Support and solidarity for the Ecumenical Patriarch

World and European ecumenical bodies express support and solidarity to the Ecumenical Patriarch

At a time when the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - today’s Istanbul - is facing growing hardships imposed by decisions of the Turkish judiciary, members of the worldwide ecumenical family have expressed support and solidarity to His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

On 26 June a ruling by Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals contested the ecumenical standing of the Patriarchate, stating that it is a religious body only authorized to perform religious functions for the Greek Orthodox minority in the country. The Court also ruled that the Patriarchate does not have any legal personality and that the Patriarch is not allowed to bear the title “ecumenical”.

The ruling stated that the Patriarch as well as the Patriarchate officers are subjected to Turkish law regarding their titles and activities. On 21 August Bartholomew was summoned to testify before a prosecuting authority in Istanbul on his use of the title “Ecumenical” at a world conference of Orthodox youth that took place in the city a few weeks earlier.

In the face of these developments, on 27 August the Conference of European Churches (CEC) expressed its “strong support” for the right of the Patriarch to use of the title “Ecumenical”. In a letter addressed to Bartholomew, CEC’s general secretary, the Venerable Colin Williams, wrote: “We could think of no other church leader in Europe who is so naturally recognised as a key figure in the ecumenical aspirations of the [continent’s] churches.”

On 29 August a similar letter addressed to Bartholomew by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia expressed the Council’s “whole-hearted appreciation of the authenticity and importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as an institution and the Ecumenical Patriarch as an office within the wider church world”.

In his letter Kobia conveyed to the Patriarch the WCC’s “firm support” and reaffirmed Bartholomew’s “ecumenical standing” while cherishing his “leadership in the global ecumenical movement”. The letter invites WCC member churches to pray for the Ecumenical Patriarch and to offer him expressions of solidarity.

Kobia also noted “with satisfaction” that, “despite the current difficulties, there is also recognition and appreciation being accorded to you and to the Patriarchate from within Turkish society”. According to Kobia, “these sentiments” are “a credit to the nation” and should be “widely heard and clearly understood”.

The recent developments have been criticized by some in the Turkish media. “It is very hard to understand our sensitivities,” wrote Cengiz Aktar, a professor of European studies at Bahcesehir University, in the English-language newspaper Turkish Daily News. Commenting on the “absurd decision reached by the Court of Appeals” regarding the title of “Ecumenical,” Aktar affirmed that present day Turks “have much to learn” from their Ottoman predecessors. It was under Ottoman rule that the Patriarchate’s Theological School was established in the island of Halki in 1844. The school has been closed since 1971.

The title 'Ecumenical' is given only to the Patriarchate of Constantinople as ‘first among equals’ among world Orthodox leaders. In consequence and over many centuries, it has become the name by which the Patriarchate is known throughout the world. Although the number of Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey is relatively small, the faithful under the Patriarch’s direct ecclesial authority are about 5 million worldwide. Additionally, albeit in a non jurisdictional sense, he is widely recognized as spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox.

The Greek Orthodox are not the only religious minority facing hardships in Turkey. Hindrances to their normal activities are also faced by the Armenian and the Syrian Orthodox, among others. Last April three Christians working in a religious publishing house in Malatya were murdered, and before that event a Catholic priest had suffered the same fate. At that time the WCC general secretary expressed the Council’s “serious concern” and “dismay” in a letter to the Turkish authorities.

Bartholomew is scheduled to address the opening service of morning prayer at the Third European Ecumenical Assembly to be held in Sibiu, Romania, 4-9 September 2007. The concern about the current situation faced by the Ecumenical Patriarchate is likely to be raised at this gathering of some 2100 delegates from most of the continent’s church traditions.

• Full text of the WCC general secretary’s letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch

• Press release of the Conference of European Churches

• WCC’s letter of 1 May 2007 to the Turkish authorities

• Website of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

• Website of the Third European Ecumenical Assembly

NCC joins in call for legal rights for Guantanamo prisoners

The U.S. National Council of Churches is challenging the U.S. government's detention policy for prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The NCC joined the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Union for Reform Judaism, among others, in supporting two cases before the Supreme Court.
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Posted: August 27, 2007Transmis : 27 août, 2007 • TagsMots clés : ncc usa guantanamo prisoners

Revised lectionary approved for Canada

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) will publish a revised Lectionary for Sundays and Solemnities. This is the book of readings used in the public worship of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. The revised lectionary is expected to be available next spring in order to be used for the beginning of the following liturgical season - Year B - starting 30 November 2008.

Canada is currently the only country where the Roman Catholic lectionary is based on the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, the copyright for which is held by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Other English-speaking Episcopal Conferences are now also considering the possibility.

Backgrounder on the recent recognitio for the revised Canadian Lectionary for Sundays and Solemnities
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Posted: August 24, 2007Transmis : 24 août, 2007 • TagsMots clés : canada cccb lectionary nrsv

Canadian Centre moves its offices

On August 15th, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism moved its offices across Montréal to a new street-front address on Réné Lévesque Ouest. The new address is: 1819 boul. Réné Lévesque O., Montréal QC, H3H 2P5. All phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses will remain unchanged.

For many years, the CCE has been housed at the historic Grande Séminaire de Montréal. This was a natural fit in the early years of the Centre, which was established within the Catholic community. As the Centre's ministry has expanded it has found itself in need of greater space and visibility. By moving out of the seminary into a street-front office space, it is hoped that more visitors will drop in to the offices to discover the ministry that the Centre offers.

Posted: August 15, 2007Transmis : 15 août, 2007 • TagsMots clés : ecumenism canada

Christian code of conduct on religious conversion wins broader backing

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is ready to join the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican in supporting a code of conduct to guide activities seeking converts to Christianity.

The WEA general secretary Rev. Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe “gave his full approval” to the organization's involvement in the process so far sponsored by the WCC and the Vatican, said Rev. Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, head of the organization’s International Institute for Religious Freedom. The WEA is an association of organizations and churches with a membership of some 420 million Christians worldwide.

Schirrmacher was one of the speakers at an 8-12 August consultation held in Toulouse, France, where some 30 Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal and Evangelical theologians and church leaders from Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States, gathered to outline the content of the code of conduct, which is expected to be finalized by 2010.

In opening the consultation, the archbishop of Toulouse Mgr. Robert Le Gall, a Benedictine monk experienced in interreligious dialogue, said he envisioned the code of conduct as a tool to ensure the “mutual respect of those who are engaged in a religion” while at the same time preserving the “right to spread and explain one’s faith”.

For Rev. Dr Tony Richie from the Church of God, a Pentecostal US-based denomination, the code of conduct is not about “whether” Christians evangelize, but “how” they do it. He advocated a “dialogical evangelism,” ecumenically oriented and marked by an ethical approach.

The general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia and co-moderator of the WCC's Faith and Order commission, Rev. Dr Hermen Shastri, proposed that the fundamental ethos of the code of conduct be an attitude of respect for the right of the faithful of any religion to their beliefs. “Religious preachers need to be told that no religion has a monopoly on the truth, that there are many ways to find salvation.”

According to WEA executive council member John Langlois, the code of conduct should express “repentance for past wrongdoings so as to make clear that the superiority mentality in regard to other religions has been overcome.”

Taking shape

Among the issues identified by the participants as elements upon which the code of conduct should be based are: common understandings of conversion, witness, mission and evangelism, and concern for human dignity; a distinction between aggressive proselytizing and evangelism; the balance between the mandate to evangelize and the right to choose one’s religion.

“Although these are very preliminary findings, the fact that representatives from all these walks of Christian life have been able to meet and discuss such a complex issue, starting to build a consensus, is in itself a success,” said Rev. Dr Hans Ucko, WCC's programme executive for interreligious dialogue and cooperation.

The complexity of the issue was highlighted at the consultation by contributions reflecting very diverse experiences in different contexts: from living as a Christian minority in India, to preaching the gospel to Turks in Austria, to having to turn down people asking for baptism in Zanzibar; from being a Lutheran missionary to Muslim Nigeria, to being an Anglican priest in a British city where Hindus have bought and worship in a former Christian church, or to being a US Pentecostal struggling with the fact that Pentecostals “are indeed ecumenical but just don’t know it.”

The code of conduct should on the one hand establish what all the partners agree needs to be banned when it comes to Christian mission, a daunting task given the many different contexts involved. On the other hand, it should hopefully provide guidelines as to how to deal with complicated issues, like interreligious marriages.

Its promoters expect the code of conduct to fulfil several goals: be an advocacy tool in discussions with governments considering anti-conversion laws, to help to advance the cause of religious freedom, address other religions’ concerns about Christian proselytism and inspire them to consider their own codes of conduct, and also help to ease intra-Christian tensions.

None of the partners involved intend - nor have the means - to impose the code of conduct on their constituencies, but they all trust that it will be able to “impact hearts and minds” and allow for “moral and peer pressure.”

The next step in this study project jointly undertaken by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the WCC's programme on inter-religious dialogue will be a meeting in 2008 in which the code of conduct will be drafted, building upon the findings of the Toulouse consultation. Launched in May 2006 in Lariano/Velletri, near Rome, the project bears the name: "An interreligious reflection on conversion: From controversy to a shared code of conduct".

Resources:

•  Vatican/WCC study on conversion affirms freedom of religion, warns about "obsession of converting others"

• Report from inter-religious consultation on “Conversion – assessing the reality” (The Lariano/Velletri Report, May 12-16, 2006)

• Towards common witness: A call to adopt responsible relationships in mission and to renounce proselytism (1997)

• More information on WCC and Interreligious Dialogue: English - Français - Deutsch - Español

• Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue: English - Français - Deutsch - Español

Posted: August 15, 2007Transmis : 15 août, 2007 • TagsMots clés : wcc vatican wea evangelism/evangelization proselytism conversion

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