Bossey: moving towards the future

Ecumenical Review, The, Oct, 1996 by Mary Ann Lundy

For many people who have learned and taught and listened and lived there, Bossey is a kind of sacred place on life's journey, a stopping place that turned out, perhaps unexpectedly, to be a landmark, changing their view of themselves and their place and purpose in the world. The 50th anniversary of the Ecumenical Institute is a moment for those who have been a part of its teaching and learning, and for all who share in Bossey's legacy, not only to celebrate and remember, but also to reflect, to bring their best powers of creativity and imagination to the shaping of Bossey's future.

Vision and mandate

In a lecture given in 1980 W.A. Visser 't Hooft recalled the context of the plan to set up an ecumenical "training centre", as this was elaborated in a memorandum submitted to the Provisional Committee of the WCC in February 1946: "The fact that the churches have been the outstanding spiritual bulwark against the offensive of various forms of paganism has created a new situation for them in which they have a unique opportunity to halt the process of progressive de-Christianization." Bossey, said the WCC's first general secretary, began with three emphases: on laity, on the renewal of the church and on "the penetration of Christian conviction into all realms of life".(1)

The vision was that the laity, highly educated Christian men and women who were specialists in their vocations, would come to Bossey to learn together of the implications of their faith for their day-to-day work as engineers or doctors or teachers.

According to Visser 't Hooft, Hendrik Kraemer, the first director of Bossey, while himself a layman, believed that it was not possible "to get on with the job of mobilizing the laity if the theologians, pastors and priests were not mobilized. So he proposed to hold regular courses for pastors." Thus the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies was set up "for students who had already done a certain amount of theological studies in their own country and who came for an ecumenical encounter with theologians of other countries and for a general introduction to the ecumenical world".(2)

It was clear from the beginning that the Ecumenical Institute was to be a part of the work and mission of the World Council of Churches. Indeed, in the words of Visser 't Hooft, "Bossey has remained one of the absolutely indispensable elements in the total set-up of the World Council. For the World Council's work must consist especially in establishing human relations..."(3)

The context in which Visser 't Hooft, Kraemer, Suzanne de Dietrich and others developed the vision of Bossey was that of the brokenness of the post-war world. The vision they articulated resonated with people who were embittered, yet hopeful of building a new world. Resources were scarce, transportation was difficult. Women were moving back into the home after taking on new roles in war time. Yet churches were also beginning to rebuild. Their membership was starting to increase and leadership was needed. In Germany the Kirchentag had begun.

The second assembly of the WCC (Evanston 1954) gave expression to the mandate:

The phrase "the ministry of the laity" expresses the privilege of the whole

church to share in Christ's ministry to the world. We must understand anew

the implication of the fact that they are all baptized, that, as Christ

came to minister, so must all Christians become ministers of the saving

purpose according to the particular gift of the Spirit which each has

received.(4)

Ministry was seen as belonging to all. By virtue of baptism, lay people were to claim ministry as theirs too. But the Bossey vision drew out and emphasized certain things. Committed to the wholeness of the people of God that was emphasized by the Orthodox churches in underscoring an ecclesiology of koinonia, it saw it as the vocation of every member of the Body of Christ to give an account of the faith. The phrase used by Visser 't Hooft was the agenda of Bossey -- "the Bible, the church and the world". These three ingredients shaped the vision of the laity's role in the church.(5)

Subsequent WCC assemblies spoke to the issue of the full participation of the laity, but it was not until the Vancouver assembly in 1983 that a single statement expressed this mandate: that the mission to the world should be undertaken by the whole people of God (the lags), ordained and lay, in a fellowship of participation (koinonia).(6) The goal of lay commitment is then to be the rebuilding of viable non-exclusive social forms that will produce human community which is inclusive and empowering. The laity then become agents of ecumenical learning processes.

The continuing search

As we look back across the fifty years since Bossey's founding, we see our present age reflected in many of the themes which the Ecumenical Institute has treated: brokenness and fragmentation, displacement of peoples from their homes, a greater proportion of refugees than ever before, the growing gap between rich and poor, ethnic conflicts in most regions of the world, religious differences erupting into violence, increasing racism, cultures and religions in tension, hunger, exploitation of women and children, and war, war, war. It is commonplace to characterize our time as a period of transition from old political and economic structures to emerging ones: from transition -- in tumult -- to transformation. But while that remains the hope, many contemporary efforts to move towards transformation have instead created disillusionment with democratic processes and with political and social development.