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Theological Ecumenism
By Jeffrey Gros

IN the last two years, since the publication of Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry by the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order, the interest in the theological dimension of the church union movement has been heightened. During the 1970s the most active area of theological work in ecumenism in America was in bilateral conversations between churches at home and abroad. Many parish covenants have sprung up, as well as relationships between middle judicatories (dioceses, presbyteries conferences), based on these bilateral discussions. The Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry statement of the World Council of Churches provides not only a challenge to the churches to respond officially to theologians' work over the last fifty years, but also gives them an opportunity to relate the multilateral dialogues on these subjects to the bilateral conversations and to the church union negotiations going on within COCU and between major Lutheran bodies in this country.¹

The presence of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant bilateral conversations on the one hand, and multilateral dialogues within the Faith and Order movement. on the other, have enriched the resources for pastors, seminaries, and researchers in charting the ecumenical course. This has augmented the growing literature from the Third World and feminist sources, increasing our ability to reach out ecumenically in those directions.² We are only gradually finding resources for the communication of these bilateral and multilateral results which are more accessible to our people.

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A volume of document from ecumenical dialogues between churches. Growth in Agreement.- Reports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical

Jeffrey Gros. F.S.C; is Director of the Commission on Faith and Order. the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Prior to coming to the Commission in 1981, he taught college, seminary, adult ministry training, and high school as well as chairing the Ecumenical Commission of the Diocese of Memphis and serving on the board of the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers. Brother Gros holds graduate degrees in education and theology, having received his Ph.D. from Fordham University. Dedicated to the ecumenical movement, he is a frequent speaker for councils of churches, teacher and leader for ecumenical seminars, and author of articles on the church in theological journals.
¹ In Quest of the Church of Christ Uniting: An Emerging Theological Consensus, (Princeton: Consultation on Church Union. 1980).
² Constance Parvey, ed., The Communtiy of Woman and Men lit the Church: The Sheffield Report, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 19831; Janet Crawford and Michael Kinnamon. eds., In God's Image: Reflections on Identity, v. Human Wholeness, and the Authority of Scripture, (Geneva: World Council of Churches. 1983).

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Conversations on a World Level, (Faith and Order Paper, No. 108 ),³ including the recent World Council Faith and Order statement on Baptism. Eucharist, and Ministry. is a long awaited compendium of difficult-to-obtain data. The range of theological discussions included in this volume is essential for the researcher, theologian, pastor, and teacher who would present the Christian faith and understanding of the church in its contemporary context. The series of consultations will be particularly useful for those working in the fields of ecclesiology, authority, sacramental theology, interchurch cooperation in a local community, and contemporary Christianity.

The comprehensiveness of this work is a tribute to the vast ecumenical scholarship in the modern movement toward the unity of the church. Previously these documents were available in a wide variety of sources which were often difficult to find for student and professor alike. There are few traditions that will find themselves unrepresented in these documents, and every effort has been made to bring the most recent agreed statements together.

The length of the text would preclude any more documentation. However, the bilateral conversations between the Oriental Orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, already published by the World Council, and the dialogues that took place in Venice between the Oriental Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church are notable omissions.⁴ Because these dialogues are not "official," one can understand them being left out, though their historical significance in reconciling divisions since the Year 451 A.D. make them important elements in such a review.

The introductory comments by, the authors, themselves deeply rooted in the Faith and Order movement, point to both the strengths and weaknesses of the dialogues and to the historical point at which we stand in the ecumenical movement. Certainly, the question whether the bilaterals have come to full maturity is on the lips of many, seasoned ecumenists, and reading these documents in the light of the World Council Forum on the Bilaterals, summarized in the introduction, will make it possible for the scholars of the churches to make a judgment for themselves. While scholars at this level can raise the question whether the bilaterals have gone as far as possible, it remains for the churches, their theologians and their educators, to ascertain whether the progress that has been made has been adequately assimilated by the churches.

Certainly the task of the theologians has not been equalled by the task

³ Harding Meyer and Lukas Vischer. eds., Growth in Agreement: Reports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical Conversations on a World Level, Faith and Order Paper No. 108, (Ramsey/New York: Paulist Press and Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1984, 514 pp. $ 14.95).
⁴ Paulos Gregorios William Lazareth, and Nikos Nissiotis, eds., Does Chalcedon Divide or Unite? Towards Convergence in Orthodox Christology (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1981); Wort and Wahrheit (in English), Revue for Religion and Culture (Supplementary Issues, No. I [December. 1972], 2 [December 1974], 3 [December 1976], 4 [December 1978].

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of the seminary and theological educators in putting forward the good news of agreements achieved. By filling a significant gap in the theological literature. this book may contribute to shortening the distance between theological agreements and seminary and religious education. As in the case of the first volume in the series "Ecumenical Document," Doing the Truth in Charity,⁵ this text will be an indispensable reference for years to come. We look forward to the third volume, a supplement to the documents of the first two, that will bring together agreements reached within the American context.

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The process of reception in which the churches are involved relative to Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ, and Disciples bilaterals, as well as the reception process of Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, will teach us a great deal about the concrete reality of church life regarding decision-making about theological statements. A recent consultation on the reception of BEM among the churches in the American context has brought forth the wide variety of decision- making styles that the ecumenical movement and its theological products must penetrate, beyond the surface of theological and theologically literate church leadership. Whether these processes, which are quite extensive and deep in their spiritual and missional import, will influence church life significantly in this country, remains to be seen.⁶ Nevertheless, the roles of seminaries, religious education programming, and the parish ministry in dealing with these decisions will be crucial. Certainly a wide sector of the Christian community, from the believers' churches, on the one hand, to the Orthodox, on the other, from the liberal Protestant churches to the Roman Catholic, are taking these engagements most seriously.⁷

In addition to these sources, the background resources on Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry provide extremely practical aids in the academic situation.⁸ Unfortunately' there are not man), good classroom level histories of the Faith and Order movement that integrate with the progress in the bilaterals. Geoffrey Wainwright's The Ecumenical Moment⁹ provides one such single volume work. It is hoped that the Commission on Faith and Order will republish some of its previous work on conciliar fellowship. Scripture and tradition, and the like, in the wake of questions raised by the success of BEM. The attentive ecumenical

⁵ Thomas Stransky and John Sheerin. eds., Doing the Truth in Charity (New York Press, 1982).
⁶ Jeffrey Gros, ed., The Search for Visible Unity, (New York: Pilgrim Press. 1984).
⁷ St. Vladimur's Theological Quarterly, Volume 27, Number 4. 1983: Midstream. Volume XXIII, No. 3, July, 1984.
⁸ Towards Visible Unity, Faith and Order Paper, No. 113. (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982); Max Thurian, ed., Ecumenical Perspectives on Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982). and Baptism and Eucharist: Ecumenical Convergence in Celebration, (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1983).
⁹ Goeffrey Wainwright. The Ecumenical Moment, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993).

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scholar will be alert to the emergence of the Lutheran/Catholic international dialogue, which is already available in German, that attempts to integrate some of the World Council models for visible unity, and those of the bilateral conversations, giving recognition to unique perspectives developed in the Lutheran World Federation as well. Such integrating tasks within the ecumenical movement are crucial at this point in the theological process.

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These books, the BEM resources, and the COCU document, In Quest of the Church of Christ Uniting, provide aids for ecumenical ministers' studies, for serious seminary study, and also for the spiritual nurture of lay and clerical Christians. The theological work of the ecumenical movement is meaningless if it does not affect the worship, spiritual life, ecumenical practice, and institutional life of the communions participating In these discussions. For that reason, the task of assimilating these documents is not merely a juridical one of deciding whether they can be "received" as the faith of the church through the ages corresponding to one's own understanding of that faith, but that they serve as live instruments for renewal in the life of the church. In this period following Vancouver (August, 1983), when there is a heightened consciousness of the agreements reached through the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, these documents will be a very helpful means of keeping current with theological ecumenism.