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The Ecumenical MovementOrUnity in the Mystical Body of Christ

By Raul EnyediIntroduction

HE TECHNOLOGICAL and scientific development that began in the latter part of the19

century brought with it an increased secularization of the world. Religion seemedto be retreating under the siege of atheism. Many at the time were seeing in this the death of the religious man.

But religion survived, and even though some were foretelling its end, André Malrauxforetold its victory, by the words that are now famous, “the 21

century will be religious or will not be at all.” And the form in which religion was to win the victory seemed to have beenshaped in the midst of this “battlefield.” But what exactly was going on in the bosom of thereligious world at this time?The religious canvas of the 20

century was painted mainly in the colors of the newestmovement within Christianity: ecumenism. If in the beginning it was nothing but aninsignificant and ignored movement, soon, it was transformed into a force that was more andmore imposing, ending up as the main movement of the Christian world.The word ecumenism that describes this religious movement comes from the Greek

oikoumene

, meaning world, earth, the whole dwelling part of the earth. The word itself indicates the target of the ecumenical movement: one church in the whole world, universal,and visibly united, ministering for the conversion of the non-religious world. Ecumenism isan attempt to accomplish an ecclesial unity and reunification, by the means of specificdoctrines, methods and activities.Ecumenism is characterized by dialogue, openness toward communication with the viewof reaching a mutual understanding, partnership and collaboration. Unlike the “openness todialogue” of the denominations before them, which was done just to prove the other party

wrong and not to come to a common conclusion, this movement offers “an ecumenical space”of discussion with the very purpose of coming to common points of agreement.The ecumenical movement is a novelty in the history of Christianity. Modern organizedecumenism has its origins in two interdenominational meetings. The first of them took placein London, August 1846, where 800 representatives of main protestant denominations from 10countries met to create, in their own words, “a new thing in church history, a definiteorganization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to differentchurches.”

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This meeting laid the foundation for what is now known as

The World Evangelical Alliance

.The second of these meetings took place at Edinburgh, in 1910. At this conference,many protestant denominations met to discuss the possibility of making mission work in thenon-Christian world more efficient and to promote closer inter-denominational relationships.This conference laid the foundation for the body organized in 1948 as

The World Council of Churches

.The doctrinal basis of these conferences was post-millennialism, according to whichdoctrine, Christians had to convert the world before Christ would come back.Since that moment, ecumenism progressed at an incredible rate, becoming the most popular trend in modern Christianity, challenging all denominations to a response. Probablythe most notable response came from the Roman Catholic Church, at the Second VaticanCouncil, which answers affirmatively, though ambiguously, to the protestant ecumenicalmovement.The religious condition of the Christian world, characterized by a progress of missionaryefforts, the desire to expand the frontiers of Christianity, tiredness due to centuries of denominational confrontations, the obsolete attitude of traditional denominations toward thenew challenges brought by a rapidly changing world, fading denominational distinctions, theappearance of new societies and movements, especially the Pentecostal movement and later the Charismatic… all these contributed to the drawing closer of denominations, theestablishment of relationships and the beginning of dialogue which would increase andstrengthen in the following years.The social conditions (racism, violation of human rights), political conditions(appearance of several totalitarian regimes and dictatorships) and the economic conditions of the world (extreme poverty of large portions of the planet, the negative effects of globalization) generated situations that were thought to require a response from Christianity.

These were the main factors that made up the background of the world religious scene inwhich ecumenism was to begin its performance.The most famous ecumenical organization, the one with the greatest openness, is theWorld Council of Churches, an organization composed of Protestant and Orthodox Churches that collaborates closely with the Roman Catholic Church. Besides this one, there are manyother ecumenical organizations, more or less open to dialogue.For this movement to be successful, all the component parts must be brought together and kept as such, working as a whole, as an organism; even though its every cell – localchurch, in our case – functions individually, nevertheless, its work must follow the purpose of the whole organism.Therefore, an efficient ecumenism must have all its parts brought into harmonysufficient enough to make possible working together for a common goal. This isaccomplished by the means of four essential elements:1.Common purposes2.Common activities3.Common doctrine4.A legislative, executive and administrative apparatus that would insure theimplementation of the above three points at all levels, from the internationalforums to the common members of a local church.Since these points require our special attention, we will try to analyze each one of themindividually.

Common purposes

Among all the things that would make ecumenism impossible, the lack of a common purpose would be the first on the list. This is the binding agent that holds churches together,since the varied doctrine, common only in the main points, is not strong enough to bring or hold together these ecumenical churches.It is essential that the main purpose of the movement would be the particular purpose of every member of it. This purpose is one that would be followed even if the organizationwould not exist.