In a world that is divided and where churches are also divided, the quest for visible unity is more relevant than ever, according to Rev. Prof. Dr Stephanie Dietrich, moderator of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
"We need to strive for unity and the visible unity of the churches and of Christians," she said in advance of the WCC's Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, meeting from 24 to 28 October at the Logos Papal Center of the Coptic Orthodox Church at Wadi El Natrun in Egypt.
World Conferences on Faith and Order have been held since 1927 at key moments in the history of the ecumenical movement, the last taking place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1993.
The Sixth World Conference is gathering around the theme "Where now for visible unity?" and Dietrich made her remarks in a video conversation with Prof. Dr Andrej Jeftić, the director of the Faith and Order commission.
World Conferences on Faith and Order have been events that have gathered up the work on Faith and Order in the preceding period and set the agenda for the future, not only for the work on Faith and Order but also for the wider ecumenical fellowship and the WCC.
Unlike those who have claimed that churches are living through an "ecumenical winter," Dietrich said that the ecumenical movement finds itself in a combination of autumn and spring.
"We are harvesting from all the dialogues and all the theological work we have had over so many years," said Dietrich. "So in that way, we are in autumn, harvesting the good fruits."
At the same time, she continued, "there's a kind of spring, a new engagement and a new desire to search for visible unity also when it comes to work on questions of doctrine, of faith and order."
Jeftić described the Sixth World Conference as a significant moment in the history of the Faith and Order movement.
"I think the major thing is to bring back the conversation on the visible unity to the very heart of the ecumenical movement," he said. "It's in the very heart of what the WCC is, as the fellowship of churches."
The conference will gather about 400 participants at the Papal Logos Center, which is close to the 4th-century St Bishoy Monastery at Wadi El Natrun, roughly halfway between Cairo and Alexandria, and is being hosted by the Coptic Orthodox Church.
It is the first time, Jeftić said, that a World Conference on Faith and Order has taken place outside Europe or North America.
Today, Dietrich noted, the majority of Christians live in the Global South, and in recent years, Faith and Order has done much work on "broadening the table," including people from all parts of the world, and not least people coming from the Global South.
Jeftić said there had been a major kind of breakthrough in the work of the previous commission with its work towards a global vision of the church and engaging with evangelical and Pentecostal approaches to the work on ecclesiology that Faith and Order has done.
The date for the conference in 2025 has been chosen to mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, which for the first time gathered bishops from the whole of the Christendom of that era to affirm the Christian faith in the triune God.
"Going to a place that represents so much of the tradition of the early church in the desert, surrounded by these monasteries carrying the spirituality of the desert fathers – it's really a unique place also to commemorate 1700 years of our joint faith, the joint Nicene Creed," said Dietrich.
The search for visible unity is about a holistic understanding of living together, witnessing together, believing together, and also living in our world, she said.
The conference, she continued, will be rooted and placed within a context of prayer and of faith that has been continuing for almost 2000 years.
"I think this holistic understanding of unity will hopefully shape our conference in Wadi El Natrun, together with this very special environment of monastic spirituality," Dietrich affirmed.
"So that, I hope, will be shaping our world conference," said Dietrich, "that the Holy Spirit will guide us during this conference and help us to move forward towards even deeper, even wider visible unity."
Originally from the World Council of Churches
CCD reprinted with permission
