An assessment of the current challenges for ecumenical relations ahead of the next assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) points out that the field of ecumenism has become more diverse and complex, with denominational boundaries losing significance and new divisions appearing within religious bodies, in part due to social and ethical disputes. Writing in the June issue of Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West, Jennifer Wasmuth (Göttingen University, Germany) and Frank Zeeb (Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France) note that the assembly, which will gather in Karlsruhe, Germany, in late August and early September, will also be addressing the war in Ukraine, deliberating on demands that the membership of the Russian Orthodox Church be revoked or at least suspended due to statements by the Patriarch of Moscow.
Source: La Stampa.
Wasmuth and Zeep write that, as the significance of religious borders has weakened, issues of dogma no longer appear to be as divisive as they used to be as identity markers, at least in the daily lives of many Christian congregations. New dividing lines have formed around specific themes such as female ordinations or same-sex blessings, leading not only to divisions within churches and across denominations, but also to new relations between groups from different denominations (e.g., around the advocacy of “traditional Christian values”). Such denominational weakening s also reflected in the “charismatization” of religious practices crossing denominational borders. While the meaning of such developments for ecumenism still needs to be further assessed, Wasmuth and Zeeb suggest that these trends should not merely be seen as hurdles, pointing to how they might offer new possibilities. For instance, skepticism from the global South might be welcomed from a “postcolonial perspective” open to themes and goals that are not exclusively set according to Western criteria. In a situation that might seem more confusing than it used to be, it would also be advisable to examine how far what is happening in the West (such as the declining significance of denominational boundaries) applies in the same way to other contexts.
(Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West, Institut G2W, Bederstrasse 76, 8002 Zürich, Switzerland – https://g2w.eu)
