ECUMENISM
In the run-up to the General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (Kek). The meeting will take place in Novi Sad, in Serbia, from May 31st to June 6th. About 500 people are expected to arrive from all over the continent. They are the leaders of the 115 member churches of Kek and belong to the three big families, the Christian, Protestant and Anglican ones. The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox church of Antioch and All the East, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, have already confirmed they will be there. Guest speakers will include leaders of European institutions, such as Frans Timmermans, first deputy president of the European Commission, and Mairead McGuinness, first deputy president of the European Parliament. The General Assembly of the Conference of European Christian Churches will be called “You will be my witnesses”. It is the most important decision-making body of Kek: it is convened every 5 years, and that’s when Churches leaders meet to assess the progress made, share views about the changed situation of the Churches in Europe, and try to find out together what message and what service they should provide to the European continent at this time in history. “It is therefore a crucial meeting”, father Heikki Huttunen, general secretary of Kek, explains to SIR, because “the Assembly lists the priorities of our efforts for the next five years, without planning but giving guidance instead”. “The issues we are most concerned about – Huttunen goes on – are migration; the economic crisis that is still growing in many parts of Europe, causing a general feeling of uncertainty; the environmental challenges. The Churches are wondering where their hope for our people is coming from, what direction they should take, and what it means for people to be witnesses today”. The Churches in Europe do a lot, and their efforts are mainly invested locally. “There are some who have opened the doors of their houses or the doors of the Churches to migrants. There are some who have given a voice to those who do not have a voice. There are some who have effectively helped those who do not have a job, are poor, are lonely”. “But maybe what they do is not visible or is not properly visible”, father Huttunen points out. “So, the question is: how can we make these efforts known to the public opinion, how can we give visibility to the role that the Churches play? In this respect, I think Pope Francis is an answer to this question. Because many people see what the Pope is doing to bring the Churches out of themselves and put them at the service of people, especially the people who suffer most. He is giving greater integrity to the service of the Church, even internationally. Maybe he is showing a new way of being a Church”.
