Finding new paths of unity ” “

The Protestant world is preparing to celebrate in 2017 the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Over the past days over 200 representatives of European and world Protestantism convened to draw up an agenda for 2017. In five days of work (October 6-10), on the initiative of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Switzerland and of the evangelical Church in Germany, the debate focused on the story of Protestantism, the meaning of the Reformation for the churches and society, the ongoing challenges involving the evangelical churches, the ecumenical bearing of the Protestant movement. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, delivered a lecture on the theme: “The Ecumenical prospects of the Reformation Jubilee”. Among the panel speakers figured the ex primate of the Anglican Communion Rowan Williams, the general secretary of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (CEC), pastor Olaf Tveit; Margot Kässmann, ambassador of the German Evangelical Church for the Jubilee. Repent and start anew. “Luther did not intend to found a new Church. He wanted to renew the Church. The Protestant theologian Pannenberg said, the Reformation did not succeed. In fact, a separate Church was established. The Reformation will be fulfilled when it will bring reconciliation and the unity of Christians”. Thus Cardinal Kurt Koch motivates the need to jointly observe a story that “brought divisions and wars of religion”. While positive aspects have marked the Reformation for the present and for the past, namely, “the rediscovery of the Gospel” we cannot “simply overlook the fact that violence is an element that also came into play in the division between Churches”. For the cardinal, the first step leading to a joint celebration of the Reformation “is an ecumenical celebration of penance meant as a gesture of mutual healing”. From there we must start anew “to jointly identify the common path for the future”. For the cardinal this means “to reach a common understanding for unity, if that’s what we still all want”. He added: “the time has come for a joint statement on the Church, the Eucharist and the ministries, after the 1999 joint statement on justification, “to face thorny issues and find new paths of unity”. The fruit of Reformation. The positive heritage of the Reformation “is strictly linked to the idea of a society (both secular and ecclesial) capable of questioning itself, faithful to the fundamental affirmation of the action of God, whereby anxiety and rivalry are eliminated, united by a common conversation on the Scriptures open to the possibility of new perspectives and new challenges in this context”, summarized the ex primate of the Anglican communion Rowan Williams. The English bishop drew a portrait of the consequences for Western Christianity, that are equally positive and ambiguous, stemming from the peculiar features of the Reformation. “The fundamental issues of an authentic theology of the Reformation represent non only a recovery of the most radical ideas of Patristic thought, they also provide profound and consistent resources to face the ongoing social crisis, as it happens with the tradition of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, understood as complementary set of thoughts”, he said. In particular, Williams sees in the emphasis of the Reformation on the sovereignty of God a freedom from moralistic judgement on merit and an invitation to put into our actions and relations the very same faithfulness to the promise of love which belongs to God”. A workshop of unity has been opened. “We have jointly undertaken the road for the anniversary of the Reformation in 2017”, said Gottfried Locher, president of the Council of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Switzerland, upon the conclusion of the works in Zurich, which for Locher are “a milestone on the path of unity”. The high participation of the church leaders “testifies to the will to deepen and strengthen their communion” beyond national borders, Locher added. According to Margot Kässmann “preparations for the anniversary received decisive encouragement and thrust”, through a variety of shared ideas and projects. The dialogue will continue in the next four years. “I have faith that the anniversary of the Reformation will be celebrated in a global and ecumenical horizon”, Kässmann said.