Distant, at times

On July 15 the 13th General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) opened in Lyon, France, in the historical Church of Saint Bonaventure. Over 750 delegates of CEC member Churches, namely the Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, and Old Catholic Churches in Europe will convene to reflect on the theme “Called to One Hope in Christ”. A number of Catholic Church representatives from the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences – that are not CEC member Churches – notably Cardinal Paul Ricard, CCEE vice-President and archbishop of Bordeaux and CCEE Secretary General father Duarte da Cunha were also invited to attend the meeting. Follows an ample extract of the address delivered by CEC President Jean-Arnold de Clermont, upon the termination of his six-year mandate. For the first time, the Assembly in Sibiu brought together 2500 delegates, the largest ecumenical network ever. Despite imperfections, Sibiu’s assembly called us to step up our efforts for joint witness. Indeed, the unanimous endorsement of the Charta Oecumenica was the leitmotif of that meeting. I believe that today, on the wake of Sibiu, we ought to respond to the ecumenical expectations expressed on that occasion. This entails establishing closer relations with the Catholic Church of Rome. I am not so naïve as to believe that ecclesiological and theological disagreements between our Churches could simply wane. Does this not happen already among CEC member Churches? But we are still half way through the journey of our common theological and spiritual path. If this path should fail to be explored, in this world in dire need of the joint Christian witness, it will be our own fault. We don’t dispose of miracle-solutions to global warming, nor to the crisis in the economy. And we have no answer to North-South questions or to peace enforcement. But we are capable of giving a meaning to the debates and the initiatives regarding the future of our world, granting primary attention to the youth and refusing to view ourselves as subjected to fate. This attitude reflects our hope in Christ, and our belief that ‘man does not live by bread alone’. My last remark draws inspiration from past June’s elections. High abstention-rates registered across European Countries are not due to opposition to the European project. Rather, this means that a large majority of citizens failed to identify with it. Europe is a cultural, geographic and human reality. But the EU is void of meaning to many, and is widely acknowledged as the subject matter of experts. Thus, it is not surprising that this also occurs in our Churches. Church members bear witness to the universal Church and take part in it. But when the Churches seek to express their hope and their unity in Christ in the European continent and to the service of humanity as a whole, this is often distant and unknown by the majority. By and large the ecumenical movement, understood as the celebration of the glory of God, as the common witness to His Word, as service rendered in the name of Christ to humanity, is probably the most faithful expression of hope in Christ that is our calling. It echoes the hope of God for our world. The Conference of European Churches (CEC) needs each and every Church in our continent, so that this echo may be always correctly understood.