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Common Witness of Separated Churches?
Belgrade (Serbia) August 26-31, 2010
Of course the theme of our consultation is partially inspired by the process and event of Edinburgh 2010. Hopefully some members of our consultation will also have been part of the June 2-10 celebrations in the Assembly Hall commemorating the centenary of the Missionary Conference but also of the worldwide ecumenical movement. Our conference will explicitly focus on one of the 9 ‘Mission themes’ selected for the study process leading towards and further than Edinburgh 2010: ‘Mission and Unity – Ecclesiology and Mission’. But while preparing a first draft of the programme of our own consultation, we found inspiration in some of the other themes as well: ‘Foundations for mission’, ‘Christian mission among other faiths’, ‘Mission and postmodernity’, ‘Mission and power’, ‘Forms of missionary engagement’, ‘Theological education and formation’, ‘Christian communities in contemporary contexts’, ‘Mission spirituality and authentic discipleship’.
When Societas Oecumenica will gather round the theme of ‘Mission and Unity’ we also recognize the greater attention for the relation between unity and mission in a number of recent international bilateral and multilateral dialogue texts. The 2007 report of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission, Growing Together in Unity and Mission focuses in its second part on the path ‘Towards Unity and Common Mission’. The report of the third phase of the International Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (1998-2005), The Church as Community of Common Witness to the Kingdom of God, also culminates in a chapter focusing on the interplay between ‘Dialogue and Common Witness’.
The reception process of the 1998 draft of the Faith & Order paper The Nature and Purpose of the Church led to a reformulation of the title in the 2005 draft which now is entitled The Nature and Mission of the Church.
Tradition is important in Societas Oecumenica, also when we organise our consultations. We will again start on a Thursday evening, have 2 full working days on Friday and Saturday, will have a day-long excursion on Sunday to Novi Sad, the episcopal see of Bishop Irenej, and after our third working day on Monday we will end our consultation on Tuesday morning. Taking into account the context where we will be meeting, the subtheme of the first day is entitled: Dealing with memories – The Mission of the Churches in the “Balkans”. We hope to engage three main speakers who will focus on the theological theme of dealing with memories and on the historical and contemporary aspects of the mission of the churches in this area. During our second working day we will focus on Mission today – Trajectories on mission after Edinburgh 2010. During the last working day we will offer theological perspectives on the interplay between mission and unity. Thus the third subtheme is Mission and Unity – Theological re-flections. By focusing in the subtitle of our consultation on Common Witness we situate our¬selves also in our own tradition, not forgetting the title of one of our subthemes in the 2006 Prague consultation: From Theological Interpretation to Common Witness: Easier Said than Done?
Looking forward to our ongoing fruitful cooperation, and to seeing you in Belgrade. May the Spirit of Pentecost inspire your work as well as your personal lives.
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