ECUMENISM DESCRIBED

Historical Ecumenism

The term ecumenism is the Anglo-Saxon transliteration of the Greek word 'oikumene'. The word means the inhabited earth (Luke 4:5; 21:26; Rom. 10:18), or the world inhabited by mankind (Luke 2:1). Therefore, any gathering with a wide geographical representation can be called ecumenical in a nontechnical sense. Early church councils such as the Councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), and Constantinople II (553), are commonly referred to as ecumenical councils.

In the nineteenth century the word acquired a technical meaning and has come to be used to describe a specific effort on unity by a section of Christendom. At a united conference of Christians from various denominations at Liverpool, England, in 1860, Lord Shaftesbury first called the gathering an ecumenical council. However, it was in 1900 at New York that the word was used as a title of the conference because the campaign vision for the conference was to cover the whole inhabited earth.

Early "ecumenical" church councils were very concerned about doctrine. In fact, for the first millennium of the

Christian era, every Council condemned a major heresy. For example, the orthodox council meeting in Nicaea I (325) 129

condemned Arianism which reduced the deity of Jesus Christ.

The council of Ephesus (431) rejected Nestorianism, the view that exalted the humanity of Christ at the expense of His deity. Although ecclesiastical politics played a major part in some of the struggles, the primary concern of the orthodox church was purity of doctrine. Subsequent discussion will reveal that contemporary liberal ecumenism cannot rightly claim identity with the early ecumenical councils.

Modern ecumenism

The modern use of the term has two connotations. One is the general idea of a "brotherhood" gathering which brings together both Roman Catholics and Protestants, "it is institutionally symbolized by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Its forte is "brotherhood" based on the feeling that our differences really do not matter so long as we can eat together and talk together." This type of ecumenism¹ is generally promoted by such projects as Bible translation, Bible study, evangelism, and charity, depending on the local atmosphere. Most of these features are taking shape in Africa today.

But the specific type of ecumenism to be dealt with in this chapter is the solidly institutionalized movement incar-nated in the World Council of Churches. Lowell describes it: "The other aspect of ecumenism is a drive for Christian unity which envisages bringing all churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, under one ecclesiastical tent."²

Unlike the true type of early ecumenical councils, present-day ecumenism plays down doctrinal issues. Their thesis is that doctrine divides, but service unites. The drive, therefore, comes mainly through service. To the ecumenicals, unity, almost at any cost, is the greatest thing that could happen to the Christian Church. Any group that refuses to join the bandwagon of liberal ecumenism is considered a separatist, sectarian, or uncooperative group.

Modern Ecumenism and the Third World

The four major landmarks which preceded the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948 are the Edinburgh Conference in 1910, Jerusalem in 1928, Madras in 1938, and Whitby in 1947. Ecumenism may rightly be called a child of the mission field. It was the desire for cooperation among missionaries and their supporters that led to the calling of the

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Edinburgh World Missionary Conference.

Inevitably as missionaries moved into India, China, Japan, and the countries of Africa and Latin America,

they encountered problems requiring joint ion. Nearly always this meant sharing helpful mation and providing mutual counsel. In a few cases it meant alleviating friction that arose when one society encroached on territory or appealed to verts of another. Conferences usually sufficed to iron out the difficulties. Yet far from home missionaries enjoyed these assemblies for the sheer joy of being together —for Christian fellowship—and significantly these conferences became a main current flowing into Edinburgh, 1910. The procedure they evolved through the years became normative for Edinburgh, 1910, and the most subsequent ecumenical conferences. ³

There were group consultations among mission supporters and students in the homeland of the missionaries. But it was mainly in the Third World that ecumenism took firm roots.

The Third World includes the countries of Latin America, Africa and the developing countries of Asia. One of the most important meetings in the early stages of the development of ecumenism was the South India Conference in 1900. It was repeated two years later. "The Madras group appointed an organizing committee which fixed afresh the fundamental problems of conference organization and procedure." Simil-⁴ ar conferences were held in other parts of the world. The outcome of these conferences was evident:

The influence of these gatherings greatly stimulated the desire for church union on the part of the younger church Christians. They, as is well known, have been especially concerned to give tangible evidence to Christian unity in church union.⁵

Other conferences were held in North America and Great Britain. There was the Evangelical Alliance Conference in Dublin, 1852, the Union Missionary Convention in New York, 1854, then the British Organization of the Evangelical Alliance conference in London, 1854. It was the concern for missions that led to the London Secretaries Association conference in Liverpool, 1860, and the following General Conferences on Foreign Missions, at London, 1878, and

1888. Missions was the primary purpose for these 131

American conferences. This shows how fertile a soil the Third World is for the growth of ecumenism. A Roman Catholic author observes, "Ecumenical attitudes, having grown quickest in 'mission' territories, have then spread back to the home countries."⁶

The first World Missionary Conference was held in Edin-burgh, June 14-23, 1910. "As a result of Edinburgh's

far-reaching influence, it has also become customary to speak of 1910 as the beginning of modem missionary cooperation, indeed, of the Ecumenical Movement itself a largely able argument."⁷

The supposed link between Edinburgh, 1910, and current ecumenism is a weak one. The clear objectives of Edinburgh differed greatly from what is seen and heard today. The concern for salvation of individual souls was the primary feature of these early conferences. The difference between Christianity and non-Christian religions was as clear as day

and night. The proposed agenda for Edinburgh shows the deep passion for missions in the original founders. The items were these:

Carrying the Gospel to all the world. The Native Church and its workers. Education in Relation to the Christianization of National Life. The Missionary Message in Relation to Non-Christian Religions. The Preparation of Missionaries. The Home Base of Missions. Relation of Missions to Governments.

Co-operation and Promotion of Unity.⁸

One major weakness of the Edinburgh conference was the absence of doctrinal considerations. It was resolved at the outset that "questions of doctrine or church policy with gard to which the Churches or Societies taking part. . . differ among themselves" would not be discussed. This weakness⁸ is one of the features that today's ecumenicals can justifiably claim for heritage. On other counts, Edinburgh was soundly evangelical. To bring salvation to people as individuals was their goal. The utter lostness of men without Christ was their Biblical presupposition. There was no doubt at all in their minds as to the meaning of salvation. Their mission was clear. Their message was unadulterated.

However, there was yet one other weakness of Edinburgh, 1910, and that was the exclusion of Latin America among the areas to be evangelized on the basis that Roman Catholics were working there. It was done to conciliate European

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gates who were in sympathy with Roman Catholics. This is a further similarity between Edinburgh, 1910, and contempor-ary ecumenism.

Apart from these weaknesses, Edinburgh, 1910, was a conference of evangelicals. This discredits the liberal's claim today of being the only champion of unity. The fact of the matter is that orthodox Christianity from the beginning of the Church has been interested in fellowship and unity as long as doctrines are not compromised. Admittedly, Jesus Christ prayed for both visible and invisible unity in His body (John 17:21) but not unity without the basic agreement on doctrine. Doctrinal truths cannot be sacrificed at the altar of unity.

A continuation Committee was set up at Edinburgh.

Through this Committee, National Church Councils were organized. The mission countries of the world again became the chief targets for formation of Church Councils. Probably the greatest single architect of this type of ministry was John R. Mott. He had declined a call by President Woodrow

Wilson to become the United States Ambassador to China on account that "he could not resign his important duties." The⁹ formation of National Church Councils was a prelude to the founding of the mother Council, the International Missionary Council. It was started in Lake Mohonk, New York in 1921, with a sizeable number of representatives from several countries. Dr. James E.K. Aggrey, of Ghana, then a professor at Livingstone College, North Carolina, was one of the repre-sentatives. He pleaded the cause of Africa at the conference and thereafter. Aggrey challenged the council:

Give us a full-rounded chance. The sea of difference between you and us should be no more. The sea of our failure to bring any contribution to the Kingdom of God shall be no more. You white folks may bring your gold, your great banks and your big buildings, your sanitation and other marvellous achievements to the manger, but that will not be enough. Let the Chinese and the Japanese and the Indians bring their frankincense of ceremony, but that will not be enough. We black people must step in with our myrrh of child-like faith . . . If you take our

child-likeness, our love for God, our belief in ity, our belief in God, and our love for you, whether you hate us or not, then the gifts will be complete.

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. . God grant that you who have heard ... this plea from Africa will trust us, will come and educate us, and will give us a chance to make that contribution to the world which is in the design of God.¹⁰

The International Missionary Council was founded for the primary purpose of common strategy in presenting the Gospel to the sinful world. Unfortunately, the objective was later relegated to the background. The decline was gradual, but sure. At the Jerusalem Conference in 1928, the main subject was the challenge of overemphasis on the social gospel and a syncretistic approach to other religions. Syncretism means combining the elements of many religions into one. European participants were prone to these unscriptural trends. The call back to the Biblical position went unheeded. The cancer continued to surge inwards towards the moral fiber.

It was said of the gospel that "the Gospel of Christ con-tains a message, not only for the individual soul, but for the world of social organization and economic relations in which individuals live." The Church's task is "both to carry the¹¹ message of Christ to the individual soul, and to create a Christian civilization within which all human beings can grow to their full spiritual stature. With this new emphasis, the¹¹ International Missionary Council began to major on social ministries and thereby deemphasized the spiritual ministry.

The criticisms from British and American conservatives at that time was not a far cry. Many of the theologically conservative British and North American delegates sharply criticized the modernistic cast of the whole assembly and regarded its com-promising approach to other faiths as sheer apostasy. The erroneous identification of the Kingdom of God with western civilization established its roots in Christendom.

In 1938 the International Missionary Council convened again at Tambaram, near Madras, India. The subject this time was "the Christian message in a non-Christian world."

The leading single voice at Tambaram was the neo-orthodox Dutch theologian, Hendrik Kraemer. His epoch-making book, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World, now in its seventh printing, is still one of the greatest works in the discipline. The opposition of W.E. Hocking and others did not silence Kraemer.

In his argument, Kraemer admits that "man is by nature a religious 'animal' as well as a moral or an intellectual one."¹² But he advocates, "The important thing to note in man is that,

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although a religious 'animal' by nature, he is at the same time deeply irreligious, if we take the word religion with the seriousness we have learnt from Christ."¹²

Kraemer also bemoans the relativism of his days:

The general atmosphere of relativism and the growing conviction of the irrelevancy of religion, however, evokes the notion that all religions were probably equally unimportant and equally erroneous, which in its turn reinforced the relativist and

ist temper.¹²

While Kraemer deserves commendation for upholding the unique nature of Biblical revelation, his view of total discon-tinuity in religions is a denial of natural revelation. Although non-Christian religions are barricades against God, paradoxic-ally they arise from man's God-consciousness. Religious systems as such, evidence the vestiges of God's witness to man through nature and conscience. The religions themselves are not the witness of God's revelation, but they prove the yearn-ing for God in the human heart. Non-Christian religious practices indeed constitute a rebellion against God, but nevertheless, they show the ipso facto cry of the human heart. Therefore, discontinuity of the God-man relationship as caused by the fall, must paradoxically be matched with continuity of the vestiges of natural revelation.

On July 5-24, 1947, the International Missionary Council met at Whitby, Ontario, Canada, following the devastation of World War II. The theme of Whitby was "partnership in obedience." Evangelism was the content of the act of obed-ience. There was no doubt as to the meaning of evangelism.

While the delegates did not shut their eyes to man's need in this life, they were clear on the issue of personal faith in Christ or its absence. They believed that "the Gospel should be preached to almost all the inhabitants of the world in such a way as to make clear to them the issue of faith or dis-belief in Jesus Christ." However, they left out the persua-¹³ sive aspect of the gospel presentation. A clause on challeng-ing the hearers to accept Christ as part of evangelism was missing. The cancer was gnawing gradually into the vitals of the gospel.

Two other streams of ecumenism are Faith and Order, and Life and Work. The International Missionary Council ed at New York, 1927, "that to seek any theological

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sus or to discuss or determine matters of doctrine lay beyond its province." This was a reaffirmation of Edinburgh, 1910.¹⁴ Charles H. Brant was so concerned for "faith and polity"

that he persisted until Faith and Order was formed in 1927.

A parallel movement, Life and Work, with particular emphasis on meeting social needs, was formed in 1925. At Edinburgh in 1937, the two movements were merged, and this prepared the way for the formation of the World Council of Churches.

At a preliminary conference in Utrecht, Holland, in 1938, the constitution for the World Council of Churches was drawn up. The plan lay dormant during the war years (1939-45) until 1948, the year the World Council of Churches was formed in Amsterdam.

Since the formative years of ecumenism till today, the Third World has been much under consideration. The Congo Protestant Council was legally organized in 1924. It, however, pulled out of I.M.C., when the latter was merged with the World Council of Churches in 1961. Through the great initiative of John R. Mott, several Christian Councils were formed in Southern and Central Africa before the outbreak of World War II in 1939. However, it was in 1955 that the first continental meeting in Africa was organized by the Lutheran World Federation. In 1957 the International

Missionary Council met in Accra, Ghana, evidently to encour-age the ecumenical movement in the continent. The first representative body of the All Africa Conference of Churches was organized. The body soon met in Ibadan, Nigeria, in January, 1958. In April 1963, at Kampala, Uganda, the

Assembly of the All Africa Conference of Churches was inaugurated amidst drumming of jubilation. From this time on the ship of ecumenism has been sailing smoothly and with arrogance on the ecclesiastical waters of Africa. The charter-ed course of the All Africa Conference of Churches has been echoed by Hans-Ruedi Weber:

The emergency situations created by civil wars, race discrimination, refugees, and hunger, became a severe test for the community of Churches which develops in the A.A.C.C. A continent-wide survey of the needs in Africa was made for the W.C.C. by the late Z.K.

Matthews and Sir Hugh Foot. An ecumenical gency fund for Africa was created, which makes it possible to operate service and training projects all over the continent.¹⁵

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C. Stanley Lowell, The Ecumenical Mirage (Grand Rapids: Baker¹ Book House, 1969), p. 11.

Ibid., p. 12.²

Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations, p. 16.³ Ibid., p. 21.⁴

Ibid., p. 33.

5

Andrian Hastings, Church and Mission in Modern Africa (London:⁶ Fordham University Press, 1967), p. 238.

Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations, p. 98.⁷ Ibid., pp. 108, 109.⁸

Ibid., p. 156.⁹

Harold E. Fey, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1948-68

10

(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970), II, 74, citing Edwin W.

Smith, Aggrey in Africa, p. 188.

Ibid., p. 250.

11

Hendrik Kraemer, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian

12

World (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1969), pp. 13, 14.

Hogg, Ecumenical Foundations, p. 340.

13

Ibid., p. 217.

14

Fey, History of Ecumenical Movement, p. 78.

15

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11

ECUMENISM

ROOTED IN AFRICA