A "Charter" for guidance” “

The annual meeting of the general secretaries of the National Councils of Churches was held in Tallin (Estonia) from 15 to 18 April. The National Councils are ecumenical bodies present in most European countries. Some fifteen of them were represented at Tallin. The meeting was “hosted” by the Conference of European Churches (CEC). Ethics, a field in which to work together. The meeting focused on the theme of values and ethics. According to the surveys of the Research Institute of the Finnish Lutheran Church, 25% of Europeans call themselves “active believers”, i.e. regularly go to church, while only 19% define themselves as “non-religious”. In the light of these data, it emerges – explains the Finnish Kimmo Kaariainen – that it is the religious aptitude, and not the teaching of the Churches, that influences private morality, while neither the Churches nor religious inspiration seem able to impact on public morality. Indeed it is precisely on questions of morality – and sexual morality in particular – that the European Churches are divided today: homosexuality and abortion are the most delicate issues, on which no agreement has yet been found. According to the delegates present, one of the most urgent tasks for the ecumenical movement is to create a forum for discussion and debate on controversial ethical issues. This is required by the ecumenical process, but it is also required by society that expects a clear position from the Churches, and by the institutions of the new Europe that are seeking in the churches for a single partner and not an internally divided interlocutor. What needs to be avoided, said Keith Clements, general secretary of CEC, is a false opposition between tradition and liberalism: “the value represented by tradition must always and continuously be founded anew, and in this the method of the free investigation of what is the truth is needed”. From one of the work groups also emerged an invitation to identify what are the peculiarly Christian values and to foster a rediscovery of their single roots, as witness for society. Ecumenism: fatigue and reconfiguration. Recurrent terms at the meeting were also “ecumenical fatigue” and “reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement”. “Various churches are experiencing an ‘identity withdrawal’ – said Inneke Bekker, secretary of the Dutch Council of the Churches – and this is having a big impact, especially when it’s the Catholic Church, that has always been an active protagonist of ecumenical dialogue in Holland, that is withdrawing into itself”. But the fatigue is also linked to the perception of a loss of orientation, a lack of precise objectives that are achievable by the ecumenical process. Perhaps it’s also for this reason that various structures have begun to have second thoughts: at the world level, the former general secretary of the World Council of Churches Conrad Reiser had begun this process in 2002; at the European level, the Conference of European Churches (CEC) has recently set up an ad hoc work group with the task of drafting a document of analysis and proposals for the next meeting of its Central Committee. But individual countries too, in northern Europe, have begun to slim down, modify or even eliminate some ecumenical structures (UK, Denmark, Norway…). “What we need – explained Silvya Raulo, ad interim delegate for the European region at the WCC – is to create more dynamic and less costly ecumenical structures, rethink their status within the Churches, adapt them to the new post-cold war situation, and be more open to the inter-religious dimension and to diakonia”. Despite that, ecumenism continues. But in spite of this “disorientation” and the financial problems that worry many councils, a constant commitment to ecumenism does emerge from the reports. The Charta oecumenica continues to be for many countries a “backbone” for their own projects. Sweden and Germany have concentrated on projects in the inter-religious field; Holland, Slovakia and Austria have privileged political and social commitment and the contribution to European integration. The Charter will continue to be a fundamental reference point for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly “Christ, light of the future. Christian identity and its contribution to contemporary Europe” due to be held in 2007.