Comprehending the Task at Hand

While we paced back and forth in the warm sunshine of a Brazilian afternoon, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Great House of Cilicia, summarized for me the guiding principles behind Christian ecumenism:

1. Biblical unity is a gift from God, but that unity is broken because of the sinfulness of man.
2. There is a tension in our existential reality between God-given unity and the truth of our disunity.
3. Unity starts at the local level—as churches realize their interdependence, their disunity will be felt more acutely.

I had set aside the copy of St. Gregory of Nyssa’s “On the Soul and Resurrection” that I had been reading as an assignment for my theology class before His Holiness called me over, and gladly so: what was the point of reading theology from a book when the wisdom of the countless books and articles written by His Holiness on ecumenism was being summarized for me so skillfully by the author himself? There he was, this man who has been a key player in the world ecumenical movement for decades, sharing the pearls of his experience with me face to face, his eyes intense with the passion of lifelong commitment.

When I first arrived in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), I was skeptical about the prospects of success for ecumenism. The very word “ecumenism,” derived from the Greek oikos meaning “household,” seemed overly ambitious given the many differences among the world’s Christian churches. While I understood that Christian unity is a biblical imperative, based on passages such as John 17:20-26 and Ephesians 4:1-16, I felt less than hopeful about the prospect of churches achieving that reality. Did we the representatives of diverse churches really think we were going to make cooperative progress after hundreds of years of history to the contrary? Had we forgotten about the various schisms in the earliest centuries of Christianity, the drive toward denominationalism in more recent centuries, and the prevailing spirit of relativism driving further distance between Christians today? I knew the modern ecumenical movement had been set in motion before my parents were born (who was I to question it?). Then again, Christian discord had been around even longer.

This is not to say that I had not been ecumenical prior to my experience with the WCC. My father, an archpriest in the Armenian Apostolic Church, currently pastoring a congregation in Watertown, MA, has always strived to include ecumenism in his ministry. As a member of the local ministerial associations in the cities where he has served, he has played an integral role in executing various inter-church activities and services. We the members of his family were also drawn into ecumenical outreach through his example and encouragement. In 2001 I had the honor of being invited to speak at the inter-church memorial service that my father’s parish hosted in the days after the tragedy of September 11.

As an undergraduate at Tufts University, I became a member of a group of Christian students known as the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF). Affiliated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA, a branch of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, TCF was comprised of students from all Christian backgrounds: evangelical, mainline protestant, orthodox, and catholic. Some students were conservative, some liberal; some had worshiped only to the swells of an organ, while others only to the beating of a tambourine…a motley crew! Despite our differences, however, we learned to love and appreciate not only each other but also our diverse backgrounds. We learned from one another and from the rich and varied experiences of Christ that we each brought to the table. After my graduation from Tufts in 1999, I stayed on campus for four years as an Affiliate Chaplain to lead and serve this wonderful group.

Over the duration of the Assembly, though, as I learned first-hand from His Holiness and the other leaders of the ecumenical movement. I began to see what strides the churches at a macro level might actually make together, by the grace of God, toward Christian unity. For example, setting a common date for Easter, which His Holiness, as Moderator of the WCC, called for in his opening address to the Assembly, would be a prime act of Christian unity. Likewise, creating a common Christian response to social issues such as poverty and United Nations reform, a task toward which the Assembly devoted much of its time, is an act of Christian unity.

Ecumenism by God’s Grace: The Ministry of Reconciliation

Ecumenism on any scale, macro or micro, can happen only by the grace of God. Grace was central to the theme of the WCC 9th Assembly, “God, In Your Grace, Transform the World.” And grace is central to the hope of the Christian church. “Grace is the core of God’s revelation,” His Holiness proclaimed in his opening address. “It appears in the Bible with multi-faceted meanings and manifold implications.” (“Report of the Moderator.” WCC 9th Assembly Document No. A1, p.1. Available online at www.wcc-assembly.info). The implications of God’s grace, to me, are summarized in one key word: reconciliation.

The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:18, NIV)

By grace, God performs His reconciling work in two directions. First, He reconciles humankind to Himself (the vertical plane) and secondly, He reconciles those humans to one other (the horizontal plane). Relationships on both planes were broken at the time of the fall of man, described in Genesis 3. Not only did Adam and Eve disobey God and thus lose their intimate connection with Him; they also experienced a rift between themselves when Adam blamed Eve for the deception. When God asked Adam, “‘Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’ The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’” (Gen 3:11b-12).

God’s purpose in effectuating this bi-dimensional reconciliation is to make His followers, “the righteousness of God.” To use an another description, God’s purpose is to mold us, His followers, to be “the light of the world,” known among our neighbors for our mutual love and our good deeds (cf. Matt 5:14-16, and especially Acts 2:42-47). The proclamation of the reconciling work of God through Christ is a task that Jesus himself gave to His disciples, the future leaders of His Church (cf. Matt. 28:18-20). The proclamation of the reconciling work of God through Christ can only be carried out by a Church that is reconciled within itself—or at least works together. The WCC knows this well.

The Work of the WCC and the
Purpose of the 9th Assembly

Founded in 1948, the WCC is comprised of 350 member churches, including the Orthodox churches and various Protestant denominations from the Mainline, Pentecostal and Evangelical branches. Efforts are being made toward Roman Catholic Church membership in the WCC, via a joint working commission. Currently, the Vatican sends an advisory delegation to each Assembly. The Catholicosate of Cilicia became a member of the WCC in 1962, and participated in a WCC convocation for the first time at the 5th Assembly in Upsaala, Sweden in 1968.

The WCC is staffed by full-time employees who work year-round on issues of Christian unity as regards society,

The WCC General Assembly typically has three components. The first is a festive component that draws the churches together to interact personably with one another and to celebrate what we hold in common. Joint worship and shared meals are examples of the ways this component is integrated into the General Assembly schedule. The second is a business component, which provides the opportunity to review the work of the WCC in the years prior to the Assembly in and set a vision for the work of the WCC in the years until the next Assembly. The third is a reflective component in which the churches come together to deliberate on issues of common concern such as violence and poverty.

The theme of the 9th General Assembly, “God, In Your Grace Transform the World,” was particularly germane to the reflective component. His Holiness worked meticulously with Dr. Konrad Raiser, General Secretary of the WCC prior to Dr. Samuel Kobia (the current WCC General Secretary who began his tenure in January of 2004), to choose the 9th Assembly theme. Their choice reflects the understanding that the world is in desperate need of Christian transformation. I refer again to the 2 Corinthians passage cited above, but am also reminded of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew, when he says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). In this statement Jesus claims without question that He is the one who provides relief to the troubled. With similar assertion he declares, “…I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies (John 11:25) and likewise, “The thief comes only to steal and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). These are strong claims that speak volumes in the context of a troubled world where so many are weary and few experience a truly full life.

His Holiness stated in an interview that in the world we see a decay of moral values and the marginalization of spiritual values. This engenders a grave dehumanization. Without morality and spirituality the world cannot sustain itself, and people become mired deeper and deeper in sin. In a very tangible sense, lack of morality and lack of values lead to corruption on the individual and institutional levels, and this leads to crime and the marginalization of people in need. This is why, according to UNICEF, nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion, live on less than $1 per day, while the world’s 358 billionaires have collective assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45% of the world’s population. This is why there are communities of people in India who make their homes on piles of trash and 15 million children die per year of hunger. As an observer of society, I find the situation hopeless at times.

during one of the general sessions. I made a statement on the floor of the Assembly plenary regarding a public issues document on the responsibility to protect those who are vulnerable to violence (“Second Report of the Public Issues Committee,” WCC 9th Assembly, PIC No. 2, p.2. Available online at www.wcc-assembly.info). There was a sentence in the first draft of the text that read: “The prohibition against killing is at the heart of Christian ethics (Mt. 5:21-22). But the biblical witness also informs us about an anthropology that takes the human capacity to do evil in the light of the fallen nature of humankind. The challenge for Christians is to pursue peace in the midst of violence.” This phrasing seemed non-committal and weak. I recommended that instead of talking about taking evil seriously, we talk about the seriousness of evil, and its root cause, sin. Accordingly, I proposed that the second sentence be changed to read: “But the biblical witness also informs us about the human capacity to do evil, in light of the fallen nature of humankind.” I suggested that Genesis 4, the story of Cain and Abel be cited to fortify the argument. If we ignore sin, we have no need of the Gospel, no need of the Church, and no need of the WCC.

As the churches we must, therefore, cling to the fact that in the face of sin there is only One who created the universe and sustains it by His transformative grace (cf. Heb 11:3, Psalm 146:9), if we are willing to cooperate with Him. In this era, God often chooses to work through his people rather than to intervene directly. St. Paul writes, “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal 6:2, see also Matt. 25:35-37). Thus the unified churches working together in the world becomes an imperative. His Holiness writes, “After almost thirty years in the ecumenical movement, I came to realize that one of its main tasks is to challenge the church to constantly define and redefine its vocation in the world. I learned through my ecumenical involvement that the church cannot survive unless it engages in a responsible and critical dialogue with the world. Indeed, it is a great challenge to be a church in the midst of the complexities of contemporary societies.” (In Search of an Ecumenical Vision, p. 61) The three contemporary challenges that His Holiness cites in this section of the book are technology, secularization, and globalization. As I understand it, the specific consequences of these challenging social realities include the cycle of poverty, the escalation of violence, and the deterioration of marriage and the family. These are all major issues today, issues which the Church must engage.

As His Holiness so eloquently explained in an interview he gave, “The issues of the world are the issues of the churches because the churches are part of this world. Whatever happens in the world has direct or indirect repercussions in the life and witness of the church. But the church must be selective…the church must have its priorities and the Council helps prioritize the priorities.” What, then, are the priorities of WCC toward helping the churches attend to this broken world? According to His Holiness, the first is the unity of the Church. The Church must speak with one voice and minister in cooperative union. The second is an interfaith dialogue. This becomes an urgent matter in an increasingly small world. Coherence, tolerance, harmony, mutual understanding and respect should govern the action of the churches and our societies. The third is violence, specifically overcoming violence and realizing reconciliation. The fourth is youth. I quote His Holiness who said in an interview, “the WCC and our churches must take youth very seriously; youth do not belong to the future but belong to the present.”

Engaging the Youth

It quickly became evident to me in Porto Alegre that, as His Holiness stressed, the work of the ecumenical movement must span the generations. Old and young together must be engaged in the ministry of reconciliation that St. Paul describes. The push to engage youth is grounded in scripture, which describes even children as having direct access to the ministry and message of Jesus Christ (Mark 10:13-16).

The 9th Assembly of the WCC was proclaimed a “Youth Assembly.” I was proud to be a part of the delegation from the Great House of Cilicia. Among twelve representatives were five youth, three of whom were delegates with full voting privileges. His Holiness Aram I, having encouraged his three

youth delegates to take an active part in the plenary, said, “Youth must not simply be prepared for the future, but engaged for the present.” His Holiness himself first participated in a WCC Assembly as a youth delegate and was the youngest WCC Moderator ever elected, at the 7th WCC Assembly held in Camberra in 1991, while he was still a bishop. His Holiness addressed the issue of youth participation in the WCC with great aplomb and vision in his opening words to the Assembly, advising, “I consider the role of the youth as being essentially an agent of transformation. We must help the youth move from the fringes of our churches to the heart of the churches’ life and witness, including the decision-making process…[Likewise,] youth have a major role to play in ‘being ecumenical.’ They are called to become actively involved in reshaping and transforming the ecumenical movement.” (“Report of the Moderator.” WCC 9th Assembly Document No. A1, p.13. Available online at www.wcc-assembly.info)

Each youth delegate from the Holy See of Cilicia played an active role in the Assembly. Very Rev. Housig Mardirossian, staff-bearer for His Holiness, was nominated for “youth president,” while Vanna Kitsinian, Esq., a lay delegate from California, eloquently addressed the plenary on two occasions regarding issues such as United Nations reform. A Master’s candidate in Religion at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA, I served as the third youth delegate. Like Ms. Kitsinian, I also had the opportunity to address the plenary, speaking on church unity in addition to the need to acknowledge the role of sin in violence (as referenced in the preceding section of this article).

Though a youth, I also had the privilege to co-lead an “Ecumenical Conversation,” a key component of the Assembly in which participants gathered in small groups over three days to discuss challenging issues regarding church unity and the ecumenical movement. In the month before the Assembly, I worked with an eight-person leadership team from around the world, via email, to prepare texts and questions on the topic, “Challenges on the Way to Unity.” We wrestled with a variety of questions, some of which we brought before our conversation group for discussion. How do we emphasize the imperative for Christian unity in our churches? How do we admit our shortcomings? How can the churches work cooperatively going forward and to what effect in the world? On day two of our “Ecumenical Conversation,” I led a reflection on Ephesians 4, the preparation for which helped frame my experience of encountering ecumenism on a macro level in Porto Alegre.

Reflection on Ephesians 4:1-16

‘As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens,in order to fill the whole

universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.’ (Eph. 4:1-16, NIV)

Our Lord, our faith, our baptism. These fundamentals unite all those who believe in Jesus Christ, across national, cultural, and denominational divides. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all” (v. 5b-6).

Praise God that through his mercy, he chooses to call us his family and unite us unto himself and one another! If we look back to Eph. 3:14 and 15, the Apostle Paul has just referred to the church as a family. “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” What is the aspiration of this family? Skipping ahead to the last verses of Eph. 3, Paul talks about the glory of God the Father being manifest in Christ and in the church. As the family of God, we the Church are to bring glory to God. This is precisely why Jesus has not given us a new law, but rather has equipped us with gifts and with power, as Paul describes in 4:11 to glorify God as we continue to obey the ultimate command to serve him and love others in his name. Equipped to do amazing things, the Church can reveal the amazing power and love of God.

Paul knows that despite the gifts we have been given, to be truly effective, the family of God must act in unity, vis-à-vis the fundamentals: Lord, faith, and baptism. Paul was so concerned with these fundamentals, that he became a prisoner for them. I hear him saying to the Ephesians, “Please, my brothers and sisters, do not act in discord when I am imprisoned and giving my life for what we believe in.” Paul also points to another prisoner, the very Lord Jesus, who himself descended to the lower, earthly regions before ascending to glory. Jesus laid down his life in order to bring glory to his Father’s name. This glory is only revealed on earth now through the church, using the gifts he has given us by the Holy Spirit. Each of us, with our unique gifts, strives to use them in an effective, mature manner. As Paul teaches, part of that maturity is reaching unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. Once we have these things, we “will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves…” (v. 14). “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” (v. 15).

Paul describes the Church as a family in Eph. 3, but in Chapter 4 he uses the imagery of a body. The body of Christ, with Jesus as our head. Think for a moment about the beauty of a body in motion, from the human to the Gazelle to the centipede. When each muscle and tendon moves in concert, you have a miracle, a show of force, an small but intentional step forward, a soaring flight, a smile. Imagine how futile it would be if each leg of the centipede were moving in a different direction, with a different understanding of the centipede’s goal in life.

Our goal as the church? To glorify God by serving him and loving others, using the gifts he has given us. We must all agree in this because we have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. We the body are of the same mind: Jesus. With Jesus as our head, we can be a strong, hard-working body that accomplishes its mission in this world. From all accounts, the activities of the Cilician youth were heralded by many as a true representation of youth participation in the ecumenical movement.

The Assembly After the Assembly

In speaking with His Holiness, I also learned that “The Assembly has interrelated dimensions: The Pre-Assembly period, which is preparation for the Assembly; the assembly itself as an event; and the assembly after the Assembly.” The last of these begs the question, “How can we take the Assembly back to the Churches? His Holiness has treated this matter in articles entitled, “Translating Canberra into Programme” and “Harrare after Harrare” (Aram I. In Search of Ecumenical Vision. Antelias, Lebanon: Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, 2000, pp. 78-83 and 287-292). His Holiness shared his thoughts on “Porto Alegre after Porto Alegre” saying, “The real Assembly should start when it becomes a Christian-formative process, a renewing process that changes the lives of those in society. The real Assembly occurs when the spirit and message of the Assembly are translated into transformative process.” The churches at the WCC 9th Assembly asked God, in His grace, to transform the world. We also asked to be ourselves part of that transformation, by engaging in the ministry of reconciliation to which we are called.

As we have seen, the work of the WCC is multi-faceted. Yet among the many facets, there are two primary faces: the one that looks toward establishing a common ground between the churches (organic unity), and the one that looks outward and speaks to society, not only by word but by deed (functional unity). In both faces we see the permeating idea of reconciliation. The latter is perhaps the most tangible for the local community, and leads to the former. The issues of the world are profound, and present a firm challenge to the Christian Church. Such issues also present opportunities for cooperation and ecumenical growth. When a group of local churches joins together, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to start a food drive or refurbish a playground or campaign for human rights, we achieve unity. This is the ecumenism of cooperative action, and it should be built into the consciousness of the various churches, including the Armenian Church. As we have said, if the Christian churches are going to fulfill their calling to minister to the needs of a broken world, we cannot accomplish it in isolation from one another. Christian unity is an imperative. His Holiness once wrote, “I…come from the ecumenical world, a world in which I received my second baptism, a world that has taught me in a tangible way the vital importance and crucial urgency of the unity of the church…” (Ecumenical Vision, p. 45)

“Alleluia O-o-or-ti.” The familiar sound of Armenian chanting rang through the WCC Assembly worship tent on another sunny Brazilian afternoon, this one a day or two before our departure. It was Hayr Housig, His Holiness’ staff-bearer (and voting youth delegate), singing the gospel for the day. For two weeks I had experienced worship from around the world, in many stunning styles, each one more beautiful than the prior. Still, the sense of home I felt when I heard those familiar words overwhelmed me. I questioned for a moment whether I had made any progress in appreciating ecumenism. Was this all for naught, the two weeks away from home, the planning and the preparation, the unrelenting meeting sessions, the forced critical thinking? However, I reminded myself that ecumenism is not a push to homogeneity. Rather, it is the hope that in Christ’s name, Christians from all walks of life will unite in their differences to address the concerns of the Church and of the world, both in need of God’s continual transformation. This transformation happens by the grace of God, and with the cooperation of his people, in unity with one and other.

The internal cooperation and outward focus of the first Christians as recorded in the book of Acts must continue among the churches today: All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47, NIV)

I appreciate the leadership of the WCC in the quest for Christian unity and pray that the vision for ecumenism sponsored by His Holiness Aram I will continue to thrive among the leadership of the Armenian Church and grow within its people.