A “cloud” of testimonies

The symposium “Una nube di testimoni: opportunità per una commemorazione ecumenica” (-A cloud of testimonies: opportunities for an ecumenical commemoration-) was closed with a final statement addressed to all the Christian Churches. The meeting was held in the past days at the monastery of Bose (Italy) on the initiative of the monastic community and of the Faith and Constitution Commission of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (ECC). Participants urged Church communities to grant more space to the joint commemoration of the testimonies of faith while celebrating also those of other confessions in order “to contribute to the reconciliation of memories and to Christians’ mutual understanding”. Some eighty theologians and world leaders of Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Anglican and Pentecostal Churches attended the event.Saints of a divided Church. “The persons that the Churches worship as saints show what is true for all Christians, thus conveying the significance of baptized life. However, there are also the Saints of a divided Church”. The point was raised by the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in a message for the Symposium. “Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants suffered by hands of other Christians throughout the Eastern and Western worlds. These people have been recognized as martyrs. How can we celebrate the memory of those who died by our own hands?” “These martyrs lead us to identify ourselves with Christ, that is near all the victims of violence and exclusion. At the same time, we ought to acknowledge our complicity in the distorted violence and the distorted perspective that has generated it”. “When we celebrate saints in an ecumenical context – Archbishop Williams declared – we are celebrating the Church to come: the eschatological body of Christ which all those who served in truth equally share, even though they have been divided by historical events”. A joint testimony. “There are a number of challenges that we ought to face in order to solicit the ecumenical commemoration of the testimonies of faith”, claimed Tamara Grzdelidze, from the Faith and Constitution Commission of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (ECC). One of these is “the different roles ascribed to the testimonies, since in some traditions they are invoked in the prayers, while other traditions developed different forms of worship”. Another challenge is “avoiding the creation of an alternative and fixed list of testimonies of faith. It’s important to bear in mind that the ‘borders’ of the ‘cloud’ are in constant evolution and human capacities are unable to define its dimension”. Each Church “can decide to celebrate her saints during ecumenical events, but it’s important for local communities to give significance to these commemorations”, she added. “The joint celebration of the cloud of testimonies is one of the steps leading to Church unity”, Tamara Grzdelidze affirmed. Indeed, “ecumenical commemoration is a common Christian testimony before the entire world whereby the faithful of each Church are granted recognition. At the same time, reconciliation most be sought in those cases where the hero of a Church was viewed as another Church’s enemy”. Reconciling memory. “In 1650 – recalled Swiss theologian Dagmar Heller, – the Valdese Giovanni Luigi Pascale was burnt to death in Rome for his religious beliefs. This could be an opportunity for his joint commemoration by Rome’s Catholic and Valdese faithful”. According to Heller, “the co-production of calendars and biographies with emphasis on the joint martyrdom – as the case of three Catholic priests killed with a Protestant pastor in Hamburg in 1943, thus causing their blood to jointly enter the soil – is another possibility of cooperation”. However, it should be kept in mind that “different histories and spiritualities are permanent traits”. For example, “the Saints’ commemoration is not very popular in Lutheran Churches due to Luther’s claim that the Bible is the sole source of salvation and according to his justification doctrine that salvation comes from Christ only”. In the same way, underlined theology professor in Paris archimandrite Job Getcha “it’s impossible for the Orthodox Church to commemorate in its liturgy the saints of other confessions until the full unity between this confession and Orthodoxy is restored”. A path to be undertaken. According to Heller, it is necessary “to spread the different understanding of saints, at theological and practical level” within an ecumenical framework, while “encouraging local churches to review the history of their own saints and celebrate them jointly with other churches, focusing on those who might represent a problem to other Churches and seeking testimonies that can be jointly viewed as examples of faith”. Finally, Heller pointed out, “a date could be chosen, such as November 1st , as marking the joint celebration of the cloud of testimonies”.