Fifty years of ecumenical formation: Where are we? Where are we going?

Ecumenical Review, The, Oct, 1996 by Konrad Raiser

When the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey was inaugurated in 1946, it constituted a daring experiment. There were of course some precedents: the international theological seminars in Geneva, an academic summer school of ecumenical studies inspired by the Swiss ecumenical pioneer Adolf Keller, who developed already in 1928 the dream of a residential "graduate school of ecumenical studies", as well as the emergence of centres for lay training in several European countries.(1) Yet to create an institute for ecumenical education at a time when the World Council of Churches was not yet officially established and had only a very small operational centre in Geneva was an act of faith. It remains a testimony to the far-sighted vision of the first general secretary of the WCC. Like Keller, W.A. Visser 't Hooft knew that the ecumenical movement needed people who had received an intentional preparation for the task of bringing the churches together in fellowship and promoting their renewal in witness and service.

Ecumenical formation

The term "ecumenical formation" (rather than "education", "learning or training") in the title of this essay is relatively new in the context of the WCC, though it has always been the accepted usage in the Roman Catholic Church. Since the term was first used ecumenically in the 1965 Gazzada statement on "laity formation" it has been understood that "formation" is not to be limited to programmes of instruction: it is more than training or even education. It refers to the whole process of equipping, enabling, raising awareness, shaping or transforming attitudes and values.(2)

Since then, it has become accepted usage in the WCC to speak of ministerial formation, spiritual formation and moral formation. A recent consultation report explains the third of these terms in this way:

Moral formation is a nurturing process in which a certain sense of

identity, a certain recognition of community and a certain pattern of

motivation evolve. Such formation can be the gradual work of culture and

upbringing, or it may be self-conscious and intentional. Any community of

which we are members "forms" us in the sense of orienting us to the world

in a certain way, encouraging certain kinds of behaviour and discouraging

others. A focus on formation points us towards emphasis on actual

communities with their cultures: towards what anthropologists call the

complex "thickness" of lives actually lived.

The report adds that any discussion about "formation" is intimately related to the dimension of "spirituality", that is, "the depth-dimension of daily existence..., the whole shape, the shared fabric of our lives in God".(3)

The study document of the Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches is perhaps the most authentic and comprehensive explication of what is meant by ecumenical formation.(4) It starts with an affirmation of the "ecumenical imperative", the call to unity which reaches beyond the unity of the followers of Jesus Christ and embraces the missionary vocation nourished by the "eschatological vision of the transformation and unity of humankind" (1). After long periods of disobedience to this basic imperative, the churches have begun to respond again to the call to unity, but the spirit of ecumenism needs nurturing. "Ecumenical formation is an ongoing process of learning within the various local churches and world communions, aimed at informing and guiding people in the movement which -- inspired by the Holy Spirit -- seeks the visible unity of Christians" (9).

Ecumenical formation is then described as a process of exploration, education and learning. "The language of formation and learning refers to some degree to a body of knowledge to be absorbed. That is important; but formation and learning require a certain bold openness to living ecumenically as well" (12). It therefore goes beyond formal educational programmes and takes place "in the daily life of the church and people" (13). Nevertheless, the document insists "on the strategic importance of giving priority to the ecumenical formation of those who have special responsibility for ministry and leadership in the churches" (13).

Since ecumenical formation is an essential part of "the process of building community in the one household of God" (16), it must be rooted in an ecumenical spirituality and in a praxis of learning in community. It must "endeavour to eliminate polemic and to further mutual understanding, reconciliation and the healing of memories" (22). The search for true community should include the openness for dialogue with people of other faiths and should "promote the cause of freedom, human rights, justice and peace everywhere, and thus actively... contribute to a renewed movement towards human solidarity in obedience to God's will" (24); for the churches are called "to render a common witness to all humankind by pointing to the vision of the new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1)" (26).

This explication of ecumenical formation can be read as a concise statement of the purposes and orientations of the Ecumenical Institute at present, especially of the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies. The breadth of the vision of unity, the linking of learning and living ecumenically, the orientation towards community-building and spirituality -- all these elements are central to the work of Bossey; and it is noteworthy that the Ecumenical Institute is one of the sectors of the work of the WCC where official cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church has become a regular feature over the past twenty years.