Building up the body of Christ: reflections on ecclesiology and ethics in the dialogue of faith and order.
Gibaut, John
A common perception in some sectors of the ecumenical movement today is that the classical theological agenda of the twentieth century
around the faith and ordering of the divided churches has been
supplanted in the early twenty-first century by the newer
church-dividing issues on ethical questions.
At one level, this perception is accurate. As I know from my own
Anglican context, there is today much more anxiety about the dividing
positions on human sexuality than about the ecumenical issues of a
generation ago, such as eucharistic sacrifice, the historic episcopate,
or universal primacy. That there has been a shift in the ecumenical
priorities for some churches--but not all--is undeniable; these churches
today experience acutely the divisive consequences of moral
disagreement, both within Christian communities and between them. Such a
shift is seen in the studies and themes of the current ecumenical
dialogues at both the bilateral and multilateral levels.
Yet to differentiate too categorically the doctrinal agenda from
the ethical establishes a dualism as unhelpful (and as erroneous) as
that between Faith and Order and Life and Work. From the long trajectory
of Faith and Order reflection I will present some of the significant
interactions between the classical doctrinal concerns and questions of
morals and ethics. This particular trajectory, in which ethical issues
have raised ecclesiological concerns, and in which ecclesiology in turn
has raised ethical concerns, suggests that not only is it unhelpful to
separate the doctrinal and ethical agendas, but in the end, such a neat
division is not theologically possible.
The Faith and Order Commission has long had a mandate to address
issues that divide the Church. For much of the past 80 years, that
mandate has focused largely on theological issues related to
ecclesiology, such as baptism, eucharist, ministry, and the articulation
of the one apostolic faith. Yet there has also been significant
attention paid to the ethical dimensions, especially around ecclesiology
and ethics.
Church-dividing questions around moral issues are as old as
doctrinal disagreement. Consider some of the divisions that erupted in
early Christianity on moral disagreement that gave rise to separated
Christian communities such as the Montanists, Novationists, Donatists,
and other so-called rigorous sects. Doctrinal orthodoxy has historically
been as important to Christian unity as ethical orthopraxis. In the
course of the modern ecumenical movement, there have been many instances
of moral issues becoming church-dividing. Some, but not all, have been
related to human sexuality, such as artificial contraception,
reproductive technology, abortion, remarriage of divorced persons,
polygamy, and homosexuality. Others have been around race and caste,
such as the struggle against apartheid, which was church-dividing within
the Reformed and Lutheran families of churches, and within the
fellowship of the World Council of Churches. Some have been economic,
such as attitudes to globalization. Some disagreements have been around
the use of science, such as stem cell research. Some have been about
violence, such as the use of nuclear weapons. The historic peace
churches from the sixteenth century continue to name theories and praxes
around just war as church-dividing.
These questions have been part of the classic agenda of Faith and
Order in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish categorically the
ecclesiological questions from the ethical, and raises questions about
the proposing or identifying today a preference for one or the other. In
the long trajectory of Faith and Order reflection on ecclesiology and
ethics there are three discernible phases. While precision in such
matters is perhaps more arbitrary than historical, a convenient starting
point for the first phase is the World Conference on Faith and Order in
1937; the second is the 1968 WCC Uppsala Assembly; the third begins at
the 1993 Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order at Santiago de
Compostela and continues to the present Faith and Order studies on
ecclesiology, sources of authority, and moral discernment in the
churches.
From Edinburgh 1937: "Non-Theological Factors"
On the eve of the Second World War, as Europe was already in the
brink of deep divisions, the Second World Conference on Faith and Order
met in the summer of 1937 from 3-18 August in Edinburgh, the site of the
1910 World Missionary Conference. Earlier during the same summer the
second meeting of Life and Work was held in Oxford. The members at the
Life and Work conference were deeply cognizant and critical of the
impending violence the world was experiencing. Both movements that
summer agreed to come together to form a "World Council of
Churches," which from that year was in the process of formation.
The formative Faith and Order conference built on its 1927
predecessor, and dealt with the classical doctrinal questions such as
grace and salvation, word and sacraments, scripture and tradition,
ministry, the communion of saints, and ecclesiology. The overarching concern of the conference was to put this doctrinal agenda within the
broader context of the unity of the Church.
The second World Conference, however, introduced other questions
affecting the unity of the Church, namely the non-theological factors.
The 1937 preparatory report, The Non-theological Factors in the Making
and Unmaking of Church Union, (1) raised other issues that had to be
kept in mind along with the doctrinal ones. The introduction to the
report notes that the Faith and Order concern about "a true faith
will have its corollary and consequence in works which follow naturally
from it." (2) At the same time, the introduction continues, Life
and Work was clear that it is hopeless "to elaborate the Christian
ethic with direct reference to our own time, in neglect of those prior
convictions which are its source and warrant." (3)
Included in the list of such non-theological factors were
church-state relations, including differing experiences of the
separation of church and state, and in the context of the 1930s,
totalitarian conceptions of the state which are alien to notions of
catholicity. Similarly, nationalism, national religion, and
nationalizing Christianity were named, as well as divisions along lines
of race, language, and class. The report also notes "varieties of
ethical judgement":
The mores of our Churches differ markedly. Habits and practices
which are permitted in one Church are discouraged or prohibited in
another Church. Such differences range all the way from varieties
of manners to ethical disagreement upon matters which many hold to
be of first importance in the Christian life ... We should not fail
to mark the sharp disagreement as to birth control. We may cite the
position taken by varying Churches upon divorce and the remarriage
of divorced persons. We should not ignore the historic stand of the
Society of Friends upon war. On many of these matters custom varies
within a single communion, and much liberty is allowed ... When
these manners and morals are made matters of conscience, becoming
thus a part of the Christian ethic as a Church construes it,
obvious differences between Churches emerge. So strongly do certain
Churches feel upon these debated subjects that, despite substantial
agreement with other Churches in matters of Faith and Order, it
would be difficult to achieve unions which would carry
whole-hearted consent. (4)
The stronger language of the preparatory report was not echoed in
the Final Report of Edinburgh 1937, which referred to "Obstacles
not restricted to 'Faith' and 'Order,'" (5)
which are in part theological or ecclesiastical, but also sociological
or political:
These Churches are not conscious of any mutually exclusive
doctrines. They are, however, kept apart by barriers of
nationality, race, class, general culture, and more particularly,
by slothful self-content and self-sufficiency. (6)
In categories that resonate with ethical disagreement in the early
twenty-first century, Faith and Order in its formative phase named
ethical questions as part of the agenda toward Christian unity, both in
the social and political ethical crisis that was already looming in
Europe but also on questions personal ethical issues in the daily lives
of Christians, including church-dividing differences on questions of
human sexuality.
From Uppsala 1968: "The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of the
Church"
From the 1960s the link between the doctrinal and ethical agenda
for Faith and Order took a new direction, namely the insistence on the
connection between ecclesiology and justice, evident in the 1968 WCC
Assembly at Uppsala section report on "The Holy Spirit and the
Catholicity of the Church." The Assembly report began as a working
paper of the Commission on Faith and Order, (7) which later, at the
request of the WCC, became an assembly report. A driving concern for
Faith and Order was not to treat catholicity as a principle related
solely to ecclesiology, but to connect it in the broadest to the
fulfilment of God's mission in the world:
Yet it is within this very world that God makes catholicity
available to men through the ministry of Christ in his Church. The
purpose of Christ is to bring people of all times, all races, of
all places, of all conditions, into an organic and living unity in
Christ by the Holy Spirit under the universal fatherhood of God.
This unity is not solely external; it has a deeper, internal
dimension, which is also expressed by the term "catholicity".
Catholicity reaches its completion when what God has already begun
in history is finally disclosed and fulfilled. (8)
As an ecclesiological principle, catholicity in "The Holy
Spirit and the Catholicity of the Church" is manifested in worship,
witness and in the service toward the realization of genuine humanity in
terms of unity, and in the struggles against discrimination and
injustice, such as racial or economic inequality. This breadth of
understanding of catholicity linking the question for the unity of the
Church with the unity of all humanity, associating in a fresh way the
classic Faith and Order vision of Christian unity with the work of the
Life and Work movement, and the Commission on World Mission and
Evangelism. Not surprisingly, the 1968 Assembly is a landmark in
ecumenical programme to combat racism within a theological perspective
articulated in "The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of the
Church." In Faith and Order reflection, ethical questions such as
racism were not cited as simply obstacles to unity; unity implied a
commitment to engage in struggles against all injustice. This is an
ethical demand and consequence of the Church's catholicity, rather
than a series of issues that threatens its oneness. Consequently, it
becomes impossible to refer ethical issues as "non-theological
factors": they are acutely theological.
The years that followed the 1968 Assembly were significant for
Faith and Order reflection on ecclesiology and ethics. The Faith and
Order study project on the Unity of the Church and the Unity of Mankind
was initiated in Lima in 1982 and carried out from 1984-89; its purpose
was to examine ecclesiological self-understanding in light of the
growing awareness of human interdependence. After a series of global
consultations, the process culminated in the publication of the 1990
study document Church and World: The Unity of the Church and the Renewal
of Human Community. (9) Here, renewal is understood as that which
"seeks to heal and to transcend the limitations, ambiguities and
destructive divisions of a world which is, theologically, fallen."
(10) The text brings together the search for renewal with the search of
renewal understood as social and political ethics, and treats the Church
as a prophetic sign pointing toward the Kingdom of God.
Three years later the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in
1993 at Santiago de Compostela affirmed the connection between
ecclesiology and ethics in terms of corporate moral commitment to
justice, peace and the integrity of creation. The report of section IV,
"Called to Common Witness for a Renewed World," states:
The Church is the community of people called by God who, though the
Holy Spirit, are united with Jesus Christ and sent as his disciples
to witness to and to participate in God's reconciliation, healing
and transformation of creation. The Church's relation to Christ
means that faith and community are matters of discipleship in the
sense of moral commitment. The being and mission of the Church,
therefore, are at stake in witness through proclamation and
concrete actions for justice, peace and integrity of creation. This
is a defining mark of koinonia and central to our understanding of
ecclesiology. The urgency of these issues makes it manifest that
our theological reflection on the proper unity of Christ's Church
is inevitably linked to ethics. (11)
Engagement in political and environmental ethical struggles is a
"mark" of the Church's koinonia and fundamental to its
very identity, that is, ecclesiology.
Meanwhile, the study on The Unity of the Church and the Renewal of
Human Community led to a series of intra-WCC consultations on
ecclesiology and ethics involving Faith and Order (Unit I) and Justice,
Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (Unit III) from 1992-1996, leading
to three published reports: "Costly Unity," "Costly
Commitment," and "Costly Obedience." This study
"sought to explore the link between what the church is and what the
church does." (12) As the 1993 report "Costly Unity"
says:
Koinonia in relation to ethics does not mean in the first instance
that the Christian community designs codes and rules; rather that
it is a place where, along with the confession of faith and the
celebration of the sacraments, and as an inseparable part of it,
the gospel tradition is probed permanently for moral inspiration
and insight, and where incessant moral counsel keeps the issues of
humanity and world alive in the light of the gospel. As such the
community is also essentially a place of comfort and support ... In
all cases, koinonia implies an offer to all human being involved in
moral struggles and in need of frameworks and perspectives. When
the moral life of the Christian community is spoken of as witness,
this is an essential aspect of it. (13)
In other words, in the report the ethical agenda was not seen as
distinct or superseding classical Faith and Order reflection on
ecclesiology, but integral to the whole life of the Church, including
its worship, theology, witness and service. Significantly, the three
reports were published together with supporting articles in 1997 under
the title Ecclesiology and Ethics: Ecumenical Ethical Engagement, Moral
Formation and the Nature of the Church. The consultations, reports, and
the published volume marked another significant encounter between
classical agendas of both the Faith and Order and the Life and Work
streams within the WCC. They also, of course, point to the integration
of ethics and ecclesiology.
At the same time that Faith and Order reflection was developing
from Uppsala 1968, the commission was working on its so-called classical
doctrinal agenda on baptism, eucharist, and ministry. That the two areas
are held together and mutually informing is seen in the 1982 Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry.
Faith and Order reflection on Christian initiation in Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry contains a single, but noteworthy reference to
the ethical implications inherent in Christian initiation. God's
people "acknowledge that baptism, as a baptism into Christ's
death, has ethical implications which not only call for personal
sanctification, but also motivate Christians to strive for the
realization of the will of God in all realms of life." (14) The
same insistence on the relationship between baptism and ethics was
reiterated by Commission on Faith and Order in its recent 2011 study
text, One Baptism: Towards Mutual Recognition. (15)
Faith and Order has been much more thorough about identifying the
links between ethics and the eucharist. An important feature of Faith
and Order reflection on the eucharist and ethics is the nexus between
both and eschatology. The eschatological and consequent ethical nature
of the eucharist calls eucharistic communities to the radical
transformation of the world. As the eucharistic section of Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry states so powerfully and unequivocally:
All kinds of injustice, racism, separation and lack of freedom are
radically challenged when we share in the body and blood of Christ.
Through the eucharist the all-renewing grace of God penetrates and
restores human personality and dignity. The eucharist involves the
believer in the central event of the world's history. As
participants in the eucharist, therefore, we prove ourselves
inconsistent if we are not actively participating in this ongoing
restoration of the world's situation and the human condition. The
eucharist shows us that our behaviour is inconsistent in face of
the reconciling presence of God in human history: we are placed
under continual judgement by the persistence of unjust
relationships of all kinds in our society, the manifold divisions
on account of human pride, material interest and power politics
and, above all, the obstinacy of unjustifiable confessional
oppositions within the body of Christ. (16)
From Santiago de Compostela, 1993: "Whether Contentious
Ethical Issues Need Be Church-Dividing"
The Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in 1993 at Santiago
de Compostela marks a "hinge" or "cardinal" moment
in Faith and Order reflection on ecclesiology and ethics. It marks a
culmination of the process that began in Uppsala in 1968 in terms of
linking the agenda of ecclesiology with social and political ethics. At
the same time, it also directed the Commission on Faith and Order to
deal with a new series of ethical issues beyond those of justice, peace,
and the integrity of creation, such as some of the questions named in
the 1937 preparatory report on non-theological factors. Amongst its
recommendations the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order proposed a
study on ethics and ecclesiology,
... which should be directly linked to local experiences of the
interconnectedness of faith and action and move between an
investigation of the moral substance of traditions and the moral
experience of the people of God today ... We further recommend that
Faith and Order encourage the Joint Working Group between the WCC
and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as various bilaterals, so
seek clarity on whether contentious ethical issues need be
church-dividing. (17)
The Fifth World Conference took place in a context in which many of
the churches were facing fresh and often sharp divisions to their unity
on moral debates, both internally and ecumenically. The ethical issues
have been experienced as more controversial than the classical doctrinal
questions. Consequently, Faith and Order began a study process on
theological anthropology, which included questions on human sexuality.
The results were in a study text published in 2005 as Christian
Perspectives on Theological Anthropology. (18) The next stage began in
2006 when the Commission on Faith and Order initiated a study project on
Moral Discernment in the Churches with three aims: first to claim the
common ground Christians share in moral discernment; second to help
churches understand how and why they often come to different
conclusions; and third, to search together for ways to prevent the
principled differences from becoming church-dividing. This study project
uses case-studies of morally divisive issues of human sexuality,
economics, and proselytism.
The cases-studies were first presented at the 2009 Plenary Commission on Faith and Order. All of the members of the commission were
engaged in study and reflection on the studies, and the data gathered
from the detailed reporting from group work on Moral Discernment became
an important source of the reflection for the Standing Commission. There
are plans for the case-studies to be further studied and responded to in
different global contexts in the coming years. While this is a long term
study, an initial report is anticipated for the 2013 WCC Assembly, with
an eventual study text to be sent to the churches.
The most volatile of the present Faith and Order case-studies is
that on human sexuality, which deals more specifically with the
experience of moral discernment on homosexuality in the Anglican
Communion, well aware that many other churches struggle with the same
issue in one way or another. Questions around homosexuality are not new,
but their effects today are more divisive than at any other time. They
expose or even reopen unresolved issues of theological and biblical
hermeneutics, sources of authority, and the relationship between gospel
and culture. They are related to other dimensions of Christian faith,
such as theological anthropology and soteriology.
Anecdotally, in the past four years whenever I have been invited to
present the current work of Faith and Order, the study project that
consistently receives the most interest is Moral Discernment in the
Churches. For many of the audiences to whom I have spoken there is an
appreciation that Faith and Order is dealing with ethical issues that
affect the lives of the churches and their unity so intensely today. For
other audiences, however, the interest in Moral Discernment is one of
cautious apprehension with a clear preference for the classical
doctrinal questions.
On the current agenda of the WCC's Commission on Faith and
Order there are currently three study projects (in alphabetical order):
Ecclesiology, Moral Discernment in the Churches, and Sources of
Authority. The work on ecclesiology and sources of authority, which
reflect the classical doctrinal agenda, has not had the attention (or
the funding) received by Moral Discernment in the Churches. And yet the
Commission on Faith and Order does not prioritize or separate the issues
around Moral Discernment from the ecclesiological and hermeneutical
questions raised in The Nature and Mission of the Church and in Sources
of Authority. Moral issues are discerned within the Christian community;
sources of authority are appealed to in such discernment; sources of
authority belong to the self-understanding of the Christian community,
that is, ecclesiology.
To suppose, however, that Moral Discernment in the Churches signals
a departure from the classical agenda of Faith and Order, or to cite
this study in evidence of the shift in priority between the doctrinal
questions and the ethical issues facing the churches today, is to
overlook the ways in which Faith and Order has characteristically upheld
a creative balance between the two.
The same integration of ethical and doctrinal agendas continues to
be reflected in Faith and Order work on ecclesiology. Building on the
earlier work in the 1998 text The Nature and Purpose of the Church, and
the 2005 Nature and Mission of the Church, the 2012 convergence text on
ecclesiology, The Church: Towards a Common Vision, likewise holds
ecclesiology and ethics closely together. In a paragraph that belongs to
the tradition stemming from "The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of
the Church" and subsequent refection on ecclesiology and political
ethics, The Church: Towards a Common Vision states:
(66.) The Church is comprised of all socio-economic classes; both
rich and poor are in need of the salvation that only God can
provide. After the example of Jesus, the Church is called and
empowered in a special way to share the lot of those who suffer and
to care for the needy and the marginalized. The Church proclaims
the words of hope and comfort of the Gospel, engages in works of
compassion and mercy (cf. Luke 4:18-19) and is commissioned to heal
and reconcile broken human relationships and to serve God in the
ministry of reconciling those divided by hatred or estrangement
(cf. 2 Cot. 5:18-21). Together with all people of goodwill, the
Church seeks to care for creation, which groans to share in the
freedom of the children of God (cf. Rom. 8:20-22), by opposing the
abuse and destruction of the earth and participating in God's
healing of broken relationships between creation and humanity. (19)
In the final chapter of The Church, entitled "The Church: In
and for the World," the text addresses ecclesiology and ethics,
linking the moral struggles of humankind with the moral choices of
individual Christians and the churches:
62. The ethics of Christians as disciples are rooted in God, the
creator and revealer, and take shape as the community seeks to
understand God's will within the various circumstances of time and
place. The Church does not stand in isolation from the moral
struggles of humankind as a whole. Together with the adherents of
other religions as well as with all persons of good will,
Christians must promote not only those individual moral values
which are essential to the authentic realization of the human
person but also the social values of justice, peace and the
protection of the environment, since the message of the gospel
extends to both the personal and the communal aspects of human
existence. Thus koinonia includes not only the confession of the
one faith and celebration of common worship, but also shared moral
values, based upon the inspiration and insights of the gospel.
Notwithstanding their current state of division, the churches have
come so far in fellowship with one another that they are aware that
what one does affects the life of others, and, in consequence, are
increasingly conscious of the need to be accountable to each other
with respect to their ethical reflections and decisions. As
churches engage in mutual questioning and affirmation, they give
expression to what they share in Christ. (20)
Here, The Church understands the Church--and its unity--as a moral
community. Moral choices, both in the personal sphere but also in the
public sphere, belong to the visible nature of the Church and its
mission. It identifies koinonia or communion in morals to be as
fundamental to authentic unity as doctrinal and sacramental issues.
The Church also takes into account both the historical and complex
present-day experience of diverging ethical discernment as potentially
church-dividing:
63. While tensions about moral issues have always been a concern
for the Church, in the world of today, philosophical, social and
cultural developments have led to the rethinking of many moral
norms, causing new conflicts over moral principles and ethical
questions to affect the unity of the churches. At the same time,
moral questions are related to Christian anthropology, and priority
is given to the Gospel in evaluating new developments in moral
thinking. Individual Christians and churches sometimes find
themselves divided into opposing opinions about what principles of
personal or collective morality are in harmony with the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Moreover, some believe that moral questions are not
of their nature "church-dividing," while others are firmly
convinced that they are. (21)
The text then poses the following questions to the churches,
drawing on the fruits of ecumenical dialogues, including Faith and
Order's own work on moral discernment in the churches: (22)
Ecumenical dialogue at the multilateral and bilateral levels has
begun to sketch out some of the parameters of the significance of
moral doctrine and practice for Christian unity. If present and
future ecumenical dialogue is to serve both the mission and the
unity of the Church, it is important that this dialogue explicitly
address the challenges to convergence represented by contemporary
moral issues. We invite the churches to explore these issues in a
spirit of mutual attentiveness and support. How might the churches,
guided by the Spirit, discern together what it means today to
understand and live in fidelity to the teaching and attitude of
Jesus? How can the churches, as they engage together in this task
of discernment, offer appropriate models of discourse and wise
counsel to the societies in which they are called to serve? (23)
As Faith and Order work on ecclesiology reflects ethical issues, so
Faith and Order work on moral questions maintains its links with
ecclesioloogy. From the outset, the 2013 study text on Moral Discernment
in the Churches is clear about its ecclesiological character:
1. Moral and ethical questions are closely linked with ecclesiology
and are thus a matter of faith and order. They have been on the
agenda of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of
Churches since the early 1990s, when issues in the field of moral
theology and ethics resulted in a new awareness of controversies in
and between churches, some of which even threaten their unity. (24)
Moreover, divergent ecclesiologies are treated as possible
underlying factors that lead to divergent ecclesial discernment on moral
issues:
66. Disagreement about moral issues is not inherently
church-dividing. In fact, some moral issues allow for a diversity
of responses without causing tensions between communities. However,
sometimes it is the case that the way that one communion allows for
diversity among its churches is in conflict with the way other
communions understand the limits of diversity. This discrepancy may
reveal ecclesiological differences that relate to authority and
church structure. For instance, some communions may allow for a
limited diversity, leaving it to (local) communities to find a
response while accepting and respecting that other communities
might arrive at another conclusion and thus act differently. In
other circumstances, some issues will not allow for diversity,
because it is held that these issues should not be decided by
groups within a community; instead, a consensus across the whole
church is required. These scenarios exist due to different intra
and inter-church understandings of who has the responsibility and
authority to decide. The range of acceptable divergence over moral
issues differs across churches as it is indeed often tied to their
ecclesiology. (25)
These sections from the study text, together with the citations
from The Church: Towards a Common Vision, are reminiscent of the
"varieties of ethical judgement" section in the 1937 report on
The Non-theological Factors in the Making and Unmaking of Church Union.
And yet, within the trajectory from 1968, ethical issues are as integral
to the koinonia of the Church as are the issues of faith and order. In
Faith and Order reflection, ethical issues are integrally related to the
nature and mission of the Church.
Conclusion
When the visible unity of the Church in one faith and in one
eucharistic fellowship is threatened, weakened or impeded, any
church-dividing issue becomes ipso facto ecclesiological. That today
ethical issues are serious concerns for the churches is clear. Questions
of moral discernment are experienced as more acute than the more classic
church-dividing questions around ecclesiology, Christian initiation,
sacramental theology, and the ordering and ministries of the Church for
many churches--but not for all.
Nevertheless, for Christians and their church-leaders or
theologians to suggest that one set of questions has been, or ought to
be replaced by another, creates false dichotomies that the long
trajectory of Faith and Order refuses to bear. Here, the witness of the
Life and Work and the Faith and Order meetings of the summer of 1937 is
instructive: neither allowed a separation of the moral and the
doctrinal, or the ethical from the ecclesiological agendas.
The quest for Christian unity is not an option but a Gospel
imperative, as Olav Fykse Tveit, current general secretary of the WCC,
frequently reminds us. As long as the churches remain divided on
questions of faith, the ordering of the churches and on fundamental
questions of ecclesiology, the doctrinal agenda has a valid and even
compulsory place in ecumenical dialogue. In the reflection of Faith and
Order, these questions have ethical dimensions. Current church-dividing
ethical questions likewise have a valid and necessary place on the
ecumenical agenda. Likewise, these issues have ecclesiological
consequences. And so, as the churches respond to the acute ethical
questions which also threaten their unity, the shift in agenda will be
one of emphasis, rather than of kind.
The gifts of ecclesiology and ethics--and with them, the particular
gifts of ecclesiologists and ethicists--need to be in a reciprocal and
mutually informing dialogue, "for building up the body of Christ,
until all of us come to the unity of faith and of knowledge of the Son
of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ"
(Eph 4.12-13).
DOI: 10.1111/erev.12056
(1) The Non-theological Factors in the Making and Unmaking of
Church Union, Report No. 3 Prepared by the Commission on the
Church's Unity in Life and Worship (Commission IV) for the World
Conference on Faith and Order Edinburgh, 1937 (New York: Harper &
Brothers Publishers, 1937).
(2) Non-theological Factors, p. vii.
(3) Non-theological Factors, p. viii.
(4) Non-theological Factors, p. 22.
(5) In Lukas Vischer (ed.), A Documentary History of the Faith and
Order Movement 1927-1963 (St. Louis, Missouri: The Bethany Press, 1963),
p. 68.
(6) Vischer, Documentary History, p. 69.
(7) New Directions in Faith and Order: Bristol 1967, Faith and
Order Paper No. 50 (Geneva: WCC. 1968), p. 86.
(8) "The Holy Spirit and the Catholicity of the Church,"
in the World Council of Churches, Uppsala 68 Speaks: Reports of the
Sections (Geneva: WCC, 1968), p. 13.
(9) Church and World: The Unity, of the Church and the Renewal of
Human Community,, Faith and Order Paper No. 151 (Geneva: WCC, 1990).
(10) Church and World, p. 4.
(11) Thomas F. Best and Gunther Gassmann (eds), On the Way to
Fuller Koinonia: Official Report of the Fifth World Conference on Faith
and Order, Faith and Order Paper No. 166 (Geneva: WCC 1994), p. 259.
(12) Thomas F. Best and Martin Robra (eds), Ecclesiology and
Ethics: Ecumenical Ethical Engagement, Moral Formation and the Nature of
the Church (Geneva: WCC, 1997), p. viii.
(13) "Costly Unity" in Ecclesiology and Ethics, p. 19.
(14) Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111
(Geneva: WCC, 1982), p. 4.
(15) One Baptism; Towards Mutual Recognition, Faith and Order Paper
No. 210 (Geneva: WCC, 2011), pp. 6-7.
(16) Eucharist 20, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, p. 14.
(17) Thomas F. Best and Gunther Gassmann (eds), On the Way to
Fuller Koinonia: Official Report of the Fifth World Conference on Faith
and Order, Faith and Order Paper No. 166 (Geneva: WCC 1994), pp. 261-62.
(18) Christian Perspectives on Theological Anthropology, Faith and
Order Paper No. 199 (Geneva: WCC, 2005).
(19) The Church: Towards a Common Vision. Faith and Order Paper No.
214 198 (Geneva: WCC, 2013), p. 37.
(20) The Church: Towards a Common Vision, p. 35.
(21) The Church: Towards a Common Vision, p. 35.
(22) For example, ARCIC II, "Life in Christ: Morals, Communion
and the Church" (1993), in GA II, pp. 344-370; and the Joint
Working Group of the WCC and the RCC, "The Ecumenical Dialogue on
Moral Issues: Potential Sources of Common Witness or of Divisions"
(1995), in GA II, 900-910. See also the Faith and Order study text on
Moral Discernment in the Churches: a study text, Faith and Order Paper
No. 215 (Geneva: WCC, 2013).
(23) The Church: Towards a Common Vision, pp. 35-36.
(24) Moral Discernment in the Churches: a study text, [section] 1.
(25) Moral Discernment in the Churches: a study text, [section] 66.
John Gibaut is Director of the Commission on Faith and Order, World
Council of Churches.