Churches in Ecumenical Transition

This is a brief introduction to the contribution of the Ecumencial Network for Multicultural Ministry (ENFORMM) to the new WCC affirmation on mission and evangelism, which was specifically commissioned by CWME in 2009 and will be fed into the new WCC affirmation on mission evangelism. Recognizing the critical significance of the emerging multicultural and migrant churches to mission and ministry in the twenty‐first century, CWME is keen that the new mission statement adequately reflects that important development. Clearly, the ministry and ecclesiology of migrant/multicultural churches are integral to the future mission and existence of the Christian church. “Cultural diversity as a fact of human existence”: This text assumes that cultural diversity is a fact of human societies, and migration is a fact of human existence. Throughout human history, societies have always enjoyed varied degrees of cultural pluralism largely because migration is a natural human predisposition. Migration is by no means limited to movements from South to North. People movements from South to South and North to South have equal importance and impact. With increased migration come increased cross‐cultural encounters and their attendant complexities. The paper highlights the unfortunate but pervasive and widespread misconception that migrants as such constitute the root cause of social tension and problems. The paper argues that “people movement around the globe (migration) not only calls for reframing the rhetoric on migration, it also calls for reframing the debate on mission.” “Cultural diversity as a fact of Christian communal life – migration‐shaped early church”:

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Chinese Churches and the Ecumenical Movement from an Asian Perspective

The involvement of Chinese churches and Chinese Christians with the ecumenical movement preceded the establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Recurring themes in the encounter have been de‐colonization and indigenization, church unity and post‐denominationalism, and Asian regional ecumenism. There was also a determination among Chinese church leaders to reconfigure mission and relations between churches in the West and those in Asia. These concerns have their origins in the chequered history of Christian missions and their association with imperialism in the last century.     

The (Holy and Great) Council of the Orthodox Churches: An Ecumenical Perspective

From 19 to 26 June 2016, the first Pan‐Orthodox Council for more than a thousand years took place in Crete, although the Orthodox churches of Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Antioch, for various reasons, did not participate. This article offers an assessment, from an ecumenical perspective, of the preparation and results of the council, and especially the document agreed in Crete concerning the “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.”     

Contextuality and Catholicity: The Task of Orthodox Theology in Ecumenical Theological Education

The essay unfolds theological foundations for theological education in ecumenical perspective from Orthodox perspectives seeing it as a worldwide enterprise fundamental to the mission of the church, not in its institutional character, but in its eschatological awareness of being a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. The relation between early ecumenical optimism and enthusiasm towards the goal of the visible unity of the church and the wide application of contextuality, i.e. the recognition of the contextual character of theology as a method from the 1970s onwards is discussed. According to the Orthodox perspectives, the ecumenical movement has lost its momentum and coherence and its determination for the quest of visible unity with the predominant acceptance of contextuality as the guiding principle in ecumenical discussions and theological education. The author argues that Orthodox theology has to deepen the understanding of its own contextuality and soften the existing antithesis between contextuality and catholicity of theology and theological education. Orthodox perspectives should underline the relevance of a fundamental unity of divine revelation, as represented in the broad understanding of Christian tradition, which is for the entire created world, not only for believers and which is challenging both a potential distortion, wherein unity is identified with the maintenance of denominational loyalty, as well as all contextual expressions of Christian theology with regard to their relation to the overall goal of church unity. The paper concludes with a plea for all Orthodox theological education to be of some real service to the church in deciding to deal both with current issues (to be contextual) and not to lose sight of the past (to be oriented to catholicity and church unity), to both open up to ecumenical theological education while at the same time maintaining a strong commitment to the common church tradition.     

二十世纪上半叶中国基督教会合一运动述评

"自立"与"合一"是二十世纪上半叶中国基督教会中最为重要的两股潮流。在自立运动日趋发展的同时,中国基督教会的合一运动也日渐发达。自1860年全面开教以来,在华传教士意识到加强合作的益处,开始在圣经翻译、出版、教育、医疗等方面展开合作。受1910年爱丁堡世界传教大会的影响,中国各区域内及全国性的教会联合运动有了进一步拓展。而1922年基督教全国大会的召开及中华全国基督教协进会的建立,即是二十世纪前二十年各宗派教会合一运动的结果,更是之后二十余年各教会联合协作的起点。尽管二十世纪上半叶中国基督教会的合一运动淡化了之前的宗派分割,各教会之间的合作与联系也逐渐加强;但教会合一运动自身具有一定限度,而且同样存在着争端与困境。