An Ecumenical Winter?

Sunday 11 January - Receptive Ecumenism Conference

In his lecture Donald Bolan suggested that although formal talks had made some tangible progress, the results had been far from adequately received.  He suggested this had resulted in slippage where before there had been consensus.

Some people are saying we are in the midst of an ecumenical winter, although others argue the setbacks might be a sign of transformation.  Certainly the context has changed:

1. there has been a decline in the mainstream churches and a growth in evangelical churches, particularly in the global south
2. there have been internal tensions and fragmentation, the arguments over sexuality in the Anglican communion are usually quoted as an example
3. the weakness of confessional identity has led a movement away from a focus on resolution of ecclesiological issues to a simpler desire for mutual recognition.

If receptive ecumenism is likely to address these issues we need to remember that it is formulated to continue formal talks by other means.  As such my concern is that behind receptive ecumenism we might still see the unregarded model of ecumenical talks as something that happens between senior people and the results passed down to the local churches.

This may have had a degree of success in the 1960s but now, for a variety of reasons, local churches are less likely to view these results with equanimity.  Writing now at the end of the conference I feel that whilst some the insights of receptive ecumenism may be helpful, its academic origins mask a deeper model that is unconscious and hardly addressed at all.