3 - 1998

Visions of Ecumenism

Ecumenism from the Worm’s Eye View

Self-initiative still important

by Ursula Urban

"We are an initiative of affluent and secure church employees who see church as a community of brothers and sisters. As peace and justice can only thrive in a world community where the goods of the earth are more justly distributed, the remuneration and service structures in our church should meet biblical and ecumenical criteria."

This is a concern that made 100 ministers, vicars, pastors, lay people, and pensioners from (West) Berlin join forces in an initiative in 1988. Its members contribute 5% of their net income to projects promoting ecumenical sharing and the conservation/creation of church and church-related jobs. (...) The initiative aims to change remuneration structures within the established church. As this couldn’t be achieved through synod applications so far, the initiative would like to make a symbolic gesture.

We support the following demands:
•Fair remuneration. Our goal is a uniform service law for all church staff and salary alignment on a medium level.
•Reduction of church peak salaries (from A13) and, in this context, the creation or preservation of jobs for important tasks within the church. We back ecumenical and ecological projects in the context of the conciliar process for justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

Until recently we used this text on flyers to introduce ourselves. During the years of our work, we collected quite a lot of money. Starting in West Berlin and expanding to the region after reunification, we ensured start-up financing for jobs in our church and supported many projects in the ecumenical movement: for women in rural Thailand, peasants without land in Brazil, peace work in Sri Lanka, a culture centre in Cuba, to name but a few.

Since reunification there has been a partner initiative in the eastern region of the Church of Berlin-Brandenburg, the so-called "5% initiative", which demands a severance of the church salary system from the civil service, based on the experience that introducing a West German salary structure will alienate the affluent vicars more and more from the parish members, who are increasingly drifting into unemployment. Our (West Berlin) demand for a uniform service law for church employees was not successful. Our representative in the synod was often ridiculed.

Reality outpaced us
Meanwhile events have overtaken us. The drastic financial crisis of our church has brought down salaries without creating equality between the east and west. The contributions to our account are dwindling, not just because the funds in the affected budgets are scarcer but also because many of our members privately support projects that serve to maintain the different branches of our church work which they commit to themselves and which would collapse without their donations. This faced us with the necessity of reorientation.

We decided to give our work an even more distinctive but also different ecumenical orientation. So far, ecumenical orientation within a rich church mainly meant sharing our generous funds. Well, we didn’t share our funds, but we were able to support projects all over the world with our donations. We are aware that our church is in a crisis, which goes deeper than just a financial crisis. And we are not the only ones to realise this. It has often been said that the church has become a "place where people no longer feel at home", that it is "in a coma", has become "unacceptable" for many people. "The church must change, but how?" is a question we have asked ourselves, too. We have now decided to find ecumenical incentives for a new understanding, a new structure and new practices of the church.

To be concrete, we plan to organise two, perhaps even three consultations, together with the Berlin Mission Work, to which we want to invite ecumenical guests we want to discuss our situation with. The topics will be: The church in a post-Christian society, the missionary task of the church and the lay people, possibly even: the church and its money. We will address church representatives who have experience with secularisation processes, the minority situation and alternative financing concepts, and have tried out corresponding models. We would like to document the results.

Expectations
So what does a small initiative like ours expect from the ecumenical movement? First of all, we can say that we are not much interested in a "denominational ecumenism". Our quest doesn’t focus on differences between the teachings. Older than the WCC, the Faith and Order Movement has done some impressive work since its foundation, in an attempt to overcome the historical differences and condemnations of different church teachings. However, it has become apparent, as in the recent disputes with the Orthodox churches in the run-up to the coming General Assembly in Harare, that these efforts for a visible unity of the churches and their joint credibility have their limits.

In the world-wide ecumenical movement we can see that contextual theologies have emerged in, with, under and alongside the theological teachings of the established churches. These theological formation processes start with specific life situations, very specific problems and experiences. Based on their experiences, people read the Bible in a new light, because the world and the churches they live in do not correspond to their ideas of a good and fair life. Economic globalisation and a post-modern departure from truth and sincerity leave behind a spiritual void and increasing injustice. Thus political and spiritual quests emerge at the same time. Liberation theology in South America, Minjung theology in Korea, feminine theologies in various regions of the world, theological movements among ancient peoples were and are cases in point. We are looking for such contextual theology and church concepts, even in Europe.

The challenge facing churches in Germany is a double-sided one. On the one side it features a concept of radical secularism and absolute spiritual and religious barrenness, a concept of life as a "last opportunity" with a focus on feasibility and aesthetic enjoyment. On the other hand, a market of syncretistic religious and therapeutic offerings has long emerged that reacts to the search for a meaning and quest for reassurance. Hesitatingly and searchingly, people are entering the churches, ignorant of the language of dogmatic correctness, in an attempt not to let their lives drift into futility.

With the decline of binding traditions, church membership in western Germany can be taken less and less for granted. In the east, church-goers have long been in the minority. But even those in the east and west, who still feel ties with the church, no longer take the Christian tradition for granted as their religious home. This religious home has been replaced by a search, trial and error process which is targeted at our own traditions and those of other cultures and religions. People see themselves as the subjects of their own search for a meaning and orientation. Decisions fall under the scope of one’s own autonomy, life itself must govern the decision what guidance to follow. In public, the church has lost its monopoly on providing a meaning, passing on values, guiding and interpreting actions. It has become uncertain whether there is even still a coherent definition of society that comprises the many different groups and backgrounds and the rifts along the east-west divide.

Conclusion
The situation briefly outlined here and poor funding has not just thrown our church into an internal crisis. Shock reactions, resignation and attempts to make a new start all coincide with each other. We need to assess the structure and organisation of the church and the contents and comprehensibility of its message.

"I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing" (psalm 69). Nobody can pull himself out of the mire by his own hair. We have only started to develop a contextual theology and a structure for a poorer church within an increasingly secular context. And we can’t expect the drawing-board concepts, of which there are many in Germany, too, to be helpful. Personal encounters with ecumenical partners, talks with people from other worlds with comparable experiences are helpful.

The outside view of things familiar to us is helpful. We aren’t just hoping for information but also for mutual encouragement. Our former understanding of ecumenism defined us as givers, since we came from a rich country. Now we define ourselves as people in need, who can’t find their way out of a difficult situation without the advice and support, without the life and faith experience of their ecumenical brothers and sisters.

Ursula Urban is a theologist and educationalist, and member of the Ecumenical Theological Education Committee.