Centenary in France ” “

The Protestant Federation of France celebrated the centenary of its foundation (25 October 1905) on 21-23 October. The Federation’s foundation took place in the same year in which France approved the law on the separation between Church and State that would strongly characterize the system of the secularism of public life in the country. The celebrations of the centenary took place in the “Maison du protestantisme” in Paris in the presence of the highest authorities of the State and 600 invited guests, many of them from various European countries. There were two high points: the official opening of the celebrations with a debate on the secularism of the State on Friday 21 October and an international conference on “The role of Protestantism in Europe” on Saturday 22 October. The conference ended with a final declaration signed by the various representatives of the Protestant Churches of the continent. CHURCHES AND SECULARISM. The representatives of the Protestant Churches in Europe, in their final “Paris Declaration” published at the end of the conference, ask that the secularism of the State be respected. But they also claim a right: that of being able to participate in the political and social debates of European countries, especially if they refer to the good of humanity. “While respecting the independence of the political power from the Churches, we refuse to see the Churches sidelined to the private sphere: we wish to continue to have the means to appeal to and solicit the political, social and economic authorities of our countries and of the European institutions concerning the priority ethical questions for humanity, justice, dignity, freedom of conscience, and the prevention of every form of discrimination”. Speaking at the opening of the celebrations, JEAN-ARNOLD de CLERMONT, President of the Protestant Federation of France, spoke of the need to make new “readjustments” to the law of 1905, in view of the “numerous abuses in the exercise of secularism” that the Federation has repeatedly denounced on behalf of its member churches. THE AUTHORITIES. The political authorities present at the event, however, re-affirmed their position: the law of 1905 is untouchable. In a message to French Protestants, the President of the Republic, JACQUES CHIRAC, said he understood the problems and the difficulties that the Protestant Federation has several times expressed to him. “These questions – he said – must find a response, though without placing in question a law that has profoundly contributed to the civil peace of our country”. The Prime Minister DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN was even tougher. “I am – he said – profoundly attached” to the law of 1905. And he added: “Despite the difficulties, we must re-affirm respect for the principle of secularism in all the public services of the country. They are guarantors of the general interest and of the equality of all citizens in our territory”. CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE. The French Protestant Federation chose to dedicate its centenary to the “European cause”. To this end it organized an international conference on the role of Protestantism and Christianity in the continent, to which it invited representatives of the Protestant Churches of Europe. One finding emerged from the debate: the Christian Churches of Europe are having to come to terms with a marked process of de-christianization of society, in all fields, including the workplace, the family, education and political life. “What we need to do – said the sociologist JEAN-PAUL WILLAIME – is to re-invent Christianity in a disenchanted modernity that has placed in question its own anthropology and the institutions that it itself has aroused (the family and education, for example)”. “In this context – continued the sociologist – Christians are in effect a minority, even though their Churches can still boast of representing, in some countries, an important part of the population. It is, in short, the end of Christianity by inheritance in favour of Christianity by choice: a choice that may permit some men and women to intervene as autonomous subjects and responsible players in their secularised and pluralist environments”. Christians, moreover, cannot “forget that Europe has been a land of wars of religion and of violence between the various Christian confessions. But it was also the land that saw the overcoming of these conflicts”. Of the Churches Europe asks that they find a possible middle way between “difference” and “peaceful co-existence”. “In this sense we may say that ultramodernity also spells the end of a certain kind of ecumenism”: it prompts the Churches “to affirm themselves in their specific identity” while at the same time “playing a role of spiritual, ethical, cultural and even political resource in the broad sense”.