A light from Sibiu

At Sibiu the staff have long been working flat out to receive the delegates and visitors from all over Europe who will animate the Third European Ecumenical Assembly (EEA3), due to be held in the Romanian town from 4 to 9 September. It’s an eagerly awaited event (after the great ecumenical experiences at Basel in 1989 and at Graz in 1997). It has been carefully prepared by all the Christian Churches of Europe through a series of preparatory stages that began in January 2006. The whole process has been coordinated by two European organizations: the CCEE (Council of the European Episcopal Conferences) and the CEC (Conference of European Churches). THE PROTAGONISTS . There are 2,100 official delegates (plus staff, journalists and local volunteers). Half of them were nominated by the 34 Bishops’ Conferences that form part of the CCEE; the other half represent the some 120 member churches of the CEC, by tradition Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant. To the official delegates we should also add 400 guests and, as in previous assemblies, an unspecified number of visitors who will be able to participate in the cultural events accompanying the assembly and the final celebration on Sunday morning. One novel feature of this Third Assembly will be the presence – at the side of the official delegates – of youth aged between 18 and 30: 80 of them come from all over Europe, 40 from Romania. A special programme has been devised for them with a pre-Assembly (from 31 August to 3 September). THE PROGRAMME . The Assembly – with the title “The light of Christ shines upon all. Hope for renewal and unity in Europe” – will open in one of the city’s main squares at 8.00 pm on Tuesday 4 September: the organizers and civil authorities of the city will officially welcome the participants in a programme interspersed with performances of Romanian music and choral singing. The Assembly proper will open on the following day, divided between plenary sessions (in the mornings) and nine forums (in the afternoons) on specific themes. The main speakers will include Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Cardinal Walter Kasper (Vatican), Orthodox Metropolitan Daniel of Iasi (Romania), Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad (Russia), the Lutheran dean Margarethe Isberg (Sweden), the Lutheran bishop Wolfgang Huber (Germany), the President of the European Commission Manuel Barroso, and the President of Romania Trajan Basescu. THE THEMES: THE CHURCH . The delegates will arrive in Sibiu after having studied and reflected on a working document (accessible on the website www.eea3.org) where it is possible to consult a summary of the contributions sent to the CCEE and CEC at the end of the preparatory meetings and events that took place in various European countries before Sibiu. The second part of the document contains introductions to the nine Forums that will be held during the Assembly. On Wednesday 5 September, the general theme will be “The Light of Christ and the Church”. The three forums in the afternoon will respectively discuss unity, spirituality and witness. The difficulties are not concealed; thus the introduction to the first forum declares: “The ecumenical task for the Churches in Europe consists in making this unity visible, despite the barriers caused by their different perceptions of the Church, its sacraments and its ministers”. As far as witness is concerned, the introduction to the forum rejects proselytism (an ecumenical problem that is strongly felt especially in the countries of Eastern Europe) and declares that: “bearing witness together to the love that inspires us presupposes respect for human conscience and dignity”.EUROPE AND THE WORLD . On Thursday 6 Sept., the general theme will be: “The light of Christ and Europe” and the three forums will converge around the themes of Europe, religions and migrations. As far as migrations are concerned, the delegates will discuss how migratory influxes have changed the face of the Churches in Europe. In particular the specific problems of minority Churches and ecclesial communities of immigrants will be debated. On Friday 7 Sept., the theme of the Assembly will be “The Light of Christ and the world” and the three forums in the afternoon will respectively discuss creation, justice and peace. As far as the safeguard of the creation is concerned, the document says: “For too long the Churches have remained silent about the ecological crisis… Faced by the ethical implications of the crisis, they have come to the realization that to remain silent would be tantamount to violating both Christian and human values”. As far as the theme of justice is concerned, strong emphasis is placed in the working document on the commitment to the struggle against poverty because – says the document – “the poor around us are not only greater in number, but also poorer, than they were in the past”. Lastly the theme of peace is introduced with recognition that intervention “of military rather than non-violent character” continues to be absolutely predominant “in the resolution of conflicts”. Hence the question: “How can the Churches in Europe act in such a way as to make possible and effective a non-violent strategy for the resolution of conflicts?”.