MP Delegation To wcc

[joasia]

Andy,

As to the activities in the WCC below: do you believe that this is true to the Orthodox faith? This is the ecumenist spirit.

I don't proclaim to be a saint, but I certainly am not heretical....ecumenism, as reflected below, is ecumenism. I hope for everyone to come to the FULL truth...but I will not accept THEIR false faiths and heretical beliefs.
++++++++++++++++++
On January 24th [2002], Buddhist chants and Christian hymns resounded inside a huge plastic tent decorated with an olive tree. Representatives of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Jianism, Confucianism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and followers of Tenrikyo and African tribal religions including (Voodoo) joined their prayers so that, with one voice, they could ask their respective deities to grant peace to the world.

Crosses and other religious objects were removed by Vatican officials so that non-Christian religious leaders would be free to pray in the manner in which they are accustomed. One by one, religious leaders holding small, glass oil lamps lined up at the podium and read each of the 10 points of a communal commitment. Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was the first of 11 religious leaders to speak. Chief Amadou Gasseto, who described himself as the high priest of followers of Avelekete Vodoo in Benin, echoed the patriarch's point about personal behavior and its decisive role in creating peace or conflict.

The first major public proclamation of the theology of Re-Imagining was made in 1993 at a "Re-Imaging Conference," which had as its main premise that Christianity needed to be reformulated. This theology, which gave such offense in 1993, is now — just 9 years later — spoken of as being perfectly acceptable. In fact, the Interim Associate Director of the Women's Ministry Program Area, Jane Parker Huber, of the American Presbyterian Church, was recently quoted as dismissing the reaction that many people have to Re-Imagining as "too bad."

At that first conference, Delores Williams, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, told the group, "I don't think we need a theory of atonement at all....Atonement has to do so much with death.... I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses, and blood dripping, and weird stuff.... We just need to listen to the god within."

Another speaker, Virginia Mollenkott, who serves on the National Council of Churches Commission to prepare an inclusive language lectionary, claimed that the death of Jesus was the ultimate in child abuse. She said that "the commonly accepted view of Christ's atonement pictures God as an abusive parent, and Jesus as an obedient child.... This violent theology encourages the violence of our streets and of our nation."

[Kollyvas]

(Sure sounds like a seminar on branch theory and its ideological muster. Pardon me, BUT WHERE IS ANY STATED ORTHODOX WITNESS?! R)

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/home-2/ ... ality.html

Christian identity and religious plurality
An exchange between the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Dr Anna May Chain from Myanmar and Dr Assaad Kattan from Lebanon helps participants in today's plenary reflect on and discuss religious plurality and its implications, the significance of Christian identity in different cultures and contexts, and the connection between self-understanding and witness in religiously plural situations.

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/theme-i ... ality.html

Religious plurality and Christian self-understanding
pdf version

The present document is the result of a study process in response to suggestions made in 2002 at the WCC central committee to the three staff teams on Faith and Order, Inter-religious Relations, and Mission and Evangelism, and their respective commissions or advisory bodies. The question of the theological approach to religious plurality had been on the agenda of the WCC many times, reaching a certain consensus in 1989 and 1990.1 In recent years, it was felt that this difficult and controversial issue needed to be revisited.

Some twenty scholars from different contexts and denominations, specialized in religious studies, missiology or systematic theology and part of the networks of the three teams, worked for two years in a significant effort of cooperation between different constituencies in the recent history of the WCC.

It must be emphasized that the paper does not represent the view of the WCC. Discussions in commissions showed how important but also how controversial the matter is. Much careful theological work is needed. This document is shared as a background document for discussion and debate. Further comments, critiques and suggestions from assembly participants or churches and other partners are welcome and will be fed into the continuing reflection on the key issue of Christian self-understanding and witness in a religiously plural world.2

Preamble

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it (Ps. 24:1).

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts (Mal. 1:11).

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).

1. What do the experiences of the psalmist, the prophet and Peter mean for us today? What does it mean to affirm our faith in Jesus Christ joyfully, and yet seek to discern God’s presence and activity in the world? How do we understand such affirmations in a religiously plural world?

I. The challenge of plurality

1. Today Christians in almost all parts of the world live in religiously plural societies. Persistent plurality and its impact on their daily lives are forcing them to seek new and adequate ways of understanding and relating to peoples of other religious traditions. The rise of religious extremism and militancy in many situations has accentuated the importance of inter-religious relations. Religious identities, loyalties, and sentiments have become important components in so many international and inter-ethnic conflicts that some say that the “politics of ideology”, which played a crucial role in the 20th century, has been replaced in our day by the “politics of identity”.

2. All religious communities are being reshaped by new encounters and relationships. Globalization of political, economic, and even religious life brings new pressures on communities that have been in geographical or social isolation. There is greater awareness of the interdependence of human life, and of the need to collaborate across religious barriers in dealing with the pressing problems of the world. All religious traditions, therefore, are challenged to contribute to the emergence of a global community that would live in mutual respect and peace. At stake is the credibility of religious traditions as forces that can bring justice, peace and healing to a broken world.

3. Most religious traditions, however, have their own history of compromise with political power and privilege and of complicity in violence that has marred human history. Christianity, for instance, has been, on the one hand, a force that brought the message of God’s unconditional love for and acceptance of all people. On the other hand, its history, sadly, is also marked by persecutions, crusades, insensitivity to Indigenous cultures, and complicity with imperial and colonial designs. In fact, such ambiguity and compromise with power and privilege is part of the history of all religious traditions, cautioning us against a romantic attitude towards them. Further, most religious traditions exhibit enormous internal diversity attended by painful divisions and disputes.

4. Today these internal disputes have to be seen in the light of the need to promote mutual understanding and peace among the religions. Given the context of increased polarization of communities, the prevalent climate of fear, and the culture of violence that has gripped our world, the mission of bringing healing and wholeness to the fractured human community is the greatest challenge that faces the religious traditions in our day.

The changing context of the Christian faith

1. The global religious situation is also in flux. In some parts of the Western world, the institutional expressions of Christianity are in decline. New forms of religious commitment emerge as people increasingly separate personal faith from institutional belonging. The search for authentic spirituality in the context of a secular way of life presents new challenges to the churches. Further, peoples of other traditions, like Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, etc., who have increasingly moved into these areas, as minorities, often experience the need to be in dialogue with the majority community. This challenges Christians to be able to articulate their faith in ways that are meaningful both to them and their neighbours; dialogue presupposes both faith commitment and the capacity to articulate it in word and deed.

2. At the same time, Christianity, especially in its evangelical and Pentecostal manifestations, is growing rapidly in some regions of the world. In some of the other regions, Christianity is undergoing radical changes as Christians embrace new and vibrant forms of church life and enter into new relationships with indigenous cultures. While Christianity appears to be on the decline in some parts of the world, it has become a dynamic force in others.

3. These changes require us to be more attentive than before to our relationship with other religious communities. They challenge us to acknowledge “others” in their differences, to welcome strangers even if their “strangeness” sometimes threatens us, and to seek reconciliation even with those who have declared themselves our enemies. In other words, we are being challenged to develop a spiritual climate and a theological approach that contributes to creative and positive relationships among the religious traditions of the world.

4. The cultural and doctrinal differences among religious traditions, however, have always made inter-religious dialogue difficult. This is now aggravated by the tensions and animosities generated by global conflicts and mutual suspicions and fears. Further, the impression that Christians have turned to dialogue as a new tool for their mission, and the controversies over “conversion” and “religious freedom”, have not abated. Therefore dialogue, reconciliation and peace-building across the religious divides have become urgent, and yet they are never achieved through isolated events or programs. They involve a long and difficult process sustained by faith, courage and hope.

The pastoral and faith dimensions of the question

1. There is a pastoral need to equip Christians to live in a religiously plural world. Many Christians seek ways to be committed to their own faith and yet to be open to the others. Some use spiritual disciplines from other religious traditions to deepen their Christian faith and prayer life. Still others find in other religious traditions an additional spiritual home and speak of the possibility of “double belonging”. Many Christians ask for guidance to deal with interfaith marriages, the call to pray with others, and the need to deal with militancy and extremism. Others seek for guidance as they work together with neighbours of other religious traditions on issues of justice and peace. Religious plurality and its implications now affect our day-to-day lives.

2. As Christians we seek to build a new relationship with other religious traditions because we believe it to be intrinsic to the gospel message and inherent to our mission as co-workers with God in healing the world. Therefore the mystery of God’s relationship to all God’s people, and the many ways in which peoples have responded to this mystery, invite us to explore more fully the reality of other religious traditions and our own identity as Christians in a religiously plural world.

II. Religious traditions as spiritual journeys

The Christian journey

1. It is common to speak of religious traditions being “spiritual journeys”. Christianity’s spiritual journey has enriched and shaped its development into a religious tradition. It emerged initially in a predominantly Jewish-Hellenistic culture. Christians have had the experience of being “strangers”, and of being persecuted minorities struggling to define themselves in the midst of dominant religious and cultural forces. And as Christianity grew into a world religion, it has become internally diversified, transformed by the many cultures with which it came into contact.

2. In the East, the Orthodox churches have throughout their history been involved in a complex process of cultural engagement and discernment, maintaining and transmitting the Orthodox faith through integration of select cultural aspects over the centuries. On the other hand, the Orthodox churches have also struggled to resist the temptation towards syncretism. In the West, having become the religious tradition of a powerful empire, Christianity has at times been a persecuting majority. It also became the “host” culture, shaping European civilization in many positive ways. At the same time, it has had a troubled history in its relationship with Judaism, Islam, and Indigenous traditions.

3. The Reformation transformed the face of Western Christianity, introducing Protestantism with its proliferation of confessions and denominations, while the Enlightenment brought about a cultural revolution with the emergence of modernity, secularization, individualism, and the separation of church and state. Missionary expansions into Asia, Africa, Latin America and other parts of the world raised questions about the indigenization and inculturation of the gospel. The encounter between the rich spiritual heritage of the Asian religions and the African Traditional Religions resulted in the emergence of theological traditions based on the cultural and religious heritages of these regions. The rise of charismatic and Pentecostal churches in all parts of the world has added yet a new dimension to Christianity.

4. In short, the “spiritual journey” of Christianity has made it a very complex worldwide religious tradition. As Christianity seeks to live among cultures, religions and philosophic traditions and attempts to respond to the present and future challenges, it will continue to be transformed. It is in this context, of a Christianity that has been and is changing, that we need a theological response to plurality.

Religions, identities and cultures

1. Other religious traditions have also lived through similar challenges in their development. There is no one expression of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, etc. As these religions journeyed out of their lands of origin they too have been shaped by the encounters with the cultures they moved into, transforming and being transformed by them. Most of the major religious traditions today have had the experience of being cultural “hosts” to other religious traditions, and of being “hosted” by cultures shaped by religious traditions other than their own. This means that the identities of religious communities and of individuals within them are never static, but fluid and dynamic. No religion is totally unaffected by its interaction with other religious traditions. Increasingly it has become rather misleading even to talk of “religions” as such, and of “Judaism”, “Christianity”, “Islam”, “Hinduism”, “Buddhism”, etc., as if they were static, undifferentiated wholes.

2. These realities raise several spiritual and theological issues. What is the relationship between “religion” and “culture”? What is the nature of the influence they have on one another? What theological sense can we make of religious plurality? What resources within our own tradition can help us deal with these questions? We have the rich heritage of the modern ecumenical movement’s struggle with these questions to help us in our exploration.

III. Continuing an ongoing exploration

The ecumenical journey

1. From the very beginnings of the church, Christians have believed that the message of God’s love witnessed to in Christ needs to be shared with others. It is in the course of sharing this message, especially in Asia and Africa, that the modern ecumenical movement had to face the question of God’s presence among people of other traditions. Is God’s revelation present in other religions and cultures? Is the Christian revelation in “continuity” with the religious life of others, or is it “discontinuous”, bringing in a whole new dimension of knowledge of God? These were difficult questions and Christians remain divided over the issue.

2. The dialogue programme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has emphasized the importance of respecting the reality of other religious traditions and affirming their distinctiveness and identity. It has also brought into focus the need to collaborate with others in the search for a just and peaceful world. There is also greater awareness of how our ways of speaking about our and other religious traditions can lead to confrontations and conflicts. On the one hand, religious traditions make universal truth claims. On the other hand, these claims by implication may be in conflict with the truth claims of others. These realizations, and actual experiences of relationships between peoples of different traditions in local situations, opened the way for Christians to speak of our relationship with others in terms of “dialogue”. Yet, there are many questions awaiting further exploration. What does it mean to be in dialogue when the communities concerned are in conflict? How does one deal with the perceived conflict between conversion and religious freedom? How do we deal with the deep differences among faith communities over the relationship of religious traditions to ethnicity, cultural practices and the state?

3. Within the discussions in the commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the WCC the exploration of the nature of the missionary mandate and its implications in a world of diverse religions, cultures and ideologies have drawn on the concept of missio Dei, God’s own salvific mission in the world, even preceding human witness, in which we are in Christ called to participate. Several issues of CWME’s agenda interact with the present study on religious plurality: What is the relation between cooperation with people of other religious traditions (for justice and peace), involvement in inter-religious dialogue, and the evangelistic mandate of the church? What are the consequences of the intrinsic relation between cultures and religions for the inculturation approach in mission? What are the implications for interfaith relations if mission focuses, as the 2005 conference on world mission and evangelism suggests, on building healing and reconciling communities?

4. The WCC’s plenary commission on Faith and Order, meeting for the first time in a Muslim-majority country (in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2004) spoke of the “journey of faith” as one inspired by the vision of “receiving one another”. The commission asked: How do the churches pursue the goal of visible Christian unity within today’s increasingly multi-religious context? How can the search for visible unity among the churches be an effective sign for reconciliation in society as a whole? To what extent are questions of ethnic and national identity affected by religious identities and vice versa? The commission also explored broader questions arising in multi-religious contexts: What are the challenges which Christians face in seeking an authentic Christian theology that is “hospitable” to others? What are the limits to diversity? Are there valid signs of salvation beyond the church? How do insights from other traditions contribute to our understanding of what it means to be human?

5. It is significant that all three programmatic streams of the WCC converge in dealing with questions that are relevant for a theology of religions. In fact, attempts have been made in recent conferences to deal with, and formulate, positions that take the discussions forward.

Recent developments

1. In its search for consensus among Christians about God’s saving presence in the religious life of our neighbours, the world mission conference in San Antonio (1989) summed up the position that the WCC has been able to affirm: “We cannot point to any other way of salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time we cannot set limits to the saving power of God.” Recognizing the tension between such a statement and the affirmation of God’s presence and work in the life of peoples of other faith traditions, the San Antonio report said that “we appreciate this tension, and do not attempt to resolve it”. The question following the conference was whether the ecumenical movement should remain with these modest words as an expression of theological humility, or whether it should deal with that tension in finding new and creative formulations in a theology of religions.

2. In an attempt to go beyond San Antonio, a WCC consultation on theology of religions in Baar, Switzerland (1990), produced an important statement, drawing out the implications of the Christian belief that God is active as Creator and Sustainer in the religious life of all peoples: “This conviction that God as Creator of all is present and active in the plurality of religions makes it inconceivable to us that God’s saving activity could be confined to any one continent, cultural type, or group of people. A refusal to take seriously the many and diverse religious testimonies to be found among the nations and peoples of the whole world amounts to disowning the biblical testimony to God as Creator of all things and Father of humankind.”

3. Hence, developments in the Mission and Evangelism, Faith and Order, and Dialogue streams of the WCC encourage us to reopen the question of the theology of religions today. Such an inquiry has become an urgent theological and pastoral necessity. The theme of the ninth WCC assembly, “God, in Your Grace, Transform the World”, also calls for such an exploration.

IV. Towards a theology of religions

1. What would a theology of religions look like today? Many theologies of religions have been proposed. The many streams of thinking within the scriptures make our task challenging. While recognizing the diversity of the scriptural witness, we choose the theme of “hospitality” as a hermeneutical key and an entry point for our discussion.

Celebrating the hospitality of a gracious God

1. Our theological understanding of religious plurality begins with our faith in the one God who created all things, the living God present and active in all creation from the beginning. The Bible testifies to God as God of all nations and peoples, whose love and compassion includes all humankind. We see in the covenant with Noah a covenant with all creation that has never been broken. We see God’s wisdom and justice extending to the ends of the earth, as God guides the nations through their traditions of wisdom and understanding. God's glory penetrates the whole of creation. The Hebrew Bible witnesses to the universal saving presence of God throughout human history through the Word or Wisdom and the Spirit.

2. In the New Testament, the incarnation of the Word of God is spoken of by St. Paul in terms of hospitality and of a life turned towards the “other”. Paul proclaims, in doxological language, that “though he (Christ) was in the form of God he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). The self-emptying of Christ, and his readiness to assume our humanity, is at the heart of the confession of our faith. The mystery of the incarnation is God’s deepest identification with our human condition, showing the unconditional grace of God that accepted humankind in its otherness and estrangement. Paul’s hymn moves on to celebrate the risen Christ: “Therefore God has highly exalted him, and given him the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). This has led Christians to confess Jesus Christ as the one in whom the entire human family has been united to God in an irrevocable bond and covenant.

3. This grace of God shown in Jesus Christ calls us to an attitude of hospitality in our relationship to others. Paul prefaces the hymn by saying, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Our hospitality involves self-emptying, and in receiving others in unconditional love we participate in the pattern of God’s redeeming love. Indeed our hospitality is not limited to those in our own community; the gospel commands us to love even our enemies and to call for blessings upon them (Matt.5:43-48; Rom.12:14). As Christians, therefore, we need to search for the right balance between our identity in Christ and our openness to others in kenotic love that comes out of that very identity.

4. In his public ministry, Jesus not only healed people who were part of his own tradition but also responded to the great faith of the Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion (Matt. 15:21-28, 8:5-11). Jesus chose a “stranger”, the Samaritan, to demonstrate the fulfilling of the commandment to love one’s neighbour through compassion and hospitality. Since the gospels present Jesus’ encounter with those of other faiths as incidental, and not as part of his main ministry, these stories do not provide us with the necessary information to draw clear conclusions regarding any theology of religions. But they do present Jesus as one whose hospitality extended to all who were in need of love and acceptance. Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’ parable of the last judgment goes further to identify openness to the victims of society, hospitality to strangers and acceptance of the other as unexpected ways of being in communion with the risen Christ (25:31-46).

5. It is significant that while Jesus extended hospitality to those at the margins of society he himself had to face rejection and was often in need of hospitality. Jesus’ acceptance of the peoples at the margins, as well as his own experience of rejection has provided the inspiration for those who show solidarity in our day with the poor, the despised and the rejected. Thus the biblical understanding of hospitality goes well beyond the popular notion of extending help and showing generosity towards others. The Bible speaks of hospitality primarily as a radical openness to others based on the affirmation of the dignity of all. We draw our inspiration both from Jesus’ example and his command that we love our neighbours.

6. The Holy Spirit helps us to live out Christ’s openness to others. The person of the Holy Spirit moved and still moves over the face of the earth to create, nurture and sustain, to challenge, renew and transform. We confess that the activity of the Spirit passes beyond our definitions, descriptions, and limitations in the manner of the wind that “blows where it wills" (John 3:8). Our hope and expectancy are rooted in our belief that the “economy” of the Spirit relates to the whole creation. We discern the Spirit of God moving in ways that we cannot predict. We see the nurturing power of the Holy Spirit working within, inspiring human beings in their universal longing for, and seeking after, truth, peace and justice (Rom. 8:18-27). “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”, wherever they are found, are the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23, cf. Rom. 14:17).

7. We believe that this encompassing work of the Holy Spirit is also present in the life and traditions of peoples of living faith. People have at all times and in all places responded to the presence and activity of God among them, and have given their witness to their encounters with the living God. In this testimony they speak both of seeking and of having found wholeness, or enlightenment, or divine guidance, or rest, or liberation. This is the context in which we as Christians testify to the salvation we have experienced through Christ. This ministry of witness among our neighbours of other faiths must presuppose an "affirmation of what God has done and is doing among them" (CWME, San Antonio 1989).

8. We see the plurality of religious traditions as both the result of the manifold ways in which God has related to peoples and nations as well as a manifestation of the richness and diversity of human response to God’s gracious gifts. It is our Christian faith in God which challenges us to take seriously the whole realm of religious plurality, always using the gift of discernment. Seeking to develop new and greater understandings of "the wisdom, love and power which God has given to men (and women) of other faiths" (New Delhi report, 1961), we must affirm our “openness to the possibility that the God we know in Jesus Christ may encounter us also in the lives of our neighbours of other faiths” (CWME, San Antonio 1989). We also believe that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, will lead us to understand anew the deposit of the faith already given to us, and into fresh and unforeseen insight into the divine mystery, as we learn more from our neighbours of other faiths.

9. Thus, it is our faith in the trinitarian God, God who is diversity in unity, God who creates, brings wholeness, and nurtures and nourishes all life, which helps us in our hospitality of openness to all. We have been the recipients of God’s generous hospitality of love. We cannot do otherwise.

V. The call to hospitality

1. How should Christians respond in light of the generosity and graciousness of God? “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13:2). In today’s context the “stranger” includes not only the people unknown to us, the poor and the exploited, but also those who are ethnically, culturally and religiously “others” to us. The word “stranger” in the scriptures does not intend to objectify the “other” but recognizes that there are people who are indeed “strangers” to us in their culture, religion, race and other kinds of diversities that are part of the human community. Our willingness to accept others in their “otherness” is the hallmark of true hospitality. Through our openness to the “other” we may encounter God in new ways. Hospitality, thus, is both the fulfillment of the commandment to “love our neighbours as ourselves” and an opportunity to discover God anew.

2. Hospitality also pertains to how we treat each other within the Christian family; sometimes we are as much strangers to each other as we are to those outside our community. Because of the changing world context, especially increased mobility and population movements, sometimes we are the “hosts” to others, and at other times we become the “guests” receiving the hospitality of others; sometimes we receive “strangers” and at other times we become the “strangers” in the midst of others. Indeed we may need to move to an understanding of hospitality as “mutual openness” that transcends the distinctions of “hosts” and “guests”.

3. Hospitality is not just an easy or simple way of relating to others. It is often not only an opportunity but also a risk. In situations of political or religious tension acts of hospitality may require great courage, especially when extended to those who deeply disagree with us or even consider us as their enemy. Further, dialogue is very difficult when there are inequalities between parties, distorted power relations or hidden agendas. One may also at times feel obliged to question the deeply held beliefs of the very people whom one has offered hospitality to or received hospitality from, and to have one’s own beliefs be challenged in return.

The power of mutual transformation

1. Christians have not only learned to co-exist with people of other religious traditions, but have also been transformed by their encounters. We have discovered unknown aspects of God’s presence in the world, and uncovered neglected elements of our own Christian traditions. We have also become more conscious of the many passages in the Bible that call us to be more responsive to others.

2. Practical hospitality and a welcoming attitude to strangers create the space for mutual transformation and even reconciliation. Such reciprocity is exemplified in the story of the meeting between Abraham, the father of faith, and Melchizedek, the non-Israelite king of Salem (Gen. 14). Abraham received the blessing of Melchizedek, who is described as a priest of “God Most High”. The story suggests that through this encounter Abraham’s understanding of the nature of the deity who had led him and his family from Ur and Harran was renewed and expanded.

3. Mutual transformation is also seen in Luke’s narrative of the encounter between Peter and Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit accomplished a transformation in Peter’s self-understanding through his vision and subsequent interaction with Cornelius. This led him to confess that, “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:34-35). In this case, Cornelius the “stranger” becomes an instrument of Peter’s transformation, even as Peter becomes an instrument of transformation of Cornelius and his household. While this story is not primarily about interfaith relations, it sheds light on how God can lead us beyond the confines of our self-understanding in encounter with others.

4. So one can draw consequences from these examples, and from such rich experiences in daily life, for a vision of mutual hospitality among peoples of different religious traditions. From the Christian perspective, this has much to do with our ministry of reconciliation. It presupposes both our witness to the “other” about God in Christ and our openness to allow God to speak to us through the “other”. Mission when understood in this light has no room for triumphalism; it contributes to removing the causes for religious animosity and the violence that often goes with it. Hospitality requires Christians to accept others as created in the image of God, knowing that God may talk to us through others to teach and transform us, even as God may use us to transform others.

5. The biblical narrative and experiences in the ecumenical ministry show that such mutual transformation is at the heart of authentic Christian witness. Openness to the “other” can change the “other”, even as it can change us. It may give others new perspectives on Christianity and on the gospel; it may also enable them to understand their own faith from new perspectives. Such openness, and the transformation that comes from it, can in turn enrich our lives in surprising ways.

VI. Salvation belongs to God

1. The religious traditions of humankind, in their great diversity, are “journeys” or “pilgrimages” towards human fulfillment in search for the truth about our existence. Even though we may be “strangers” to each other, there are moments in which our paths intersect that call for “religious hospitality”. Both our personal experiences today and historical moments in the past witness to the fact that such hospitality is possible and does take place in small ways.

2. Extending such hospitality is dependant on a theology that is hospitable to the “other”. Our reflections on the nature of the biblical witness to God, what we believe God to have done in Christ, and the work of the Spirit shows that at the heart of the Christian faith lies an attitude of hospitality that embraces the “other” in their otherness. It is this spirit that needs to inspire the theology of religions in a world that needs healing and reconciliation. And it is this spirit that may also bring about our solidarity with all who, irrespective of their religious beliefs, have been pushed to the margins of society.

3. We need to acknowledge that human limitations and limitations of language make it impossible for any community to have exhausted the mystery of the salvation God offers to humankind. All our theological reflections in the last analysis are limited by our own experience and cannot hope to deal with the scope of God’s work of mending the world.

4. It is this humility that enables us to say that salvation belongs to God, God only. We do not possess salvation; we participate in it. We do not offer salvation; we witness to it. We do not decide who would be saved; we leave it to the providence of God. For our own salvation is an everlasting “hospitality” that God has extended to us. It is God who is the “host” of salvation. And yet, in the eschatological vision of the new heaven and the new earth, we also have the powerful symbol of God becoming both a “host” and a “guest” among us: “‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples...’” (Rev. 21:3).

1 For the world mission conference of 1989, cf. F.R.Wilson ed., The San Antonio Report, WCC, 1990, in particular pp.31-33. For the 1990 consultation in Baar, Switzerland, see Current Dialogue, no. 19, Jan. 1991, pp.47-51.

2 Reactions can be sent to the secretariat of the policy reference committee or to the World Council of Churches, General Secretariat, P.O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, bc@wcc-coe.org.

[Kollyvas]

(Still no stated interest in or even recognition of Orthodox ecclesiology.--R)

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/theme-i ... ality.html

Plenary on Christian identity and religious plurality

Archbishop of Canterbury
Address to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches

If someone says to you ‘Identify yourself!’ you will probably answer first by giving your name – then perhaps describing the work you do, the place you come from, the relations in which you stand. In many cultures, you would give the name of your parents or your extended family. To speak about ‘identity’, then, is to speak about how we establish our place in the language and the world of those around us: names are there to be used, to be spoken to us, not just by us; work is how we join in the human process of transforming our environment; and who we are becomes clear to those around when we put ourselves in a map of relationships. Before we start thinking about what is essential to Christian identity in the abstract, it may help us just for a moment to stay with this element of simply putting ourselves on the map.

So in these terms how do we as Christians answer the challenge to identify ourselves? We carry the name of Christ. We are the people who are known for their loyalty to, their affiliation with, the historical person who was given the title of ‘anointed monarch’ by his followers – Jesus, the Jew of Nazareth. Every time we say ‘Christian’, we take for granted a story and a place in history, the story and place of those people with whom God made an alliance in the distant past, the people whom he called so that in their life together he might show his glory. We are already in the realm of work and relations. We are involved with that history of God’s covenant. As those who are loyal to an ‘anointed monarch’ in the Jewish tradition, our lives are supposed to be living testimony to the faithfulness of God to his commitments. There is no way of spelling out our identity that does not get us involved in this story and this context. Explaining the very word ‘Christ’ means explaining what it is to be a people who exist because God has promised to be with them and whom God has commanded to show what he is like.

And to say that we are now under the authority of an anointed monarch whose life on earth was two millennia ago is also to say at once something about that ‘monarch’. His life and presence are not just a matter of record, of narrative. There are groups that identify themselves by their founders – Lutherans, Marxists – but the name Christians use of themselves is not like that because of what the title ‘Christ’ means. We do not look back to a founder; we look now, around, within, for a presence that has authority over our lives and is active today. And so we already imply the ways in which we shall be thinking theologically, doctrinally, about the story of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

But as we go further, the identity we are sketching becomes fuller still. What does the anointed king tell us to do and how does he give us power to do it? We are to reveal, like the Jewish people, that the God whose authority the king holds is a God of justice, impartial, universal, and a God who is free to forgive offences. But we are also to show who God is by the words our king tells us to address to God. We are to call him ‘Father’, to speak in intimate and bold words. Our identity is not just about relations with other human beings and our labours to shape those relationships according to justice and mercy. It is about our relation to God, and the ‘work’ of expressing that relation in our words and acts. In Greek, the word leitourgeia first meant work for the sake of the public good, before it came to mean the public service of God. Christian identity is ‘liturgical’ in both senses, the work of a people, a community, showing God to each other and to the world around them, in daily action and in worship. Our ‘liturgy’ is both the adoration of God for God’s own sake and the service of a world distorted by pride and greed. It is expressed not only in passion for the human family, especially in the middle of poverty and violence, but in passion for the whole material world, which continues to suffer the violence involved in sustaining the comfort of a prosperous human minority at the cost of our common resources.

‘Identify yourself!’ says the world to the Christian; and the Christian says (as the martyrs of the first centuries said), ‘We are the servants of a monarch, the monarch of a nation set free by God’s special action to show his love and strength in their life together, a monarch whose authority belongs to the present and the future as much as the past. We are witnesses to the consistency of a God who cannot be turned aside from his purpose by any created power, or by any failure or betrayal on our part. We are more than servants or witnesses, because we are enabled to speak as if we were, like our king, free to be intimate with God; God has stepped across the distance between ourselves and heaven, and has brought us close to him. When we speak directly to God, we speak in a voice God himself has given us to use.’

So, as Christians spell out, bit by bit, what is the meaning of the name they use of themselves, they put themselves on the map of human history. Before they start analysing the doctrines that are necessary for this identity to be talked about and communicated abstractly, they speak of themselves as belonging in this story and this set of possibilities. Creed and structure flow from this. And it can be put most forcefully, even shockingly, if we say that Christians identify themselves not only as servants of the anointed king but as Christ. Their place in the world is his place. By allowing themselves to be caught up into his witness and doing what his authority makes possible for them, in work and worship, they stand where he stands. The Christian Scriptures say that believers bear the name of Christ, that this name is written on their foreheads, that their life together is a material ‘body’ for the anointed king on earth.

Christian identity is to belong in a place that Jesus defines for us. By living in that place, we come in some degree to share his identity, to bear his name and to be in the same relationships he has with God and with the world. Forget ‘Christianity’ for a moment – Christianity as a system of ideas competing with others in the market: concentrate on the place in the world that is the place of Jesus the anointed, and what it is that becomes possible in that place.

There is a difference between seeing the world as basically a territory where systems compete, where groups with different allegiances live at each other’s expense, where rivalry is inescapable, and seeing the world as a territory where being in a particular place makes it possible for you to see, to say and to do certain things that aren’t possible elsewhere. The claim of Christian belief is not first and foremost that it offers the only accurate system of thought, as against all other competitors; it is that, by standing in the place of Christ, it is possible to live in such intimacy with God that no fear or failure can ever break God’s commitment to us, and to live in such a degree of mutual gift and understanding that no human conflict or division need bring us to uncontrollable violence and mutual damage. From here, you can see what you need to see to be at peace with God and with God’s creation; and also what you need to be at peace with yourself, acknowledging your need of mercy and re-creation.

This perspective assumes from the beginning that we live in a world of plural perspectives, and that there is no ‘view from nowhere’, as philosophers sometimes express the claim to absolute knowledge. To be a Christian is not to lay claim to absolute knowledge, but to lay claim to the perspective that will transform our most deeply rooted hurts and fears and so change the world at the most important level. It is a perspective that depends on being where Jesus is, under his authority, sharing the ‘breath’ of his life, seeing what he sees – God as Abba, Father, a God completely committed to the people in whose life he seeks to reproduce his own life.

In what sense is this an exclusive claim? In one way, it can be nothing except exclusive. There is no Christian identity that does not begin from this place. Try to reconstruct the ‘identity’ from principles, ideals or whatever, and you end up with something that is very different from the scriptural account of being ‘in Christ’. And because being in Christ is bound up with one and only one particular history – that of Jewish faith and of the man from Nazareth – it is simply not clear what it would mean to say that this perspective could in principle be gained by any person anywhere with any sort of commitments. Yet in another sense exclusivism is impossible here, certainly the exclusivism of a system of ideas and conclusions that someone claims to be final and absolute. The place of Jesus is open to all who want to see what Christians see and to become what Christians are becoming. And no Christian believer has in his or her possession some kind of map of where exactly the boundaries of that place are to be fixed, or a key to lock others out or in.

In the nature of the case, the Christian does not see what can be seen from other perspectives. He or she would be foolish to say that nothing can be seen or that every other perspective distorts everything so badly that there can be no real truth told. If I say that only in this place are hurts fully healed, sins forgiven, adoption into God’s intimate presence promised, that assumes that adoption and forgiveness are to be desired above all other things. Not every perspective has that at the centre. What I want to say about those other views is not that they are in error but that they leave out what matters most in human struggle; yet I know that this will never be obvious to those others, and we can only come together, we can only introduce others into our perspective, in the light of the kind of shared labour and shared hope that brings into central focus what I believe to be most significant for humanity. And meanwhile that sharing will also tell me that there may be things – perhaps of less ultimate importance, yet enormously significant – that my perspective has not taught me to see or to value.

What does this mean for the actual, on-the-ground experience of living alongside the plurality of religious communities – and non-religious ones too – that we cannot escape or ignore in our world? I believe that our emphasis should not be on possessing a system in which all questions are answered, but precisely on witness to the place and the identity that we have been invited to live in. We are to show what we see, to reproduce the life of God as it has been delivered to us by the anointed. And it seems from what we have already been saying that at the heart of this witness must be faithful commitment. Christian identity is a faithful identity, an identity marked by consistently being with both God and God’s world. We must be faithful to God, in prayer and liturgy, we must simply stand again and again where Jesus is, saying, ‘Abba’. When Christians pray the Eucharistic prayer, they take the place of Jesus, both as he prays to the Father and as he offers welcome to the world at his table. The Eucharist is the celebration of the God who keeps promises and whose hospitality is always to be trusted. But this already tells us that we have to be committed to those around us, whatever their perspective. Their need, their hope, their search for healing at the depth of their humanity is something with which we must, as we say in English, ‘keep faith’. That is to say, we must be there to accompany this searching, asking critical questions with those of other faiths, sometimes asking critical questions of them also. As we seek transformation together, it may be by God’s gift that others may find their way to see what we see and to know what is possible for us.

But what of their own beliefs, their own ‘places’? Sometimes when we look at our neighbours of other traditions, it can be as if we see in their eyes a reflection of what we see; they do not have the words we have, but something is deeply recognisable. The language of ‘anonymous Christianity’ is now not much in fashion – and it had all kinds of problems about it. Yet who that has been involved in dialogue with other faiths has not had the sense of an echo, a reflection, of the kind of life Christians seek to live? St Paul says that God did not leave himself without witnesses in the ages before the Messiah; in those places where that name is not named, God may yet give himself to be seen. Because we do not live there, we cannot easily analyse let alone control how this may be. And to acknowledge this is not at all to say that what happens in the history of Israel and Jesus is relative, one way among others. This, we say, is the path to forgiveness and adoption. But when others appear to have arrived at a place where forgiveness and adoption are sensed and valued, even when these things are not directly spoken of in the language of another faith’s mainstream reflection, are we to say that God has not found a path for himself?

And when we face radically different notions, strange and complex accounts of a perspective not our own, our questions must be not ‘How do we convict them of error? How do we win the competition of ideas?’ but, ‘What do they actually see? and can what they see be a part of the world that I see?’ These are questions that can be answered only by faithfulness – that is, by staying with the other. Our calling to faithfulness, remember, is an aspect of our own identity and integrity. To work patiently alongside people of other faiths is not an option invented by modern liberals who seek to relativise the radical singleness of Jesus Christ and what was made possible through him. It is a necessary part of being where he is; it is a dimension of ‘liturgy’, staying before the presence of God and the presence of God’s creation (human and non-human) in prayer and love. If we are truly learning how to be in that relation with God and the world in which Jesus of Nazareth stood, we shall not turn away from those who see from another place. And any claim or belief that we see more or more deeply is always rightly going to be tested in those encounters where we find ourselves working for a vision of human flourishing and justice in the company of those who do not start where we have started.

But the call to faithfulness has some more precise implications as well. In a situation where Christians are historically a majority, faithfulness to the other means solidarity with them, the imperative of defending them and standing with them in times of harassment or violence. In a majority Christian culture, the Christian may find himself or herself assisting the non-Christian community or communities to find a public voice. In the UK, this has been a matter largely of developing interfaith forums, working with other communities over issues around migration and asylum and common concerns about international justice, about poverty or environmental degradation, arguing that other faiths should have a share in the partnership between the state and the Church in education, and, not least, continuing to build alliances against anti-semitism. The pattern is not dissimilar elsewhere in Europe. There is a proper element of Christian self-examination involved here as Christians recognise the extent to which their societies have not been hospitable or just to the other.

However, the question also arises of what faithfulness means in a majority non-Christian culture; and this is less straightforward. For a variety of reasons, some based on fact and some on fantasy, many non-Christian majorities regard Christian presence as a threat, or at least as the sign of a particular geopolitical agenda (linked with the USA or the West in general) – despite the long history of Christian minorities in so many such contexts. One of the most problematic effects of recent international developments has been precisely to associate Christians in the Middle East or Pakistan, for example, with an alien and aggressive policy in the eyes of an easily manipulated majority. The suffering of Christian minorities as a result of this is something which all our churches and the whole of this Assembly need constantly to keep in focus.

Yet what is remarkable is the courage with which Christians continue – in Egypt, in Pakistan, in the Balkans, even in Iraq – to seek ways of continuing to work alongside non-Christian neighbours. This is not the climate of ‘dialogue’ as it happens in the West or in the comfortable setting of international conferences; it is the painful making and remaking of trust in a deeply unsafe and complex environment. Only relatively rarely in such settings have Christians responded with counter-aggression or by absolute withdrawal. They continue to ask how they and those of other commitments can be citizens together. It is in this sort of context, I would say, that we most clearly see what it means to carry the cost of faithfulness, to occupy the place of Jesus and so to bear the stresses and sometimes the horrors of rejection and still to speak of sharing and hospitality. Here we see what it is to model a new humanity; and there is enough to suggest that such modelling can be contagious, can open up new possibilities for a whole culture. And this is not simply a question of patience in suffering. It also lays on Christians the task of speaking to those aspects of a non-Christian culture which are deeply problematic – where the environment is one in which human dignity, the status of women, the rule of law and similar priorities are not honoured as they should be. To witness in these things may lay Christians open to further attack or marginalisation, yet it remains part of that identity which we all seek to hold with integrity. Once again, where this happens, all of us need to find ways of making our solidarity real with believers in minority situations.

The question of Christian identity in a world of plural perspectives and convictions cannot be answered in clichés about the tolerant co-existence of different opinions. It is rather that the nature of our conviction as Christians puts us irrevocably in a certain place, which is both promising and deeply risky, the place where we are called to show utter commitment to the God who is revealed in Jesus and to all those to whom his invitation is addressed. Our very identity obliges us to active faithfulness of this double kind. We are not called to win competitions or arguments in favour of our ‘product’ in some religious marketplace. If we are, in the words of Olivier Clement, to take our dialogue beyond the encounter of ideologies, we have to be ready to witness, in life and word, to what is made possible by being in the place of Jesus the anointed – ‘our reasons for living, for loving less badly and dying less badly’ (Clement, Anachroniques, p.307). ‘Identify yourself!’ And we do so by giving prayerful thanks for our place and by living faithfully where God in Jesus has brought us to be, so that the world may see what is the depth and cost of God’s own fidelity to the world he has made.

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/theme-i ... ation.html

Plenary on Christian identity and religious plurality

Message from Dr Deborah Weissman

Shalom from Jerusalem.

It is indeed an honor for me to be greeting this most impressive assemblage, as a Jew and as an Israeli. I have the privilege of serving on the Executive of the Inter-religious Coordinating Council in Israel, which is also the Israeli chapter of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

I have attended many other WCC functions over the past 18 years, but this is the largest, most diverse and exciting.

What a thrill and a privilege to be living in a time when people of many different traditions can work together as partners in the quest for peace, justice, human rights, an end to racism and oppression. I am grateful to the WCC for having given me this opportunity to be part of your deliberations. Very soon, I will have to leave the conference for a day, in order to be able to celebrate the Sabbath, the Shabbat, with the local Jewish community. Coincidentally, tomorrow's weekly Torah Portion is "Yitro," or "Jethro," from the Book of Exodus, chapters 18 through 20. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law and intimate advisor, was a Midianite priest. This kind of ancient interfaith cooperation was foreshadowed earlier in Exodus by the life-saving deeds of the midwives and Pharaoh's daughter.

Unfortunately, because I will not be here tomorrow, I will not be able to participate in the very important session on "Overcoming Violence." This is a crucial challenge for all of us but particularly for my region of the world, the troubled and volatile Middle East. The common wisdom is that religion is a factor that fans the flames of hatred and violence. But for many of us, religion can also be a positive factor, promoting peaceful dialogue. As we have seen in the WCC's interfaith initiative called "Thinking Together," under the leadership of Hans Ucko, our religious cultures may indeed contain potentially problematic texts and traditions, but they also contain tools for alternate interpretations of those texts, as well as spiritual and cultural resources for developing a more positive approach to the Other. For example, we in the Inter-religious Coordinating Council in Israel have, for the past three years, sponsored a dialogue among rabbis, imams and priests called Kedem, a Hebrew acronym for "Voices of Religious Reconciliation." Those voices sometimes seem to be drowned out by the extremists in all of our communities, but they do exist and must be supported and strengthened.

You have, in the theme chosen for your assembly, called upon God, in His grace, to transform the world. I would like to conclude with a Jewish contribution to this discussion. When human beings discover cures for diseases, develop medicine, science, technology, preserve our environment, we are partners with God in Creation. When we study and interpret sacred texts, write new commentaries, apply the insights of those texts to changing situations, we are partners with God in Revelation. And when we engage in Tikkun Olam, literally "mending" or "fixing" or perhaps transforming the world, through our striving for peace, justice, human life and dignity, we are partners with God in Redemption. For Jews, the opportunity for contemplating these challenges, resolving to undertake them and anticipating what a transformed world might be like, is the Sabbath. I will leave you with the traditional Jewish greeting of Sabbath peace, "Shabbat Shalom."

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Plenary on Christian identity and religious plurality

Address to the Ninth WCC Assembly
by Katsunori Yamanoi
Chairman, Board of Directors, Rissho Kosei-kai

Greetings everyone, my name is Katsunori Yamanoi and I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rissho Kosei-kai. On behalf of Rissho Kosei-kai, I would like to express my profound gratitude for this opportunity to participate in the Ninth WCC Assembly. I would also like to express my deep respect for the WCC, which has made a great contribution to harmony among different churches and interreligious dialogue for more than half a century.

Rissho Kosei-kai has sent representatives to every WCC Assembly since the Sixth WCC Assembly was convened in Vancouver, Canada. And since 1985, Rissho Kosei-kai has continued dialogue with the WCC through its liaison office in Geneva, Switzerland. Rissho Kosei-kai is also the parent organization of the Niwano Peace Foundation, which in 1986 awarded the Fourth Niwano Peace Prize to Dr. Phillip A. Potter, the former WCC General Secretary. Long before then, in 1969, Nikkyo Niwano, Founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, met with then WCC General Secretary Eugene Carson Blake at WCC Headquarters in Switzerland. Their exchange of ideas formed a bond transcending their differences of faith.

Rissho Kosei-kai is a lay Buddhist organization aiming to live life according to the True Dharma revealed by Shakyamuni. We continue to grow spiritually confirming and reconfirming the essence of what Shakyamuni wanted to convey to us.

This year, Rissho Kosei-kai will reach a turning point as we observe the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Founder Nikkyo Niwano. In life, Founder Niwano’s goal was the realization of peace through interreligious dialogue and cooperation, and so he worked tirelessly to establish and develop WCRP, the World Conference of Religions for Peace. The basis of his work was the “One Vehicle” spirit, that is, “Since by nature all human beings are riding together on the same vehicle, we should be broad-minded, respect one another, and cooperate with each other.” Today, as I participate in this Ninth General Assembly, I once again realize that the world all of you in the WCC are striving toward is the same for me as a Buddhist.

The WCC has proclaimed the first decade of the twenty-first century to be “The Decade to Overcome Violence.” Truly, this is a timely appeal. At present, war and acts of terrorism continue unabated in our world. People’s hearts are swelling with suspicion, antagonism, and misunderstanding. We religious people cannot afford to overlook this.

Shakyamuni showed us the True Way when he said, “Truly, malice cannot be extinguished with malice. Only through compassion can it be extinguished.” And Dr. Martin Luther King said that, “Returning violence with violence increases violence, and only makes a dark, starless night that much darker. Darkness cannot be chased away with darkness. Only light can do that. Hatred is not dispelled by hatred. Only love can do that.” Compassion and love are all we can rely upon to overcome violence.

I understand that the world of compassion, the world of love for which we strive, cannot be realized in a day and a night. Nevertheless, I believe that if religious leaders can have sincere dialogue and cooperate with each other, then step by step society, and the world, will have peace. This belief is etched in my heart, and my hope is that from now on, I will strive in that direction, hand in hand with all of the members of the WCC.

By the way, in August of this year, the Eighth Assembly of WCRP will be convened in Kyoto, Japan. The host of this Assembly is Nichiko Niwano, President of Rissho Kosei-kai. This will be WCRP’s first Assembly of the twenty-first century, and I sincerely hope, from the bottom of my heart, that many members of the WCC will be able to cooperate with and participate in the Assembly so that it will be even more productive.

I would like to conclude my address today with my earnest prayer that the results of this Ninth WCC Assembly will become a chapter of brightly shining hope in world history and be an inspiration showing humanity how to live.

Thank you very much.

[Kollyvas]

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/news-me ... -issu.html

Water is a spiritual issue

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Water may be the earth's most precious resource, and the supply of it is rapidly shrinking. The Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) is bringing this warning to the 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre in a host of different ways.

On Wednesday, 15 February, Right Livelihood Award 2005-winner Dr Tony Clarke kicked off the activities with an address under the EWN tent on the Pontifical University of Rio Grande do Sul campus. "It's important that at this moment we recognize the serious questions confronting us on the planet over water, " said Clarke, honoured for his work with the global water justice movement.

He called this a "kairos moment" for the church to address water issues, such as the "deep disparities between water-poor and water-rich nations", the exponentially growing demand for water, and the attempts to privatize and commoditize water. "Water is now replacing oil as the commodity of the century", Clarke said.

Those are key concerns of EWN, a fledgling network that only formally organized this past November after initial meetings in late 2004. It arose out of the World Council of Churches' working group on climate change, where activists began to look at the many linkages between climate change and water issues.

Convened by the WCC, the Ecumenical Water Network is composed of an assortment of partners who share similar concerns. The religious context is significant because, as Clarke noted, water is an important symbol in virtually every religious tradition.

"Water and the access to water is a spiritual issue," said Joy Kennedy of KAIROS in Canada, one of the EWN partners. "Yes, it's a human right, yes, it's a lot of things, but it's a spiritual issue. We need to address it at a spiritual level."

WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia also focused on water in a pre-Assembly address, calling it a "major issue", one that will be "a major source of wars in the 21st century". He expressed hopes that the Assembly would give significant attention to the issue.

Such attention would be welcomed by EWN as well. Kennedy said the network is not looking for a WCC programme committee on water, but it does hope that it can be a focus that receives attention through the Council's work.

EWN plans several other presentations under its own tent during the Assembly, as well as two mutirão workshops elsewhere on the campus. The network was also a sponsor of water bottles given to all Assembly participants this week.

Assembly website:www.wcc-assembly.info

[Kollyvas]

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/news-me ... ience.html

An in-tents experience

The worship tent provides a colourful backdrop for morning and evening prayers.
Here a tent, there a tent: You can't go far on the Pontifícia Universidade Católica campus without seeing one. In the subtropical climate of Porto Alegre, they provide a perfect spot for displays or gatherings.

The largest of the lot is the massive worship tent, a circus-type structure under which several thousand people can sit. Its blue, red, and green stripes add a colorful atmosphere to morning and evening prayers each day. It is the first thing Assembly participants see as they get on or off buses providing transportation to area hotels.

At other spots on the campus sit the indigenous peoples' tent and the arts and crafts tent, where jewelry, shirts, and other items with local flavour can be purchased. A green tent houses the Ecumenical Water Network, and next to that are three white youth tents sitting in a row. In addition to getting updates on activities posted on a board, youth can relax in numerous bean-bag chairs or listen to music under the shelter.

[Kollyvas]

http://directionstoorthodoxy.org/mod/ne ... le_id=7095

Church News Headlines

Vatican Wants Discussion With Islam on Crusades

By Stacy Meichtry

VATICAN CITY -- In the midst of global anger over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the Vatican's top mediator with Islam is pushing to heal long-festering historical wounds -- the Christian Crusades and the Muslim conquests of medieval Europe. “It is a question that needs to be addressed,” said Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in an interview Thursday (Feb. 16) with Religion News Service. Fitzgerald, who is slated to soon become Pope Benedict XVI's ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, also rejected a call from an Italian lawmaker for the Vatican to lead a showdown with Islam. Instead, Fitzgerald called for Vatican and Muslim scholars to examine the legacy of Christian-Muslim conflict to build historical consensus.

Anglican leader warns on military action against Iran

Porto Alegre (ENI). The head of the worldwide Anglican Communion has cautioned against a military incursion into Iran by Western powers who say they are increasingly nervous about that country's revived nuclear technology programme."I hope and pray that the West doesn't embark on another costly and misjudged military adventure that will further destabilise an already unstable
region," the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told a 17 February media conference in Porto Alegre.

Asian church leaders seek to redefine Christianity

Porto Alegre (ENI).

Christianity in South Asia needs to be redefined if it is to be relevant and responsive to issues of armed conflict and religion-based animosities, say church leaders from the region attending the World Council of Churches' ninth assembly.

"Why are we not being recognised as Christians?

Maybe we have failed to follow Christ. Maybe our churches have become worship-oriented rather than service-oriented," said the Rev. Elia Pradeep Samuel of India's Methodist Church

[Kollyvas]

(It seems the OCA representative, speaking for the OCA, says he is ashamed of his country...Does that represent the current consensus in the OCA? St. Nikolai of Japan prayed for his adopted country in time of war, and this is how the OCA emulates that, by denouncing its country in front of heretics?! HOW IN THE WORLD IS THIS WITNESSING ORTHODOXY?! Shame. --R)

http://www.wcc-assembly.info/en/news-me ... -apol.html

US Christian leaders apologize to Assembly plenary on violence, poverty and ecology

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Representatives of the US Conference for the World Council of Churches (WCC) addressed a message to the WCC's 9th Assembly on 18 February saying that the US-led Iraq war was a "mistake", and apologized to the ecumenical community for failing to raise a prophetic voice to prevent it.

The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, moderator of the US Conference for the WCC, made up of 34 US churches that are members of the Council, told a 9th Assembly plenary, "We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched with deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights."



Speaking at a press conference earlier, Kishkovsky said the delegation was making the statement to the ecumenical community to "show repentance and solidarity with those who suffered".

President of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the US, Rev. Michael Livingstone referred to solidarity shown with the US over the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, saying, "In a number of ecumenical settings, we were deeply moved by post 9/11 visits, where we were offered sympathy over the tragic loss of life."

Nevertheless, the statement says, the US responded to the attacks "by seeking to reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbours.

"Our leaders turned a deaf ear to the voices of church leaders throughout our nation and the world, entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of our own national interests. Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous."

Presented in the form of a prayer of repentance, the message continues, "We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to call our nation to global responsibility for creation, that we ourselves are complicit in a culture of consumption that diminishes the earth. Christ, have mercy."

The statement says that while global warming goes on unchecked, the US refuses to acknowledge its responsibility and rejects multilateral agreements aimed at reversing disastrous trends.

It says, "Starvation, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the treatable diseases that go untreated indict us, revealing the grim features of global economic injustice we have too often failed to acknowledge or confront."

"Hurricane Katrina," it continues, "revealed to the world those left behind in our own nation by the rupture of our social contract. As a nation we have refused to confront the racism that infects our policies around the world."

Rev. Dr Sharon Watkins, president of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, who supported the statement, said, "This letter is not an attempt to undermine American troops. They are brave men and women who are our sons and daughters and our neighbours. But here we gather with Christians around the world, and meet the parents of other sons and daughters."

Visibly moved, she said, "We come face to face with brothers and sisters who suffered because of choices our government made, and we are making the statement to acknowledge solidarity with the suffering."

The statement itself affirms, "We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war; we acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name."

Explaining the timing of the statement, Rev. John Thomas, president of United Church of Christ, said, "An emerging theme in conversation with our partners around the world is that the US is being perceived as a dangerous nation."

He said that the Assembly was "a unique opportunity to make this statement to all our colleagues" in the ecumenical movement. The statement says, "We come to you seeking to be partners in the search for unity and justice."

Thomas acknowledged that not all church members would agree with the thrust of the statement, but said it was their responsibility as leaders to "speak a prophetic and pastoral word as we believe God is offering it to us".

The US Conference for the World Council of Churches is composed of 34 US churches which belong to the WCC: www.wcc-usa.org/about-us/member-churches.html

Full text of the statement:www.wcc-assembly.info/en/theme-issues/a ... e-wcc.html

Assembly website:www.wcc-assembly.info

Contact in Porto Alegre:+55 / 51 8419.2169