Overcoming mutual fears ” “

Re-focusing on what unites the Christian churches; redefining the relation between minority and majority churches, between men and women, between young and old; accepting the challenges of secularisation and pluralism and finding “common responses” to such problems as peace, reconciliation and ethics: these are the questions being discussed in the ecumenical world. The process goes under the name of “reconfiguration” of the ecumenical movement and of its structures. It is reflection developed in recent years within the World Council of Churches and last year the debate was also opened within the Conference of European Churches (CEC), which has issued a document on the question. THE CHALLENGES. “Our Common Way” is the title of the document prepared by the CEC ad hoc group on “Ecumenical Reconfiguration”, set up by the CEC in December 2003 to reflect on the process of “reconfiguration” of the ecumenical movement. The document was presented to the Central Committee of the CEC in October 2004 and adopted as a working paper. Part of the text was also published in Monitor, the CEC news bulletin (no. 48, autumn 2004). The document, first stage of a reflection that will continue in the forthcoming sessions of the Central Committee, has as its objective that of exploring the role of the CEC as a fellowship of churches in Europe and attempting a self-definition of CEC as a first step within the process of “reconfiguration” of the ecumenical movement. The CEC is understood as a dynamic triangle, whose three sides each play a fundamental role. The first has as its sphere “our common faith as the basis for our common vision”. “The CEC – says the document – was founded as a bridge-building organization between churches in different parts of Europe”, all of them “rooted in the common belief in the Triune God”. And it is thanks to this that the CEC member churches ” benefit from mutual spiritual growth and are reinforced in the challenge that consists in being church for others“. The second challenge is that of the churches’ understanding of Europe “not as a fortress but as a framework for internal and external solidarity”: solidarity is a fundamental value for the different areas of work including the sharing of resources. The third challenge is that of the nature of CEC as “a growing fellowship of churches”. It is an “inclusive community” – explains the document – in which minority and majority churches, men and women, young and old co-exist”. The CEC is therefore called to define itself as a community of dialogue and sharing. The churches of Europe are asked to accept the challenges posed to them by “secularism and pluralism, peace and reconciliation, the presence of migrants and refugees, racism and difficult ethical questions”. the context. The general secretary of the CCEE, Msgr. Aldo Giordano, invited by the World Council of Churches to express his views, has offered a written contribution with some observations on the ecumenical situation: The first concerns the context of religious and cultural pluralism in which ecumenism has to live today and the need to “globalize ecumenism”, in response to globalization. The second context cannot but challenge Europe: it is the continent where Christianity was inculturated for the first time and where the deepest divisions of Christianity were born. “Now – said Giordano – Europe has the responsibility to rediscover Christianity and to export re-found unity”. And the crucial point of the search for unity consists, according to Giordano, “in the relation between the history, culture and tradition of the West and of the East”. In particular an important contribution would consist “in conducting together – Churches of the West and Church of the East – a dialogue on secularisation and on the relation with modern culture”. To this is added the fact that in recent years the process of European unification itself makes a strong appeal to ecumenism: “is it – Giordano asks – “tolerable that we have an economically and politically united Europe with its Churches and ecclesial communities divided?”. Another element for reflection is born from the recognition that often ecumenical dialogue is held back not by “strictly theological motives, but by historical, cultural and jurisdictional causes and especially psychological fears…”. WHAT RESPONSES? In this perspective, the CCEE secretary emphasized the need for Christians to re-appropriate their faith; recognize what Christianity is and the reality of their own Church; foster “a strong spirituality, rooted in the Gospel”; open new ways in the search for reconciliation; discover “a unity that does not destroy but fulfils the individual identities”; and strive to ensure that “the identities do not become closed fortresses, but contribute to creating a new reality together”. To this end it is essential – insists Giordano – that the churches deepen and continue their theological dialogues “on the questions that seem to separate us” and that they collaborate “in all possible fields”, as recommended by the Charta Oecumenica that was signed in 2001 and that will be at the centre of the third European Ecumenical Assembly.