Life together

A big part of this program has to do with the fact that the 30 of us don’t just study ecumenism academically, we attempt to live it out in community. It’s no small feat when you consider that we represent eight different Christian traditions, speak at least a dozen different languages, and hail from practically every region of the world.

The place we call home is called Petit-Bossey (pictured above), a cozy residence building that’s a pleasant five-minute walk from the château where we get our three squares a day, take our coffee breaks, and have most of our classes.

Each day officially begins with a brief chapel service, which we take turns leading in pairs. I’m up this Thursday, planning worship with a Brazilian Methodist. Because of the diversity of our backgrounds, no two services are ever alike, which can be both interesting but also a little jarring. If we’ve experienced any tensions in our fledgling ecumenical community thus far, it’s been because of things that have been said or done in the chapel (pictured right). Not terribly surprising, I suppose, when you’re asking everyone from an African Pentecostal to a Romanian Orthodox to worship together and get something out of it.

Fortunately, we’re all able to agree on that most universal of religions: soccer. When weather and time permit, several of us leave our doctrinal divisions on the sidelines and hit the soccer pitch. In all seriousness, it’s remarkable how something like a team sport can be a great equalizer and rather minimize our differences.

Perhaps we should abandon plans for another World Council of Churches assembly and opt instead for a big ecumenical soccer tournament. Rather than a trophy, the winning denomination could get the right to call itself the One, True Church until the next tournament.

A visit from the General Secretary

Following a rather full two weeks of orientation and introductory lectures, our regular course of study began today. Delivering the first lecture was Samuel Kobia (on the left in the picture), the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, the organization to which the Bossey Ecumenical Institute belongs.

Headquartered in Geneva, the WCC is a worldwide fellowship of over 300 churches of various denominations “which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures and therefore seek to fulfill together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” and which strive to realize the goal of visible church unity. It’s kind of like the United Nations (and was, in fact, established the same year as the UN: 1948), except bringing together national churches rather than nation states.

Mr. Kobia delivered a sweeping lecture, tracing the ecumenical movement’s roots in the nineteenth-century missionary movement, to the seminal 1910 World Mission Conference in Edinburgh, up to the present ecumenical context almost a century later. Among the newer challenges facing the worldwide ecumenical movement is the sharp rise in the number and influence of charismatic, Pentecostal, and independent churches in the global south, as well as the increasingly urgent need for dialogue not just among Christians, but between Christians and those of other faiths altogether.

Since my last entry, our numbers have increased by five. We’ve been joined by an Indonesian Lutheran, a Methodist from the Philippines, and three “post-denominational” Christians from China. More on what “post-denominational” Christianity means—and how the faith is evolving in China—in a future entry.