3 - 1998

Visions of Ecumenism

Frozen Dialogue

Interview with Bishop Rolf Koppe

by Hedwig Gafga

Do the Orthodox churches want to opt out of the World Council of Churches (WCC)? Is the WCC on its beam ends? How the EKD’s bishop for foreign affairs sees the churches of the east.

The Orthodox churches are distancing themselves ever more radically from their ecumenical partners. At the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Zimbabwe in December they won’t participate in certain votes and won’t pray with the other members. Does this mean they’re opting out of the ecumenical community?

Rolf Koppe: In the 1970s and early 90s Orthodox delegates raised the objection that the ecumenical movement was dominated by the west and allowed for syncretism, the merging of religions. Orthodox delegates couldn’t understand how Korean delegate Chung Hyung Kyung could combine Christianity with Korean traditions of ancestor worship and others could experiment with new forms of the service. So this distancing is not like a bolt from the blue.

The Georgian church has already opted out of the World Council of Churches (WCC). And the Bulgarian church has announced its withdrawal.

Koppe: Withdrawal from the WCC is a widely mooted topic within the Bulgarian church. It’s not settled yet.

The Orthodox side has voiced harsh criticism against the ecumenical movement. Doesn’t refusing to pray with the others mean denying them their Christianity?

Koppe: Yes and no. It’s part of our established community that we recognise baptism by our partner churches. Of course, it has long been a practice of the ecumenical movement for believers to pray together - so, in that respect this refusal is a big step backwards. However, according to Orthodox doctrine, believers of the true faith may not pray together with heretics - in other words, with dissenters, which is what Protestants are in the eyes of the Orthodox church.

Current controversial issues include the ordination of women and homosexuality. Do you see any chance that the former partner churches will reach an agreement there?

Koppe: The western churches can’t surrender in the controversial issue of ordinating women, because it is not a lifestyle matter but an important theological decision. However, where homosexuality is concerned, one wonders whether the WCC is ready for the issue yet. Our church is some twenty years ahead of the eastern churches in this debate.

Would you advocate shelving the debate on homosexuality?

Koppe: Yes. We should let the member churches settle the issue internally for the time being.

But what will happen to the ecumenical movement, if the eastern churches simply do what they say and refuse to vote at the General Assembly in Harare?

Koppe: If you’re a member, you have to contribute actively to decision-making and yield to majority decisions. The Orthodox churches can’t just vote when it serves Orthodox purposes. We’ve got to draw a line there. They’ll have to decide whether to remain members or not.

Unlike the Orthodox churches, the World Council of Churches has a democratic structure. Could the problems have something to do with this unfamiliar structure for church representatives?

Koppe: The procedures of the WCC are predominantly influenced by the west. Orthodox representatives have difficulties with taking votes. They would normally just talk on and on until they reach some kind of consensus. If no consensus is reached, they prefer to leave the matter unsettled. But that’s just not acceptable for certain issues, where we need to form an opinion, say, if the WCC wants to comment on world population or social policies. You can’t just pass over the matter.

So what will happen to the churches, if WCC co-operation reaches its limits?

Koppe: The field of Christian social services comes to mind here. For example, there are projects for street children in Romania that are supported by all of the member churches. These are opportunities to work together.

Increasing withdrawal from the ecumenicity conflicts with the announced accession of the Russian-Orthodox church to the umbrella organisation Eurodiaconia, which is primarily an alliance of Protestant and Anglican associations.

Koppe: The Russian-Orthodox church will proceed slowly but surely: It will reduce its WCC participation to a minimum, saying yes to the Conference of European Churches and continuing its bilateral relations with the EKD among others.

Does the EKD have to adjust to this?

Koppe: You can’t replace the ecumenical movement by a bilateral dialogue, the two belong together. Without its co-operation in the WCC - even in a different form - we may have to freeze the bilateral dialogue, too.

Isn’t it necessary to support the reform powers within the Orthodox churches?

Koppe: That’s why I don’t advocate breaking off relations. But they should take a different course and would then no longer constitute a theological dialogue. All the interparochial partnerships and personal relations that have emerged in the course of time shouldn’t be broken off. And grants for theology students from the east should continue.

How do you explain the paradoxical situation that now, after the Cold War, the churches seem to be entering an Ice Age?

Koppe: The Orthodox churches are completely helpless when it comes to dealing with religious pluralism, which emerged in Russia when various congregations from America, South Korea and elsewhere made an appearance there. In addition, there’s a new generation at the helm now: The old ecumenicists are in the minority, and the young church people have no international experience yet and are entangled in internal conflicts between nationalists and democrats.

Has the entire ecumenical movement reached a crossroads now at Harare?

Koppe: Yes. One key sentence of the recently published document Visions for a Joint Future says that, in future, the member churches should see the World Council more as their institution that enables them to reach agreements with each other. But the ecumenical movement should never become just a prestige event. Programmatic work would be impossible then.

The Orthodox churches have proved to be unable to reform. But are there any areas where the Protestants could still learn something from the Orthodox churches?

Koppe: We need to change our awareness of spiritual processes. This goes both for the service and the affinity between the clergy and the people. The Orthodox clergy have very close ties with their parishioners, which is of particular importance in this time of radical change, where many people only have the church for orientation. We Protestants could also do with such a closeness between vicars and parishioners.

Bishop Rolf Koppe is in charge of the EKD’s ecumenical and foreign affairs. -
Reprint from Deutsches Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt, no. 25, June 19, 1998.