Despite disappointment and discouragement voiced over the slower pace of ecumenical talks than in decades past, Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory offered his view that it is “high season” for the ecumenical movement during an April 20 address in Tampa.
“Some have even spoken of a ”˜winter’ of ecumenism in the sense that the enthusiasm of the early days has given way to a more sober realism,” Archbishop Gregory told participants at the April 19-22 National Workshop on Christian Unity.
He referred to German Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, whose book assessing the past 40 years of ecumenical dialogue, “Harvesting the Fruits: Basic Aspects of Christian Faith in Ecumenical Dialogue,” was published last year.
The book was written in part, according to Archbishop Gregory, because “we now face a new situation, quite different from the one we faced at the end of the Second Vatican Council,” whose decree on ecumenism, “Unitatis Redintegratio,” helped pave the way for greater ecumenical dialogue in the Catholic Church.
“We now realize that there was a kind of naive enthusiasm in those days, which now contributes to a certain fatigue or even disappointment,” Archbishop Gregory said. “We know now that the ecumenical enterprise will be longer than it appeared to be after the council.”
I’m afraid I can’t share the optimism of the Catholic archbishop of Atlanta, Wilton Gregory. While I wouldn’t call the present season of ecumenism a “winter,” neither would I call it “midsummer” either. I think it all depends on whether you look at the official, international dialogues and progress toward reunion at the organizational level, where things are indeed dismal (e.g., the NCC and WCC are stalled at best or collapsing), or whether you look at grass-roots initiatives, where things are far more promising and encouraging.
For instance, the warm, supportive relationship evident between struggling orthodox Anglicans facing persecution from TEC and local RC leaders is one sign of that grass-roots style ecumenism. When Fr. Matt Kennedy and his flock were forced out of their church building and rectory, the local Catholic priest came to the rescue and offered a vacant parish and rectory, and a local Baptist church offered assistance too. Similarly, the RC bishop of Pittsburgh was the first leader to call ++Bob Duncan when the Diocese of Pittsburgh left TEC and offered to let Anglicans worship in RC churches throughout the diocese, if the ex-Episcopalians were forced out of their buildings.
The famous Lima Document, [b]Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry,[/b] produced by the Faith and Order movement within the WCC back in the early 1980s probably represents the peak of official dialogue agreements about doctrinal differences. And the landmark JDDJ, or [b]Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,[/b] signed by leading Catholic and Lutheran theologians on October 31, 1999 may be almost as significant, dealing as it does with the primary doctrinal issue at stake at the time of the Reformation. Both represent official international ecumenism at its best.
But certainly ++Gregory is right that there was a lot of naive optimism on all sides in the early post Vatican II era that underestimated the difficulties and obstacles that still stand in the way of official reunion of divided church bodies within Protestantism, much less between Catholicism and Protestantism, or even with the eastern churches. The widespread adoption of a common lectionary and a common shape of eucharistic liturgy has been one of the most impressive signs of growing convergence among the various liturgical churches, but the huge chasm between liturgical and non-liturgical churches remains. As does the even greater gap between the conservative and libreral wings within all the oldline denominations.
As an African American, perhaps Archbishop Gregory is a bit prone to emphasize the positive. As the first black archbishop of Atlanta, he does represent some of the signs of hope that the Catholic Church can continue to become ever more universal and inclusive of all the races, languages, and cultures on earth. And so does the recent appointment of the new Hispanic archbishop of LA, Jose Gomez.
My own view is that we are seeing progress on some fronts, and regress on others. For instance, conservative Anglicans are building bridges instead of walls and forming new partnerships with conservative Anglicans throughout the world, as well as with conservative Luthernas, now that the ELCA has followed TEC in drifting with the cultural currents right over a disastrous waterfall and is suffering a similar massive institutional breakup as a result. The ACNA is uniting fragmented Anglican groups in an unprecedented way. All this and more is very encouraging.
But the cautionary tone of this article is right. The road to official, formal reunion will be a very long and difficult one, doubtless with many unforseeable detours along the way. But if the second Christian millenium saw lots of fragmentation and bitter divisions, especially since the 16th century Reformation, the signing of the JDDJ offers hope that the third millenium may reverse those tendencies and see much of Christianity reunite and close ranks in the face of growing challenges from militant Islam and resurregent Hinduism, modern secularism and relativism, and so on.
David Handy+