4 - 2001
Churches in Europe
Europe’s Future
The common challenge for the Christian churches
by Manfred Kock
The introduction of the Euro, the new common currency, and the eastward expansion of the European Union are bringing countries closer together. The question arises more clearly than ever, how our common European home can become anything more than an association for economic purposes only. In this article, the Council Chairperson of the Evangelical Church in Germany looks at the question of how the European churches can contribute to the future of the continent, through a common witness.
What will the expansion of the European Union bring for the churches in East and West? One thing is already clear: the historical division into Eastern and Western churches, which came about through the fall of the Roman Empire, no longer applies to our current situation and certainly not to future realities in Europe. We all find ourselves in the midst of a process of growing together of European countries and societies, and in this new situation we are called to a common witness.
Never mind that the new Europe presents a complicated picture, never mind that none of us feels really ready for it. This is just the situation in which to listen to the confession of faith in Psalm 65: "You make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.” From the beginning, the word of the Bible takes us outside our boundaries. We have reason to be glad, because God goes with us into a new understanding of our role as churches in a new Europe. God has already begun the good work in us of a new and peaceful life together, and will continue to support us in making it to take shape, grow and mature into fullness and wholeness.
Our common confession of faith in God, which is reason for people to be glad in both East and West, is the foundation on which the European churches are to build. The churches cannot base themselves on political visions; strictly speaking, they dare not do so even once, without the risk of enslaving themselves to other masters. In their faith in their one Lord Jesus Christ, thus from the very centre of their identity, they find the point on which to stand.
Something is going on in our European home. Building is going on in many places at once. Some of these are still only the shell of what they will become, we can only guess. Some projects have already reached amazingly advanced stages of building, and we can already describe quite well the new dimensions they will add. Yet others are still lacking the foundation, and in a large part of our European home construction has not even begun. There are ideas and visions, rough sketches and ambitious plans. At this stage, as we start off into the Europe of the future, it is not easy to get an overall view.
As for the churches in this Europe which is growing and knitting itself together, they can see that, for them too, some things will change. Even if they stay right where their historical, inherited place is, so much is going to change round about them that it would be good for them to get actively and constructively involved in the process themselves. They can and must claim the location and the space they need, they must say clearly how they imagine the programme in the expanded European home of the future, and they must agree among themselves what content they want to contribute and which arguments they are going to use to make this contribution effective.
Diversity is enriching us; nevertheless, we have to see that for outsiders it can be confusing when the many different church lobbyists put forward their interests, all at once and without any agreement among themselves, in the arena of public opinion. In the Europe which is visible in Brussels, diversity seems to be on the increase. Here it would be helpful for us to find out more about one another. Therefore I am especially glad when I see the churches in this integrating Europe discussing their wishes, expectations, and plans with each other.
The churches are not an end in themselves. They are there to serve the Gospel. They preach the message of the Holy Scriptures and they answer the call of Jesus to assume responsibility for peace, justice and the integrity of creation. "What are human beings?” asks the Bible. "What does it mean to be human?” we, too, ask in the midst of ethical challenges from modern biotechnology, the development of genetic engineering and the pressure of the economic costs of our health care system. We are confronted with decisive changes of direction in reproductive medicine and in the issue of so-called euthanasia.
When does human life begin? Are there stages in a human life, before birth or during death, when it is less important to protect it? Where do human dignity and human rights begin, and where do they end? In these basic questions I see great agreement between all confessions and churches in Europe. Over against us, we see fierce competition among the industrial nations to obtain patents and advances in research, without clarification of the ethical basis for decisions. But Europe needs a firm foundation in the image of humanity taught by the Biblical message, to answer these urgent questions of bioethics in a responsible way.
Anyone who is concerned about the building of Europe cannot avoid the topic of dialogue with Islam. To be Europe-oriented presupposes that one thinks in multinational, multiethnic and multicultural, but also multireligious terms. The diversity of life in Europe is not possible without recognition of and respect for, among others, religious differences. Even today there is bloodshed in parts of Europe where powerful states and groups exploit religious differences as ideological reasons for violence and terror. In this context, ideologically radicalised Islam groups have a repellent effect on us rather than inviting us to encounter and dialogue.
On the other hand, in the case of Islam as elsewhere, we must distinguish between religion which is used for political purposes and religion which is a credible way of faith. Just as we do not want our Christian churches to be identified with their radicalised and fundamentalist fringe elements, we should also try to acquire a realistic and complex picture of Islam. We must enter into a dialogue, and then we just as the other side will see that European Muslims are not always out for a "holy war”, any more than Christians are constantly on "crusades”, nor are our Jewish neighbours "Zionist agents”.
At the local church level many good relationships with Muslim neighbours have developed. Besides the dialogues, there are more and more trialogues. Our church has thus accumulated a lot of experience which is important for enabling religions to get along with each other in our secular society. On this basis we will take action against the generalised mistrust which disturbs the peace and poisons the atmosphere between neighbours.
While we want to profess self-confidently and fearlessly our faith, we also want to show appropriate respect for others’ to profess their religion. There are substantial parts of the content of both Jewish and Muslim beliefs which we do not accept. However, we do not content ourselves with this rejection; we intend to combat prejudice and discrimination. Most of all we need to deepen our knowledge of the other one’s tradition and self-understanding.
We know that many people have gained new insight into the humanitarian qualities of their own faith, as a result of controversial discussions. So, on the basis of our own faith and the experience of church history, we can say yes to the efforts towards getting along peacefully, and we have the insights from many positive encounters to contribute to the European growing process. The EKD also finds a strong parallel between its efforts in this regard and those of Orthodox churches, especially those of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios, who regards the dialogue with Islam in Turkey and in Europe as extremely important.
Recently the Charta Oecumenica has been signed in Strasbourg. The formulation of its individual sections is the result of intense wrestling by many people. Now everything depends on the Charta’s proving itself to be a platform for the European churches from which they can discern their task as churches in Europe.
Under the heading "Our Common Responsibility in Europe”, we find the words: "The churches support an integration of the European continent. Without common values, unity cannot endure. We are convinced that the spiritual heritage of Christianity constitutes an empowering source of inspiration and enrichment for Europe.” The churches can credibly bear testimony to this belief only if they grow closer together themselves Ð otherwise, no call upon people’s willingness to be reconciled and unified, among the regions, ethnic groups and nations of Europe, is credible.
The member churches, including the EKD, intend to strengthen bilateral partnerships and promote consultations and meetings of the multilateral dialogue-groups. We want to join with the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in being a sign of readiness to be reconciled, and especially to help carry forward what has been seen as the challenge for Europe: to conceive of, and help to build, Europe as the continent "from the Atlantic to the Urals, from the North Cape to the Mediterranean”, as the Charta Oecumenica says, and not let it deteriorate into "an integrated West and a disintegrated East”.
The churches’ mission of reconciliation makes it indispensable that we are involved on behalf of those who become victims of European integration processes. All European developments must be questioned about the values that lie behind them and Ð in the same context Ð what relevance they have to powerless people in the EU countries, in the countries moving towards EU membership, and in the countries that for the short term or the long term will remain outside the EU.
The political process of European integration is taking place mainly in the area of economics. In the dynamics of economic processes, we must not lose sight of the concrete hardships and extreme difficulties from which people are suffering. We must do what we can to promote "Christian solidarity”, to prevent Europe from becoming a fortress. We need an economy which demands that the present generation give up some things out of responsibility towards future generations. That means, when we observe carefully the consequences of decisions made at EU level for the role and the commitment of the churches, we are no longer going to be lobbying for our own institutions, not to mention a Christian occidental restoration. Instead, we will contribute towards the development of a basic consensus in the society, towards decision-making close to the citizens, towards preservation of human rights and towards development of democratic societies.
But it is central to our work together that we bring together experiences from diverse contexts, listen to each other, that we think of possible effects on various contexts, and formulate the input and the requests of the churches on this basis. It is also important, in the Europe-related work of the churches, that we realise together the vision we share for an expanded Europe: participation, solidarity, tolerance, justice Ð and above all, compassion Ð as the Charta Oecumenica states.
It is not enough for the representatives of the churches to the bodies which make decisions for the whole of Europe to consult with experts and communicate with the European institutions. They must also raise the consciousness of their own national churches for the values we share and our common responsibilities, and must contribute towards accurate reporting of information. We must see that the salt of the Gospel does not lose its saltiness.
Christians in our country are growing impatient: when are the Protestant and Catholic churches going to get serious about overcoming their almost 500-year-old division? How can the even older divisions in the Orthodox and western Roman Catholic churches be overcome? And how shall we deal with the new splits, with evangelicals and charismatics going their own ways, and the Old Catholic and Orthodox Old Believer variants?
We must not pressure one another to take steps which each of us must take alone and each of us can only achieve through own internal efforts. And, most of all, we must not fail to notice what has already been achieved. For many decades there has been an outstanding relationship between the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany. This forms a basis for our further work towards unity among our churches, and I am very grateful for it.
As European churches, we owe it to Christianity worldwide to serve the cause of unity. For not only have we sent out decisive missionary energies into the world, we European Christians have also exported our divisions. Today, representatives of Third World churches are reflecting this back to us with refreshing openness.
We should not wait until our calendars help us out with coinciding dates for Easter and Pentecost, but rather give shape to a new unity in diversity, in which all the various confessional traditions and devotional communities have equal rights. With God’s help, the steps we take towards visible unity will succeed. This is the hope of Psalm 65: "You make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.”
Manfred Kock is President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and Chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany. This article consists of extracts from his address on the occasion of the Metropolitan of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s annual reception on 11 June 2001 in Bonn.