Day 2 of the Assembly

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Day 2 of the Assembly began as each day does with prayer and bible study. The bible studies are either in large plenary sessions or in small groups where there is the scope for shared reflection. This was the one that I chose and as one of the only native English speakers ended up facilitating. The text, within the context of the Assembly theme considered the creation story of Genesis 2, we shared both our undersatanding of the passage and our own thinking about its elevance in our modern context. Perhaps unsurprisingly our small group ended up thinking of the responsibilty for the creation that we are given as a valuable gift emerged as the most important aspect.

In the morning plenary we were addressed by the Prime Minister of South Korea which was followed by a conversation between a number of speakers and a young theologian who put questions to them about the future of the ecumenical movement and its connection with the issues that challenge the wider world.

At lunchtime the Archbishop of Canterbury was one of the signatories to the document 'Welcome the Stranger' which is a set of guidelines and statement of commitment to welcoming people of other faiths and nationalities in the face of the lack of welcome that they so often experience. Welcome the Stranger will be distributed in a variety of ways.

Today was also the first day of the 4 Ecumenical Conversations that will take place. They are on a variety of topics and I had chosen to be part of the group looking at the Convergence Document 'Towards a Common Vision'. It was a dense and fast discussion and I was glad to be a native English speaker! We have a lot to do if we are to achieve any useful comments given that there are so many perspectives and subtle complexities in understanding just what we are trying to achieve let alone deciding how we might achieve it. I was intrigued to notice that in the introduction that used the images of the Church suggetsed by one writer did not include the image of the Body of Christ. The phrase seems to be being used but without any attempt to see it as a model. I anticipate that my own contribution to this discussion may well be the suggestion that there could be a pardigm shift in our thinking about what the church is and how we belong to it.

This evening has ended with a regional meeting for those of us from Europe where we have tackled issues such as the reltionship with the Conference of European Churches and issues around the Roma and immigration.


We range from the themes of technical ecumenism to the more practical mission issues of how the Churches and the World Council itself engage with the issues facing the wider world. Once again, I wonder how the energy that is generated here can communicate itself to the life and work of the churches in our separate countries.



 

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