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July 26, 2007

Christian leaders mark 50 years of ecumenical movement

by Michelle Rindels
Religion News Service

OBERLIN, OH — Marking 50 years since a prominent ecumenical gathering in Oberlin, OH, representatives from a host of Christian denominations this week wrapped up a five-day conference promoting a new wave of interdenominational unity.
   
Speaking to 300 attendees from 80 different Christian denominations and organizations, the Rev. James Forbes compared the effort, which was organized by the National Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission, to a revival.
   
“If there ever was a time for a new Great Awakening to happen in our nation, the time is now,” Forbes said, telling ecumenists that they were “the salt of the earth.”
   
According to the National Council of Churches, the modern ecumenical movement can be traced to a 1957 conference in Oberlin, the first to include Catholic representatives.
   
This year’s conference gained a special urgency after the Vatican’s recent assertion that Protestant denominations are not churches “in the proper sense.”
   
Attending the conference were representatives from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal, Anglican and evangelical denominations. In addition to speakers, panels and small-group discussions, breakout sessions covered topics such as “Faith and Order in a Post-Modern World” and “New Horizons in Christian Unity.”
   
Communal prayer and confession times were interspersed throughout the schedule.
   
For the first time ever, the event also included a film festival showcasing eight ecumenically themed productions. The short films included “Culture Shock — From Nairobi to Copenhagen,” a 28-minute piece documenting two Kenyan sisters who visit churches in Denmark.
   
There were also abstract entries such as “One Body, Many Parts,” a four-minute production that layered Scripture reading with choreography and larger-than-life puppets.
   
The festival was dubbed “Oikumene,” after the Greek root for “ecumenical” that translates to “the whole inhabited world.”
   
Some participants at Oberlin 2007, including Jesuit theologian Cardinal Avery Dulles, applauded the 50 years of interdenominational dialogue, saying the conversations “have been of immense value for dispelling the past prejudices.”
   
Dulles added that they are beneficial in “identifying real but hitherto unrecognized agreements, and for enabling parties to see that they can say more together than they previously deemed possible.”
   
Despite the progress, speakers noted that the dialogue still needs to evolve.
   
“We constantly have to be expanding the ‘we’ with whom we do this work,” said the Rev. W. Douglas Mills, who represented the United Methodist Church.
   
The Faith and Order movement has marked significant strides since the inaugural conference — Roman Catholics sent several official delegates to Oberlin 2007, as opposed to two “observers” in the 1957 talks.