The quarterly of the World Council of Churches - bibliography included

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2001 by Aruna Gnanadason

In the ecumenical movement, when we speak of "ecumenical spaces" we are speaking of a "spirituality of connectedness", as the theologian Letty Russell describes it. When we come to the table we make that choice for connectedness with God, with ourselves and with the sisters and brothers who join us there. It is the Spirit of God who moves us in this way -- at once disturbing us, and the old ways in which we have perceived and lived with each other, but at the same time filling us with the power of God's unconditional love. It moves us into deeper and deeper dimensions of connectedness. This yearning for connectedness is symbolic of the deep sense we have, as churches together, of God's love and hospitality towards us as children of God.

But it is possible to create ecumenical spaces only when all those who come to the table come with the confidence of their own self-worth, their integrity and their spiritual strength, when they come with their marvellous gifts and offer them at the table, in faith and with hope. The challenge for all of us who come to the table is to receive each other's gifts with grace. There is need for a prioritization of politeness, deference and sometimes silence as basic requirements for authentic learning across boundaries of difference.

The call for this study arises from the insights of the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women, and as a response to the call from the World Council of Churches' central committee to have "being church" as one of the focal areas for WCC work. At the same time these proposals also pick up the progress made in the earlier study on the "Community of Women and Men in the Church", which greatly affected the lives of the churches in many countries.

This issue of The Ecumenical Review is a first attempt at bringing some experiences and visions of women together. At this point there is no analysis of the differing positions, and this editorial will not attempt to do so. We offer this process as an open circle of love and compassion, one in which we hope all women and men will join so that we can move forward in faith, and offer to the church new models of being the church as an embodiment of God's love.

To conclude: many words of appreciation have been written to honour the memory of Marlin Van Elderen, respected colleague and former editor of The Ecumenical Review and executive editor of WCC Publications. But we add our own. Marlin initiated this issue of the Review and sent out most of the invitations to contributors, but he did more than that. My last conversation with him, just three days before he passed away, was about the articles we had begun receiving -- he promised that he would read them over that fateful weekend. Throughout the past decade and more, Marlin has walked beside us, supporting us and encouraging us. In all Decade-related materials we can discern his meticulous editorial hand. Marlin did not agree with all that we wrote as women, but he never allowed this to cloud his commitment to ensure a steady flow of materials produced by the WCC through the Decade. Thank you, Marlin, for all you did to empower women to speech -- we miss you! We dedicate this issue of the Review to your memory.