Faith and Order Commission

The Commission on Faith and Order (English Faith & Order ) is one of the key areas of work of the World Council of Churches ( WCC). It provides fundamental theological work by dealing with the causes of the separation of Christian churches and work towards the " visible unity of the Church." This is the concept of " reconciled diversity " of central importance.

The Commission, which sees itself as " an overarching theological Forum of the Christian world," has 120 members, clergy, laity, academics and church leaders, who are appointed by their respective churches. The Roman Catholic Church, which does not belong to the WCC, is since 1968 a full member of the Commission. Most important method of work of the Faith and Order is preparation of studies in broad consultation processes.

History

Together with the Life and Work Movement and the International Missionary Council has marked the first section of the modern ecumenical movement, the Movement for Faith and 1910-1948. In the wake of the first World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910, the first World Conference on Faith and Order was held in Lausanne in 1927, to which over 400 representatives of 127 Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed and free churches gathered.

There, as well as at the second World Conference 1937 in Edinburgh involved a clarification of various notions of church unity. It was agreed soon after, bringing together the Faith and the Life and Work Movement, which led to the creation of the WCC in Amsterdam in 1948. Since then, the goals of the movement within the WCC by the Commission on Faith and Order be pursued.

1952, at the Third World Conference in Lund (Sweden) was added to the comparative methodology in favor of a theological dialogue process, receives the contentious issues of common biblical and Christological presuppositions. In 1963, the Fourth World Conference and after exactly 30 years, the Fifth World Conference in 1993 was held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain ) in Montréal ( Canada). In the time between the consultation process that led to the Lima Declaration ( 1982) falls.

Issues and successes

Since 1910, the Movement for Faith and Order and then the Commission with a wide-ranging range of theological topics have addressed: meaning and practice of baptism; Eucharist and ordination; Church and perceptions of their unit; interfaith community; Holy Scripture and Tradition; Role and importance of creeds and confessions; Ordination of women; the influence of political, social and cultural factors on the efforts for the unity of the Church.

Parallel to these controversial issues Faith and has increasingly taken up issues that either affect all churches or are of fundamental importance for the expression of their already realized community: worship and spirituality (eg the Commission, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for the promoting Christian Unity, the material for the week of Prayer for Christian Unity before ); Christian hope today; the interaction between bilateral and multilateral talks between the churches.

Thanks to the unprecedented broad and intensive debate about the font " Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" published in 1982 (Lima Declaration) and its reception has become known Faith and the wider church public. Throughout this process, it became increasingly clear that the main question behind the divisions between Christians differ in their understanding is what it means to be church or to be the church. Faith and therefore currently working on a larger study on ecclesiology, which deals with this very issue.