366 - The Church In the World

The Church In the World
By E. G. Homrighausen

LET THE CHURCH BE THE CHURCH-AFTER THIRTY YEARS

THIRTY years ago, in 1937, one of the most significant ecumenical gatherings, the Life and Work Conference, took place in Oxford, England. Its central theme was: Church, Community, and State. The international atmosphere in which the Conference took place was filled with the forebodings of war. The world in which the churches met was dominated by three totalitarian communities: Communism, Fascism, National Socialism. Some churchmen present regarded these absolutisms as manifestations of the demonic and even of anti-Christ.

The Protestant and Orthodox Church representatives in attendance confronted these threatening phenomena rather unprepared to interpret their meaning or to deal with them with conviction and unity. Some of the delegates from national churches realized that their communions were so integrally enmeshed in these new societies, financially, culturally, and historically, that it was difficult for them to extricate themselves and declare their independence. A few went so far as to regard their national communities as rooted in the divine order, thereby claiming their loyalty as Christians. They saw in the new dynamic secular orders the work of God. They were seduced by the world-affirming enthusiasm of fascism and national socialism.

On the other hand, communism made no attempt to seduce the churches; rather, it sought to liquidate them by force or create a social atmosphere in which the churches would suffocate. Religion of any kind was a drug, a dangerous reactionary force that stood in the way of accomplishing the classless and stateless community of man.

While many American churchmen participated in the Conference, not many really understood the European situation. Amer-

367 - The Church In the World

icans were separated from Europe by an ocean-and much more. Church life in America was quite undisturbed. Protestantism enjoyed an unofficial established status in the nation's culture. The social climate was friendly to the churches. Efforts were made by the churches with some success to effect social justice. Progress was being made toward Christian unity. Prophetic spirits warned against dangerous social inequities and trends. But the American churches faced no militant nationalism or communism. In fact, some American churchmen at Oxford thought the Continentals and their crisis theology paranoic. The enemies of the church were largely adultery, drinking, smoking, gambling, and other sins of the flesh.

The European churches, whether Orthodox or Protestant, had long taken their existence for granted. Except for the churches in France and Russia, the first European secular and communist states respectively, they were supported by state subsidies and enjoyed a protected status. They were parts of national cultures and peoples' churches. Now they faced a new type of nation-state community. The overpowering dynamisms of these new orders shook the churches to their foundations. Of course, the churches which confronted communism faced quite a different situation. Here was an enemy that threatened the churches with extinction. They had to rethink radically the nature of the church and the relation of their churches to this new secular order.

It was in this tense atmosphere that the Oxford Conference was convened. The situation brought about in many churchmen a new conception of the nature and task of the church. No longer could churchmen be satisfied with the luxury of a purely private Christianity. No longer could Christianity be regarded as a religion-in-general or a voluntary group of people interested in promoting Christian ideals. Dr. Samuel Cavert wrote that at Oxford the churches "became aware of the church as a God-given community, transcending divisions of nation, race, and class, which provided visible evidence of what God means society to become as a whole." In face of the situation outside the churches and the situation inside the churches a recovery of the church emerged from Oxford as well as a new understanding of the nature of community and state.

Out of that Conference came the phrase-Let the Church Be the Church! It was coined by John A. Mackay, then President of

368 - The Church In the World

Princeton Seminary. The first duty of the church, Oxford affirmed, is to be the church "confessing the true faith, committed to the fulfillment of the will of Christ, its only Lord, and united in Him in the fellowship of love and service." The church must "discern clearly her own status as the Community of Grace, the organ of God's redemptive purpose for mankind, she must by a process of merciless self-scrutiny become what God intends her to be. . . . It must be her ceaseless concern to rid herself from all subjugation to a prevailing culture, and economic system, a social type, or a political order. Let the Church live over against all these, let the Church stand."

The watchword was misinterpreted by some to urge the church's withdrawal from the world. Nothing of the kind was intended. To be sure, the slogan savors of the issues of the time when the church was tempted either to ally itself with new secular orders that posed as "waves of the future," or to withdraw from a hostile world into the security of an unworldly sanctuary. I will never forget the great address of Reinhold Niebuhr at Oxford which centered in the age-old heresies: false sacramentalism and false secularism. And that was thirty years ago!

Since 1937 much has happened to change the world in which the churches live and move and have their being: World War II; new nations (some in a state of civil war); east-west, now north-south polarization; mass and intercontinental communications; space explorations; civil rights struggles; population and knowledge explosions; continuing revolution; and the imperious progress of the new secular ecumenism. Since 1937 much has happened in the churches: assemblies, programs, studies, and growing constituencies of the World Council of Churches; world-wide relief and refugee work; new centers of renewal sparked by the Ecumenical Institute; renewed biblical and theological studies; independent younger churches; regional inter-church associations; Vatican Council II; new forms of Christian ministries; the new evangelicalism; the growing gap between clergy and laity; tension between "personal salvationists" and "Christian actionists"; declining church membership and attendance in older churches; blurring of the clergy image; criticism of the institutional church; unrest in the churches because of differences in theological stance and on the relation of the church to the world.

369 - The Church In the World

The fascist and national socialist communities of 1937 are gone, but the new nationalisms whether in Ceylon, Burma, the Sudan, or other states still pose seductions or threats for younger churches which want to be indigenous and Christian. Even the oldest democracy in the West, Greece, is now a police state, and it certainly affects one of the oldest Orthodox churches in history. While communism is no longer monolithic, its Chinese form is a threat to the Christian church. In eastern Europe, communism coexists with the churches after a long and pruging encounter which has renewed them and has inaugurated a dialogue. In some countries where Roman Catholic power harassed Protestants, Vatican Council II has brought Protestants out of their defensiveness into dialogue and even cooperation. "Let the Church be the Church" is still quite apropos in many areas of the world. The churches caught in these situations are confronted with the necessity of understanding the social situations in which they find themselves and of encountering them as the people of God with a definite identity and commissioned to a specific service to, in, and for the world.

Perhaps the most confused and lethargic group of Christians in our time are those in the western world with their massive institutions, weighty heritages, cultural associations, aggravated by a confused theological mind, confronting the dynamism of rapid and radical social and theological change with a disunited and unsure theology of the gospel, the church, and the Christian style of life. The old order faces the new secular world. On the one hand, there is the desire to preserve the Christian heritage; on the other hand, there is the desire to relate the Christian faith to the demanding needs of a come-of-age secular world. Two biblical questions agitate these churches: "How can an old church be born again?" "How can a rich man enter the Kingdom of God?" To these questions may be added three of the oldest in Christian history: "What is the church?" "What is the world?" "What is God's relation to each and both?"

Perhaps what started at Oxford is now coming full cycle especially for the American churches. The Christian faith, like any other, does not exist without some kind of "church." Nor can the church exist apart from the world. Therefore the imperious problem for the church is that of striving with integrity to become the people

370 - The Church In the World

of God and of being involved in an authentic Christian way in the secular world.

This is the issue that seems to be at the core of the present unrest in the churches. Upon this issue much hard theological thinking will have to be done by both clergy and laity together.

CONVERSIONS IN INDONESIA

Reports from observers indicate that nearly a quarter of a million Indonesians have joined the Protestant churches of Indonesia within the past two years. This is the largest movement of people to enter the Christian community anywhere in many decades. At a time when sections of the western world are lamenting the loss of young people and adults from the membership of the churches, this word from the fifth largest nation in the world with a population of 110 million, 85 per cent of whom are Moslems, is surprising and heartening news. This brings the number of Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians up to about seven percent of the nation's population. This is the largest concentration of Christians in any Asian country.

In one village in Sumatra, two thousand people were baptized into the Karo-Batak Church. The service was conducted by fifteen ministers from six denominations. In 1965, the Christian Church of East Java, which is 150 years old, numbered 62,000 members; today its membership has risen to 80,000. Similar reports of conversions and the resulting construction of new churches have come from West Borneo, Timor, Central and West Java, and other islands.

Needless to say, this "invasion" has taxed the leadership of the thirty-five autonomous Protestant churches in Indonesia, which are associated in an efficient and effective National Council of Churches. The Bible Society cannot keep up with the demand for Bibles. New congregations are served by dedicated laymen, or ministers must serve more than one church. The need for ministerial students is acute.

How shall we account for this phenomenon in a country so largely Moslem? For one thing, all Indonesians are religious:

371 - The Church In the World

animists, Moslem, Hindu, or Christian. And the first principle of the five basic principles of Indonesian democracy (Pantjasila) announces national faith in God. Education had weaned many animists from their religion and thereby created a vacuum in their lives. A minority of militant Moslems, once squelched by Sukarno, kept alive their hope for a militant Moslem state. They were foes of moderate Moslems, communists, and of some Christians. And Indonesians resist state domination. The communist party in Indonesia was large, popular, growing, and militant. It discredited, even ridiculed, Islamic faith and got into control of villages in East Java and Bali, placing its leaders in positions of power in the national government, especially in foreign policy. Sukarno believed it possible for all these groups to live and work together as a happy family. He withdrew Indonesia from the United Nations and carried on a hate campaign against Malaysia. Financial problems aggravated the situation. Then came the attempted coup by the Communists in September, 1965. It failed. Violence broke out in many places and hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Lists of village, government, and religious leaders, who were destined for liquidation were found in communist files. Indonesians who had been subject to a long series of changing conditions awoke at last as from a nightmare. The new situation seemed to hold some promise of hope for better things. So a combination of conditions and events created within the Indonesian spirit a gratitude for liberation from past failures and uncertainties and a wistfulness concerning possibilities under new leadership.

During all this time, the Indonesian church had not withdrawn from the situation. It spoke to conditions with a clear and strong word. It identified with the people. Its leaders in government did not side with extremists. It protested against mass killings. Its leaders were men marked for death. It ministered to those in need and provided for the orphans of those murdered. It maintained its love for Indonesia without giving way to the radical extremism of communism or Islam. It had given a clear witness in word and deed.

However, in this conversion phenomenon, the Indonesian church has not lowered its standards for church membership. It has not opened the floodgates and advertised its statistical success as a church. It insists upon one year of instruction before baptism.

372 - The Church In the World

It puts a high priority on lay-training, theological education, literature for converts, and a strong ministry in higher education.

To the Indonesian Christian, God has been at work in his nation, if not redemptively, at least judgmentally. He brought about a national condition to which a faithful and discerning church spoke the relevant and crucial word of truth and grace. The uncertainty of events over a long period of time and the shocking dramatic events of recent months made the church "ready" to meet a kairos in Indonesian history.

How long this wave of conversions will continue is a question. Will the converts perserve? Much will depend upon the way in which the opportunity is handled. Much also will depend upon the relation of the faith of these new converts not only to the church but to the national situation which is now in the making. If this phenomenon is but a temporary "fox-hole" situation, its results may quickly vanish. Only by relating this new-found personal Christian faith to the political, educational, economic, and international structures-in-formation can it be kept from a frustration that will result in another crisis in the life of these new Christians, in the life of the church, as well as in the life of the nation.

HUNGARIAN QUADRICENTENNIAL

This year the general Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary celebrated its 400th Anniversary with ceremonies at the historic theological center of Debrecen. Churchmen from five continents attended. A service of worship was held in the "Big Church," which seats four thousand people, with Bishop Istvan Szamoskozi preaching the sermon. Thereafter the celebration moved to the Theological Academy where papers were delivered by Bishop Dr. Lajos Bakos, Dr. James L McCord (USA), and Pastor Jean Kotto (the Cameroun). Honorary degrees were conferred on Dr. Wilhelm Niesel (West Germany), Dr. C. G. Baeta (Ghana), Dr. Egbert Emmen (Netherlands), Dr. Heinrich Hellstern (Switzerland), Pastor Kotto, Dr. McCord, Bishop Gyula Nagy (Roumania), and Superintendent A. Schonherr (German Democratic Republic).

Debrecen has been called the "Calvinist Rome." The Reformed

373 - The Church In the World

Church in Hungary has been referred to as the "easternmost bastion of the Reformed faith in Europe." It is the largest Protestant bloc behind the so-called Iron Curtain, numbering three million members. Debrecen's theological library contains 600,000 volumes.

The story of the Hungarian Reformed Church is one of suffering and of victory. Through four centuries of radical social changes, it has endured primarily because of its theological integrity, its faithful preaching of the word, its educational efforts, and its determined allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord. There are few if any churches that have stood up over the centuries under similar opposition and persecution.

The Maygars settled in the Danube basin in the ninth century. They were always caught between east and west. They were up against Turks, Tartars, Slavs, and Germans. They were Christianized around 1000 A.D. They were confronted by the Mongol hordes in the thirteenth century. The Turks conquered their country and occupied it for one hundred and fifty years. In 1526 at Mohacs, Suleiman the Magnificent killed the Maygar king, murdered the nobility, and decimated the army.

But the most significant thing that happened to the Maygars was their acceptance of the Reformation at the time of their devastating defeat. Schools to propagate the new faith were set up in Saraspotak (1531) and Debrecen (1538). They became radically Reformed.

After the Turkish occupation came the bitter encounter with Jesuit and Hapsburg absolutisms in church and state. The depressing story is filled with imprisonments, executions, rebellions. Several hundred ministers were sentenced to die; some recanted; some perished; some escaped. Forty-one were sold to the Spanish galleys. The Dutch Reformed Church was concerned and arranged for their freedom, and on February 11, 1676, twenty-six who survived were greeted by Admiral De Ruyter. Ever since the Dutch and Hungarian Reformed Churches have been closely related.

The Hungarian church, even though somewhat isolated, has felt the influence of puritanism, pietism, rationalism, neo-Calvinism, and more recently of Barthianism. After the settlement of World War I, it experienced a vigorous revival which was reported all over the world.

Then came World War II when their country was literally devastated by both armies and practically everything of value was either

374 - The Church In the World

destroyed or stolen. An indemnity of 300 million dollars at 1938 value was imposed upon them. And after the War came the new social order and the long and painful adjustment that had to be made by Christian leaders and people who were deeply attached to the old order. Weighty issues regarding education, church leadership, financial support, church property, and loyalty to the socialist state had to be confronted. A church that insisted upon theological integrity could not solve these problems quickly or unanimously. And there was the problem of continuing relations with the ecumenical movement and the western world. It is quite impossible for anyone who has not visited the Hungarian church and talked with its leaders during the ordeal of those dangerous but creative days to understand the agony through which they passed. All this, and the 1956 uprising, is a part of the Hungarian Reformed heritage.

The Hungarian Reformed Church lost its 1300 schools to the new order. Financial support from the state was gradually reduced. Restrictions were placed upon the churches in their social services. Delicate negotiations had to be carried on with the state regarding the appointment and election of church officials. For a time, ecumenical relationships were carefully scrutinized and controlled by the state. And of course the educational philosophy of the new socialism in the schools faced the churches with a crucial issue.

But in spite of pressures without and within, this purged church continues its witness. It has found itself and its place in a newer situation for which it was not prepared. It has maintained its ecumenical relationships. It now has a deeper theological integrity, a livelier interest in preaching and teaching the word of God, and a more sensitive awareness of the church's responsibility to society. It was one of the first churches to engage in dialogue with Marxists. It has a deep concern for family life, a subject of importance in face of the Roman Catholic position on mixed marriages. And it is in the forefront in its interest for peace.

Anniversary celebrations can be dangerous manifestations of a nostalgia for the past, the good old days. But the Hungarian Reformed Church has gotten beyond this pathological state. It takes great pride in its past; but, in the words of its Bishop Bartha, it says, "We want to continue the work of the Reformed generation and we do not doubt that the purpose of the Reformation is not

375 - The Church In the World

the formation of a school theology as an end in itself, nor even the formation of church organization. The purpose of the Reformation is the church that follows Christ and serves in fellowship with Christ. . . . Every pastor and every elder must ask the questions: Do their parishioners entrusted to their care really know the burden of the great problems of mankind and do they accordingly pray and work in the fellowship of the congregation and of our society?"

CHRISTIANITY AND THE ISRAELI-ARAB WORLD

Christians have been chided and even criticized by their Jewish friends for not enthusiastically supporting the swift and brilliant Israeli victory over Arab threats to their national existence. It is maintained that Christians, especially those in the west, certainly ought to regard this maneuver with satisfaction not only because Israel represents western interests and technical know-how, but because of Christian sympathy for beleaguered Jews who have suffered desperately through the centuries, and especially in recent years, and who long for a place they can call their homeland. And who, whether Christian or member of another, or no, faith, can withhold some measure of support from a minority as it faced a multi-nationed Arab majority, highly armed, and inspired with an age-old urge to liquidate Israel and drive the Jews into the sea?

It is quite easy to understand why Jews who are not at home in many parts of the world would want to return to the ancestral holy land, to claim the whole of Jerusalem as their capital, to make the Jordan valley their own again. to want not merely a homeland but a state that would command respect among the nations and give them an identity such as they had in the heyday of their ancient history. Even Jews who have no desire to return to Israel, and who may be practically assimilated into gentile cultures, find it hard not to respond to what has happened in Israel's recent victory or to rejoice in the strategy of the campaign and the glory of its outcome.

Conservative evangelical Christians who believe that the destiny of history is related to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, which will be the religious capital of the world, look upon Israel's existence

376 - The Church In the World

and success as a fulfillment of prophecy, a portend of the wind-up of history, even though Israel is not strictly a Jewish state, nor does it allow the propagation of the Christian faith.

And there are liberal Christians who, though shocked by Israel's violation of the United Nations Charter, their occupation of all Jerusalem, and their creation of another mass of miserable refugees, have softened their criticisms of such action, because they feel that Israel has a right to nationhood, that it has a right to secure boundaries, and a right to international waterways.

The objective observer, who has visited Israel but who knows little about the history of the Jewish-Arab relations that go far back into pre-Christian history, and who knows little of the glories of Arab culture and history, must surely marvel at the "miracle" of Israel, at the industry of its communities, at the efficiency of its peoples' military forces, at the unbelievable way in which the Israeli have made the desert blossom as a garden, at the single-minded purpose of these many people who were dispersed for centuries among all nations.

The international relations expert, taking a different stance, will regard Israel as the one beachhead of western influence and power at the crossroads of east and west, as well as of Europe, Africa, and Asia, and secretly, if not openly, will support the cause of Israel.

However, there is another side to the issue that concerns the Christian intensely. There is always the problem of the land which Israel occupies, property that has belonged to Arabs for centuries. No adequate compensation has even been made for it; and the Arabs have never recognized its ownership by Israel. Further, there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in Arab lands and no serious attempt has been made to deal with these people by the Israeli, even though the refugee status has been encouraged by some Arab nations to keep alive the tension between the refugees and the Israeli. And what about recent refugees? And the ruin of Jordan's economy? The recent Israeli occupation of all of Jerusalem which contains holy places sacred alike to Jews, Muslims, and Christians (even though access to all three is permitted), without consultation of all parties concerned, is difficult to approve.

But beyond all these considerations is the sensitive feeling among Jews that any criticism of the Zionist aspects of Israel is a manifestation of anti-semitism. It is on this issue that the Christian

377 - The Church In the World

must speak the truth in love. He must not allow his sympathies for the Jewish people, for the Judaic religious tradition, to blind him to the spirit of Zionism which identifies the Jewish people of God with a militant state. The Christian is involved in growing inter-faith relations with his Jewish friends. He shares up to a point a common faith. But the Christian reserves the right to be pro-Jewish and anti-Zionist. It may be that the Christian can be of great service to his Jewish friend at this point: to help him see the inconsistency between the secular glory of a Zionist state and the true glory of the Jewish people of God. It is in this area that the Jewish people face a serious problem. This dilemma is their "inside crisis." It is not forced upon them by the Christian or the Arab; it is inherent in the very nature of Judaism and its relation to the world.

Williard G. Oxtoby of Yale University, who has written helpfully on this subject, puts it this way, "We are probably at an advanced state of inter-religious understanding that criticism, honestly spoken, can be maturely received. Christians concerned for the safety and the rights of the Muslim and Christian Arabs of Palestine must, if they have the courage to speak out, do so and risk disagreeing with the exultant mood of their Zionist friends."

The Christian faces other issues in the middle eastern situation: the relation of their "missionary" work to the people in Arab nations, and the relation of western Christians to Arab Christians of several communions. Already many missionaries have left their posts, perhaps some never to return. Their future, as well as the future of these western outposts, may well be radically affected. Perhaps these missions will now become more indigenous to the several situations in which they are located.

As for the relations between eastern and western Christians, an even greater effort will have to be made to develop the ecumenical spirit which has been broken so many times by violence through the centuries. Surely the outstanding educational services of the American University in Beirut, the American College in Cairo, and a number of other institutions of learning, have contributed toward the cultural development of Arab and other countries through individuals in strategic places who will be a continuing nucleus of understanding in this critical area of the world.

Nor dare the Christian fail to appreciate the entire Arab world

378 - The Church In the World

with its glorious history and culture. The Christian world and the world as a whole owes much to the great centers of Moslem culture which kept alive and cultivated a high culture in the Iberian peninsula during the west's "dark ages." But today all too few know about the great centers of Arab life and thought in the world that stretches from Indonesia to Morocco. This world, too, is God's. And in its humiliations as well as its exaltations, the Christian will be deeply involved.