Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I will open the meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order, which will take place in Kolympari, Crete, Greece, from 7 to 14 October 2009.
At this plenary meeting, the 120 members of the commission, which is seen as Christianity’s most representative theological forum, will address the question of Christian unity from new perspectives.
Participants at the Crete gathering will not only address issues that have traditionally divided Christian denominations, but also matters that have become divisive in more recent times even within churches, such as questions of moral discernment.
Well, there certainly are some Anglicans who are featured as keynote speakers, but not surprisingly they all seem to represent a liberal viewpoint. Dr. Mary Tanner (CoE) is one of the eight Presidents of the WCC. And Canon John Gibaut (ACoC) is the Director of the Faith and Order Commission, as well as Canon Theologian for the Diocese of Ottawa (which speaks volumes, given how liberal that diocese is). They thus have very prominent positions within the WCC.
Also speaking are Dr. Paul Collins (CoE), who teaches at the University of Chichester. And Marianele de la Paz Cot, from the Episcopal Church of Cuba. A former medical doctor, who is now a theological educator.
I don’t know enough about them to make an informed comment. But I was struck by the WCC’s claim that the 120 members of the Faith and Order Commission are [i]”Christianity’s most representative theological forum.”[/i] That may be true in a formal, denominational sense, but if so, it also shows the decided limits of even such a very diverse group. For the vast majority of evangelical and pentecostal Christians and their churches aren’t represented.
Actually, the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC is the only part of it that I have any interest in at all. I think the so-called Lima Document, paper #111 produced by the Commission in Lima in 1982, and better known as [b]Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry[/b] or BEM for short, was a tremendous and very important and valuable accomplishment. It shows the work of the WCC at its best.
But alas, for the most part, the WCC has been hijacked by the advocates of a liberal social gospel.
David Handy+
The BEM Document! I haven’t heard of that since…..Well, not since it was printed. It seems to have been hugely important to WCC & NCC folk, and might as well have never been for the other 99.99999% of believers. Sorry to report, those organizations are as useful now as they ever were, and that isn’t much. More people watch Curling on cable than pay attention to the Ecumenical Movement.
I deeply regret the EP’s continued infatuation with these left wing psuedo-Christian ecumenical groups. The Orthodox Church has no business in either the WCC or the NCC. This is a case where we should take a note from the Roman Catholics and stay home.
In ICXC
John