4 - 2001

Churches in Europe

Not a Breakthrough, But a New Beginning

The Charta Oecomenica of the European Churches

by Stephan Cezanne

With the adoption of the Charta Oecumenica this spring, the European Churches have taken a considerable step towards a common witness. But the ceremony of signing the statement must now be followed by common action in the everyday life of Europe.

Optimists compare the Charta Oecumenica with the UN Human Rights Charter. Sceptics say it is just another pompous church paper. This basic text has been ratified by representatives of almost all the Christian churches of Europe on 22 April 2001 in Strasbourg. It says that Protestants, Orthodox and Catholics commit themselves to unity and to helping to build a socially conscious Europe. "We commit ourselves to work for structures of peace, based on the non-violent resolution of conflicts,” it says in the eight-page "Guidelines for the Growing Cooperation between the Churches in Europe”.

The Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Catholic Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) consciously chose Strasbourg as the place for the signing of the Charta. At the headquarters of the Council of Europe, they solemnly promised to represent the "visions of the churches” in the most united way possible vis-ˆ-vis the European institutions. They also called upon the leaders of the nations to close the gap between rich and poor and overcome unemployment. The churches also stressed a "human reception in Europe” for migrants and refugees.

Critics have already pointed out that the paper is not binding on the participants. The drafters themselves emphasise in the preface the provisional character of the text, which makes no claim to be church law and does not carry the authority of the Vatican. Keith Jenkins (CEC’s British Deputy General Secretary Ð the editors) sums up: The Charta is a document of both CEC and CCEE. Neither organisation, however, can obligate its members to do anything. Therefore the two Presidents did not sign the Charta itself but rather a statement of purpose, that they were passing the paper to the churches, asking that it be "adopted and adapted”.

The Charta is not a breakthrough, but rather a new beginning in the ecumenical movement, was the conclusion of Reinhard Frieling, former director of the Institute for Confessional Studies of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Frieling was an influential member of the eight-person drafting committee for the Charta. He defends the document against criticism, saying that in a time of setbacks and stagnation in the ecumenical movement, there are two ways to go. The first is to live in "self-sufficiency within one’s own confession”. However, Christians could also try to do as much as possible together. The Charta Oecumenica, says Frieling, is the choice of that latter way.

The development phase of the text took many years, and numerous compromises had to be made. The concept of ecumenism is not interpreted in the same way by all the churches. In the autumn of the year 2000, in its declaration Dominus Iesus, the Vatican described the Protestant churches as second-rate. The Russian Orthodox Church issued a statement in which it rejected all ecumenical efforts. Thus the Charta Oecumenica in its present form is considered a small "miracle” by theologians Ð even though it will take some years for it to do justice to the claim it makes.

The Charta is most of a homework assignment for the churches in Europe, explains Oberkirchenrätin Antje Heider-Rottwilm of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), who is a member of the CEC Central Committee. Ecumenical relations do not work everywhere in Europe with the relative ease like in Germany, says Rev. Heider-Rottwilm. Thus, this basic document could bring about positive changes for minority churches in particular.

"Ecumenism on paper”, says 30-year-old Rev. Elfriede Dörr from Romania, also representing CEC, must become a living ecumenical movement. The meeting in Strasbourg of around 100 young Christians from all over Europe aimed to help bring this about. Young people are counting on progress in ecumenical relations, according to Christopher Docherty, a young Catholic from Scotland. "In a continent divided by conflicts in the present and wounds from the past, this is an absolute priority.”

"There are not many papers like this one in the ecumenical movement”, was the affirmation in Strasbourg of Cardinal Karl Lehmann from Mainz. In his opinion, the Charta made a significant contribution towards clearing away the old controversies of the past 450 years of church history. And Bishop Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter from LÜbeck wished all Christians, with regard to the Charta, "the stamina of a long-distance runner”.

This article has been published by the Evangelical Press Service (EPD) on 22.4.2001. The author is the editor of the EPD.