churches pointed to the Toronto Declaration drawn up by the central committee of the WCC in 1950,4 which said that "no church need fear that by entering into the World Council of Churches it is in danger of denying its heritage. " Besides the many positive aspects of the Orthodox participation in the WCC for the Orthodox themselves,5 there were some major questions to be solved. Above all, the Orthodox felt that they did not have the opportunity to bring forward their position in an adequate way in the theological debates. In the light of the constantly increasing member- ship of Protestant churches and groups, the proportion of the Orthodox votes to the total number of votes in the WCC were only minimal and marginal. But at the same time the report mentions that this was also due to "the absence of an integrated Orthodox approach vis-A-vis the Council and the

3 'Report of an EasternOrthodox-WCC consultation: Orthodox involvement, in the World Council of Churches, Sofia, Bulgaria23-32 May 1981', in: GennadiosLimouris (ed.), OrthodoxVisions of Ecumenism:Statements, Messages and Reports on the Ecumenical Movement1902-1992, Geneva: WCC, 1994, 87-94. 4 The foundingand First Assemblyof the WCC at Amsterdamin 1948 did not go into such fundamentalquestions as the nature of the WCC and its relationshipto the member churches. This was done by the meeting of the central committee at Toronto in 1950 with as result the Toronto Statementcalled 'The Church, the Churches and the World Council of Churches', see the text in: MichaelKinnamon and Brian E. Cope (eds), The EcumenicalMovement: An Anthologyof Key Textsand Voices,Geneva/Grand Rapids, Mich.: WCC/Eerdmans,1997, 463-468.In 1948only a few EasternOrthodox Churches (mainlyGreek-speaking churches) became member of the WCC. The RussianOrthodox Church and the OrthodoxChurches in the communistcountries of Middle and Eastern Europe and in the Balkanswould join only in 1961. Of the Oriental OrthodoxChurches the Ethiopian,the Copticand the IndianMalankara Churches became memberChurches already in 1948; the Syrian Church would follow in 1961, the Armenian Church in 1962. 5 Such as the growingtheological dialogue between the EasternOrthodox and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.