Doing God's Work Together - Ecumenical Relations

Ecumenical Perspectives

                Most of us are aware that the nature of PCUSA world mission has changed dramatically in the last century.  Denominational identity was of prime importance; missionaries were the representatives of the Boards which sent them out, and in some areas, there was significant competition between various efforts in evangelization. 

The World Mission Conference at Edinburgh 1910 marked some new perspectives in the sense of call, training of workers, and recognition of need for cooperative efforts.  [A 2010 anniversary Edinburgh Mission Conference reinforced the ecumenical perspective and included Roman Catholic and Pentecostal representatives.]  For many decades agreement has been reached that competition would be replaced by cooperative agreements allowing each denomination to specialize in geographical and national areas.  The concept of missionary was replaced by Co-workers who were invited by the national church to “accompaniment” [as in walking along side the national church.]  Our experience has illuminated these changes.

                In our first week in Colombia, we had the opportunity to begin to learn about how the ecumenical commitments are being seriously followed by La Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia.  On our first evening, we were invited to a lecture at the Reformed University given by a Roman Catholic priest who talked about common approaches to developing effective pastoral leadership.  His major emphasis included listening, discernment, presence and sense of family relationship.  In the discussion that followed, he emphasized his role in regional ecumenical endeavors with the acceptance and support of the Bishop and the approval of his Roman Catholic peers.

                Other visits this week permitted us to see the results of cooperative efforts among ecumenical Christian groups and Non- government organizations [NGO] and City leadership in a Senior Center program.  Such is the case at the Senior Center [Foundation Misaños Bellos] which recently lost promised support for a feeding program.  As we made two visits in Sincelejo, which have particular focus on implementation of the Victims Law, once again, we recognized the importance of associations of different groups of people providing support to victims of displacement and injustice in the court system.  Another Roman Catholic told of the importance of the Latin American Council of Churches in addressing similar poverty and injustice concerns regionally from a cooperative approach.

                It is our expectation that further experiences we will have in the next weeks will continue to illustrate this ecumenical spirit which has been firmly adopted by regional church bodies, both Protestant and Roman Catholic.  It should be mentioned that the fastest growing church bodies – the Pentecostal churches--tend to be closed to this type of ecumenical endeavor.  Some evidence would suggest that such cooperative efforts are less well implemented at the local church level where denominational identity remains stronger.  The commitment to such joint-church efforts by Presbyteries and regional leaders and some local pastors may be seen as positive role-modeling for others to follow.