Ecumenical Charter as guide

The ecumenical meeting at Terni (Italy), from 5 to 7 June 2006, has given the go ahead to the second stage of the European Ecumenical Assembly of Sibiu. This ecumenical process towards the great assembly in 2007, on the theme “The light of Christ shines upon all. Hope of renewal and unity in Europe”, had its first stage in Rome from 24 to 27 January 2006. The second stage consists in a series of meetings at the national or regional level of which the first was the one held at Terni in recent days. The third stage will include a meeting of delegates at Wittenberg in Germany, from 15 to 18 February 2007, similar to the one in Rome. The process will culminate in Sibiu (Romania), with the participation of some 2,500 delegates of the European Churches. THE JOURNEY TOWARDS SIBIU. The Ecumenical Charter is the “parameter of mutual relations” between the Churches, declared Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox at the end of the meeting with the title “Christians and Europe”, Italian stage in preparation for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly (EEA3), due to be held by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) at Sibiu (Romania) from 4 to 9 September 2007. The meeting in Terni from 5 to 7 June was the third of a series of ecumenical meetings promoted by the episcopal Commission for ecumenism and dialogue of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), the Federation of the Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI) and the Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Over 200 delegates of the Catholic dioceses and representatives of the Protestant and Orthodox Churches participated in the Terni meeting. The main speakers included the general secretary of the CCEE, Monsignor ALDO GIORDANO , the President of the CEC, JEAN ARNOLD DE CLERMONT , and the secretary for communications of the CEC, LUCA MARIA NEGRO . The various sessions of work were chaired by the chairman of the CEI’s Commission for ecumenism and dialogue, Monsignor VINCENZO PAGLIA , co-moderator of the EEA3 preparatory Committee, by GIANNI LONG , President of the FCEI and by Metropolitan GENNADIOS ZERVOS of the Orthodox archdiocese of Italy and Malta. THE CHURCHES AND EUROPE. At the centre of the meeting in Terni was an analysis of the Ecumenical Charter, signed by the Presidents of the CCEE and CEC in 2001. “The Ecumenical Charter is the programme that accompanies our European ecumenical march towards Sibiu”, declared Msgr. Giordano, who added: “The theme chosen for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly, i.e. Jesus, the light that shines of all men, expresses the need that informs the basis of the Charter: that of finding in Holy Scripture the point of departure for collaboration between the Churches”. The themes chosen for analysis at Sibiu, pointed out Giordano, “are the unity of the churches, spirituality, witness, Europe, religions, migration, creation, justice and peace; these are all themes that can be found in the Ecumenical Charter”. According to De Clermont, “the churches share the heart of the European project, i.e. the construction of a shared space of peace, reconciliation and cooperation”. In the judgement of De Clermont, “the churches must play an active part in the struggle against nationalist and xenophobic fears on which our self-enclosure is based: fear of the foreigner, of the future, and of change. The gospel message, on the contrary, is founded on hope”. RECOMMENDATIONS. The participants in the Terni conference also made some “recommendations” to the Christian Churches of Italy: “the study and deepening of the contents and pledges of the Ecumenical Charter at every level of pastoral activity”; “the extension of the process of dialogue of which the Ecumenical Charter is the symbol to the Christian Churches and Confessions that have not yet signed up to it”; “guidance in ecumenism in the training of students in theology”; and “attention to the problems of communication in the field of ecumenism also through ongoing collaboration between the existing structures”. Other recommendations were addressed to the delegates of the Italian Churches at Sibiu: “communion with Judaism, friendly relations with Islam, the meeting with other religions and visions of the world need to be stepped up by all the Christian Churches of Europe”; “the need to give effective recognition and fulfilment to the rights of the migrant in the spirit of the document Migrations in Europe (drawn up by ACLI, Welcome Centre Association, St. Egidio Community, Astalli Centre, FCEI and Migrantes Foundation in view of the assembly in Sibiu, cf. SIR Europe 41/2006), the fight against economic inequalities and every form of exploitation and trafficking of human beings”; and “the need, spelt out in the Ecumenical Charter, for Europe not to close its own frontiers but to maintain a dialogue with the rest of the world, with particular attention to the Mediterranean and the Middle East”.