The ecumenical option: a Sri Lankan case study

Ecumenical Review, The, Oct, 1996 by Duleep de Chickera

Over the years, more than twenty Sri Lankan women and men have passed through and benefitted from the experience of the graduate school at Bossey. For these persons, lay and ordained members of several Christian denominations, the exposure at Bossey to what might be called the "ecumenical option" has followed five steps.

1. The initial phase is alienation. At Bossey this may be created by a variety of factors: culture, colour, climate, the cost of living. One woman was laughed at for eating just as she did at home -- with her fingers. Alienation raises the question: if we are here to share life, why do we have to feel such painful differences? How real can this be?

2. Soon, however, the common life, worship, study and shared identity pave the way for entering into diversity. All around one is encountering a variety of cultures and races, a spectrum of life-styles and values, a range of denominations, traditions and theologies. One begins to feel the ethos of diversity.

3. Next comes the underlying struggle to discover among this diversity "who is the greatest". Which country, race, culture, denomination is the most important? Given our differences, who should teach and who should listen and learn?

This is a subtle struggle, and it is complicated at Bossey by several specific differences. One is language. Some have limitations; some use the same words but are misunderstood because they also use their hands. There is the problem of eucharistic hospitality: some altars are closed and others are open. There are the different attitudes towards women: some count women as full participants, others consider them as somehow lesser.

There are also methodological differences. Europeans tend to view decisionmaking within a framework of time, votes and agendas; Asians prefer to reach consensus by living with ideas and floating them around. The attitude of the former is "deal with it now", of the latter, "let's live with it for a while".

Consequently a variety of conflicts are experienced. These are related to racism, sexism, the eucharist, food, appointments to committees, sharing of resources and sharing of rooms, ideologies and theologies and theories.

4. In the midst of conflict, two characteristics help the ecumenical option to take shape. One is the several cross-cultural friendships that have grown up in the meantime; the other is the presence of kingdom values within the community.

Gradually, the issues of conflict are identified and clarified. An awareness grows that none is the greatest, that in the kingdom of God there is no room for superiority or inferiority. God has no favourites: all are equal before God, for God is in all and acts through all for the good of the whole inhabited world. Since life from God comes to us from the other, our only response can be to offer ourselves as co-workers in this task.

Thus it was through alienation, diversity and conflict that we encountered the ecumenical option. Painful as they were, the earlier experiences have turned out in fact to be creative. If handled with integrity and in dialogue and openness, they offer life.

5. The final stage is dispersal. Bossey is not a miracle story. Not everyone is instantly touched and converted into the finest breed of ecumenist.

Most leave Bossey with true glimpses of ecumenism, motivated to pursue the ecumenical option. They see the ecumenical option as a coconut -- difficult to crack but full of nourishment.

Others leave bitter. To them ecumenism is a sham.

A few -- and this is a sad feature -- remain at Bossey in conflict with ecumenism. In defence of such persons, it may be said that they suffer the strain of having to live with recurring multicultural groups. That is not easy without a resilient spirituality. For the good of such persons, the biblical therapy of sabbatical is an option worth considering.

Sri Lanka: the reality of segregation

Sri Lanka is a small island of some 66,000 square kilometres, with a population of about 17 million. Christians make up approximately 6.5 percent of the total population. The largest church is the Roman Catholic.

We are a pluralistic society, comprising four world religions -- Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian -- and several ethnic groups, of which the largest are Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. There is also an increasing pluralism within the church, marked by a growing number of denominations.

With some noteworthy exceptions, there have been two general responses to pluralism in Sri Lanka: indifferent co-existence and conflictual estrangement. The former has been typical of our history; the latter has come to the fore in more recent years. Yet the two stances often tend to overlap, not only in groups but even within individuals. Both these positions fail the ecumenical test of dialogue and sharing for mutual enrichment.

In Sri Lanka we are learning, painfully, that if pluralism is not handled with creativity and sensitivity, it destroys a nation. Social segregation, ideological as well as geographical, is a crucial warning of impending crisis.