The second of the papers from the plenary sessions at the Global Christian Forum meeting in Limuru 2007, by Dr Cheryl Bridges Johns , a Pentecostal scholar, underlies this post. It is called 'When East Meets West and North Meets South: The Reconciling Mission of Global Christianity' and can be found on page 93 of Revisioning Christian Unity .
Johns makes two assumptions: that the 'mainstream' ecumenical paradigm is no longer viable to meet the challenges of the 21st century; and that when global Christians are honoured as equal partners, their gifts are adequate for the tasks of unity and mission.
The structures which during the 20th century confronted and overcame many of the divisions between Christian traditions need to be transformed to meet the current challenges and needs of the churches. The reason for this is the shift of missionary activity to the south and east. It is not going to be possible to integrate the new churches of the south and east into existing ecumenical structures.
Furthermore, the divisions are not only between but also within traditions, where new divisions have opened up over matters such as sexuality and the integrity of scripture. Of course, one of these divisions is over the utility of traditional ecumenical structures versus the need for new forms for Christian unity.
These new forms, according to Johns, must integrate the traditional forms in the north with the new forms of the south.
I will try to summarise the gifts Johns suggests the north and south bring to the task of Christian unity. First, the north:
- The legacy of the Great Councils, the creeds as the ecumenical centre
- 'The gift of Christian humanism' is the synthesis of Hellenistic philosophy and Christianity, leading to the massive contribution reason has made to development of modern Europe.
- Educational institutions and organisations
The gifts from the south include:
- Their witness to the life of the apostolic church
- A Christianity that takes scripture seriously, which is not the same as fundamentalism.
- Emphasis upon the continuation of miracles, dreams and prophecy
- Advancing the Kingdom of God throughout the world.
These are very brief indications of a much richer argument, although I must confess I find much to question in Johns' detailed development of these themes. I think her understanding of what the north has to offer is far too limited, whilst the list for the south begs a number of questions about the experience of the faith in the north. Nevertheless, her suggestions form a good start for a debate and there may be more potential for convergence than Johns' seems to believe. I will return to these themes in future posts.
Johns writes of the task of re-visioning ecumenism:
Constructing a new ecumenical movement means also a re-visioning of the journey towards Christian unity. This will require us to make some paradigm shifts. First, we will need to move away from the Western assumption that there is a single ecumenical model with a universal application. In the future, more effort will need to be made in taking into account local relevance 'in the selection of themes and in judging what belongs to the foreground and what belongs to the background'.
Re-visioning needs to be centred on the marginalised and north and south need to be equal partners.
Johns' paper raises a wealth of issues for ecumenists and this summary does not do justice to it. I will in future posts pick up some of these issues in greater detail. My first task will be to explore the relationship between local and global ecumenism.
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