Archbishop Jukka Paarma THE ECUMENICAL CHALLENGE OF THE THE THIRD CHRISTIAN MILLENNIUM
Studia Generalia lecture at the University of Helsinki, March 16th, 2000
The churches of Finland are at present celebrating together the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. The theme of the festival year is "Jubilee Year 2000 - a Year of Hope". The ecumenical situation in Finland is exceptional in a positive sense, otherwise than is the case in many other countries. In Finland the churches are celebrating the jubilee year together and in a spirit of co-operation. No Finnish church has tried to be possessive about the festival year of the birth of Christ; the common and generally accepted aim of the churches is to celebrate the jubilee together and to testify together that the birth of Jesus Christ at the beginning of our era heralded a new age and hope for the whole world.
Christianity is inextricably linked with the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. Christianity is faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus, who was born two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, is, as Christians see it, the centre of world history. In him were fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the promised Messiah and Saviour. With him began not only a new era but a new age, one of hope and salvation.
In our era we have moved or are moving into the third millennium of Christ and Christianity. The subject of this lecture is "The Ecumenical Challenge of the Third Christian Millennium". The new era before us must be viewed from the standpoint of the churches' efforts towards unity and co-operation. What kind of challenge does the new millennium pose to ecumenism? Before I can answer this question, ecumenism must be placed in the right context. What are the challenges faced by the Church and Christianity at this moment and to be faced in the future, and what kind of background or self-understanding is there for ecumenical thinking in our church?
I shall approach these questions through a number of personal experiences. Before and after the turn of the millennium I had three experiences which were of significance for myself, all of which help to shed light on the challenges which face the Christian Church. One of these happened in Rome, one in Turku and one in Damascus in Syria.
I shall begin with Turku. At the very turn of the millennium a group of students invited me as a representative of the Church to discuss the future position of religion, and of Christianity in particular. They were quite critical, some even hostile. They were of the opinion that the Church's position will inevitably become weaker, the significance of religion will decrease as education and scientific progress increase, which is demonstrated by the large number of people who are leaving the Church and by the spiritual alienation of church members from its faith.
I might, of course, appeal to a number of studies which show that these assertions are questionable and at least outdated. The number of people leaving the Church has in recent years dropped dramatically, and the number of people joining the Church has been on the increase. Studies of people's religious attitudes in Europe and wider still show that the time of religion is not yet over, but religious questioning and seeking seem rather to be on the increase, although they take on forms that are more often detached from the traditional churches.
This positive atmosphere should not fool us, however. With their questions the students issued me with the challenge which the Church has always faced and will continue to face in the new millennium. The central message of our faith is that of the Cross, which,to quote Paul, is "a stumbling-block to the Jews and folly to the Greeks" (1 Cor. 1:23). Confronting this world and its people, with their doubt and unbelief, searching and questioning, mockery and opposition, is the ultimate challenge for the Church, whose task it is to disseminate its message, to proclaim the Gospel, to make disciples of Christ and to bear witness. In the global and more pluralistic world of the new millennium the churches' principal prayer is and will continue to be the petition contained in the old prayer: "May the witness to you be genuine and convincing".
The second experience of mine happened a few weeks back in Damascus. Together with the Islamic religious leader of Syria, the Grand Mufti Achmad Kuftaro, I sat on the speakers' platform of the great Abu Nour mosque in front of about six thousand devout Muslims. I had been invited to give a speech. I spoke of my own Christian faith, what it involved and meant, and I felt pious respect and desire for agreement on the part of the audience. The mufti spoke of his faith, seeking, in a constructive way, points in common in our religions as well as distinguishing features. The meeting was part of the dialogue we engaged in with Islamic and Christian theologians in a number of seminars. I became convinced of the growing challenge for dialogue of other religions and of rapidly spreading Islam in particular, and of its importance. From the perspective of world peace, the peaceful co-existence of Islam and Christianity is one of the main issues to be faced in the future, just as, from the point of view of peace and a secure future, it is essential to bridge the gulf between north and south, that is the rich and poor nations, and to find a balanced and responsible relationship between the human race and its natural environment.
The challenge of dialogue is also important from the perspective of religion. In a changing world dialogue is a challenge to the Christian Church, to its self-understanding and to its mission to the nations of this world.
The third experience happened in Rome. Last November St. Bridget was commemorated in an ecumenical service of vespers. Pope John Paul II conducted it from the main altar in St. Peter's Church. The enormous basilica was crowded as the Lutheran archbishops of Sweden and Finland stood at the altar either side of the Pope.
It was not the first time that this had happened. In 1991 the Pope and Lutheran bishops had appeared together for the first time in such a fashion. But now, on the threshold of the new millennium, I experienced the symbolism in a new way, pointing to the future. When both Lutheran bishops quoted Martin Luther at length in their sermons, one his exposition of the Magnificat and the other his 95 theses of 1517, it was a demonstration of the fact that the churches have progressed, after centuries of suspicion, even animosity, to a quite new period of agreement and mutual respect. Thus this third experience of mine leads directly to our theme proper, the challenges of ecumenism in the third Christian millennium.
My viewpoint in this connection is, of course, Lutheran. I view the subject in particular from the standpoint of my own church, its faith and self-understanding. Its view of ecumenism and the ecumenical task arises from its own view of Christianity and the Church. Therefore it is necessary briefly to outline our view of the nature and history of Christianity.
Christianity is a historical religion. It has a concrete beginning in a historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, and in the events of his life. Without Jesus Christ there would be and there is no Christianity - no revolutionary movement of people bearing his name - Christians - no Church and no Christianity. The Church is at all times totally dependent on its connection with the person of Jesus and his message. If the Church does not follow, preserve and observe the legacy of the historical Jesus, it loses its historical continuity and credibility as a group of disciples of Jesus. Christian faith and the Church are firmly anchored in the historical events of the beginning of our era, events related to Jesus.
The Church is totally dependent on Christ in another sense, too: according to the classical interpretation and understanding of Christianity, the crucified and risen Christ is not just part of church history. He has been raised from the dead and is present in a real but secret way with his disciples today. Christ is where his Church is today. This faith in the real presence of Christ is the principal emphasis of the Lutheran interpretation of Christianity.
Our church lives by the conviction that the crucified and risen Christ is in a secret way present in the preaching and sacraments of the Church, and in its members' everyday lives, in their service in daily life. The Church understands itself as the heir of the original Church of Christ and as continuing its work in this country and in the world. On this is based the Church's authorization, mission and authority. The Church can be the Church only insofar as it knows and acknowledges its commitment to the original apostolic Church. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland also considers itself to be a representative of the genuine and original apostolic Church of Jesus Christ and to be continuing its tradition. Church history is thus in a certain sense normative history. The decisions taken by the early Church and the apostolic Church, which have been passed on to us in the Church's Scriptures and in the tradition of the early Church, in particular in its creeds and doctrinal definitions, continue to be binding and normative for the Church as its
seeks its way in the world of today and tomorrow.The Church is also by nature catholic, global, universal. The Church's message concerns all people and all nations. The Church in Finland is not only a Finnish church or the church of the Finnish people. It is a folk church and at the same time the church of all nations. As a folk church the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland wishes to be the church of all Finns, which proclaims the Gospel to the whole nation, but at the same time it is part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, which is for all nations.
As part of the apostolic and catholic, universal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is an integral part of the whole of Christendom. Awareness of belonging to the world-wide Church of Christ has noticeably increased in our country in recent years. When last November the general synod of our church approved new translations of the confessions for use in our country, this was obvious. In the Nicene Creed we "believe one, holy, common (yhteinen) and apostolic church", where the Finnish word 'yhteinen' (common) is a translation of the Greek word 'katholikos'. As the third Christian millennium begins the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is prominently and determinedly involved in the ecumenical movement, striving towards the visible unity of the Church of Christ. Ecumenism is not and cannot be the hobby of interested theologians. The quest for unity, pressing on to the goal of the fulfilment of the prayer of Jesus - "that they might be one" - is a necessity.
I may illustrate this view of the Church by means of a few pictures. In our national shrine, Turku Cathedral, which in many ways is a symbol of our church and its history, I have been struck by some of its pictures which tell churchgoers of the roots of our church. When one walks down the main aisle towards the main altar and the chancel, and comes to the gates of the main chancel, one can see on the wall above the gate two figures, one on either side. On the right is the 9th-century apostle St. Ansgar in his episcopal robes. His picture reminds one of the early coming of Christianity to the North even before the split between the Eastern and Western Church. Opposite him, on the other side of the gate, stands the 16th-century Reformer Martin Luther, the teacher and pioneer of our church, with a Bible in his hand. These two pictures together tell where our church comes from. First of all, we have the old tradition reaching back to the early days of the Church. We understand our church to be an integral continuation of this tradition. Its great teacher, Martin Luther, wished to revive this root, purify it from the runners around it which were covering or obscuring the original catholicity and its vitality.
When we proceed further into the main chancel we see two famous paintings by R. W. Ekman. The first of these, on the right-hand side of the chancel, depicts St. Henry baptizing the first Finnish Christians in the spring at Kupittaa near Turku. Opposite is Mikael Agricola handing a Finnish Bible to King Gustav Vasa. The Romantic paintings from the mid-19th century convey the same basic idea as the pictures by the gate. On the one hand, the old Christian tradition, the fellowship of the universal Church, is represented by the English-born Bishop Henry, who came from Sweden to continue the work of Ansgar. On the other hand, the Lutheran Reformation, is represented by Mikael Agricola, a student of Luther's and Melanchthon's at Wittenberg.
Our church thus continues the old tradition. Lutheranism was not a break in tradition. Ansgar is our teacher just as much as Luther is. St. Henry, four hundred years before Agricola and the Reformation, represents tradition in Finland just as much as Agricola does. This viewpoint was of particular importance to our Reformers. In their Reformation they sought as great fidelity to tradition as possible; they considered themselves as representing the holy, catholic and apostolic Church, not a novelty. For instance, Agricola's reforms in doctrine, liturgy and prayer paid great respect to tradition. Everything which did not directly conflict with Lutheran doctrine was conserved with respect and piety .
The Lutheran Church contains a serious contradiction. It was born out of an attempt to reform the existing Church and led, contrary to its intention, to the division of the Western Church. It is well known that Martin Luther did not want to found a new church; he wanted to achieve a thoroughgoing reform in his Church. Today we can better critically evaluate, together with the Roman Catholic Church, our common past and the events of the Reformation period which led to the tragic split. This has been done to a greater extent recently.
The first two millennia of Christianity were a time of trends pulling in different directions. During the first millennium the Jesus movement, which had begun as a Jewish sect, developed, became fixed and organized. The group led by Jesus of Nazareth, which had begun as a modest people's movement, spread in a few decades to the whole known world of that day.
The message of Christ, of the miraculous resurrection of the Crucified One, brought together the disciples, who had at first been confused and afraid. The resurrection appearances convinced Doubting Thomas, Peter, who had denied his Master, and the wider group of disciples, that a new era had dawned. As the message of Christ soon spread to the whole inhabited world, Jesus' message turned into a message about Jesus, who is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One sent by God, the Saviour. At first Christianity became an urban religion. It found a home and took root in the lives of tradesmen and other city-dwellers. In Finnish we still use the word 'pakana' (pagan) to mean non-Christian - it is derived from this period. People living outside the centres of population, in the countryside, were 'pagans', literally 'villagers', which came to mean them by contrast with urban Christians.
The message was disseminated to everyone, irrespective of domicile, nationality or gender. In particular, the ministry of the Apostle Paul led to a situation where the early Church understood that it existed for everyone. Both Jews and non-Jews belonged to the Church. By baptism and faith men and women became and still become members of the people of God and recipients of salvation.
The first centuries were a time of conflict and persecution of Christians, then of adjusting and conforming to society. Then the Church's doctrine also became fixed in the creeds, which today form the decisive criteria for the churches' doctrine. They are regarded as correct expressions of Christian faith, and they are indispensible criteria for evaluating what preaching and teaching is in accordance with the true apostolic and original faith. The ecumenical councils confirmed the basic lines of the doctrine of the Trinity and of christology as binding on the whole Church. The God of Christianity is one God in three persons, He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Faith in one God unites Judaism, Christianity and Islam historically, but the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of one Triune God, divides Christianity from both Judaism and Islam. Equally, the view of Jesus Christ as the Saviour sent by God draws a clear line between Christianity and other 'religions of the book'.
The roots of ecumenism, the quest for Christian and church unity, are in biblical revelation and in the records of the faith of the first centuries. The basic assumptions of the modern ecumenical movement are faith in Christ as God and Saviour, obedience to the biblical Word, and the doctrine of the Trinity. The first five centuries are thus of fundamental importance for Christians in the third millennium.
The second Christian millennium can be called the period of both the spread of the Church and of its tragic division. At the very beginning of the new millennium, in 1054, the split between the Eastern and Western Church took place. Its consequences are still with us. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Roman Catholic Church have ever since gone their own way. Only the ecumenical movement of the last century has brought these churches closer to one another. However, Constantinople and Rome are still separated, although the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I, and Pope Paul VI in 1964 abrogated the mutual excommunication of 1054.
The division of the Western Church continued in the Reformation of the 16th century, which contrary to its original intent led to a new division of the Church and the birth of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. During the following centuries the splitting process continued in Western Christendom and led to the creation of new confessions and denominations. In the case of many of these new denominations connections with the early Church and its doctrinal and liturgical legacy have remained rather slight.
If we follow the history of division and fellowship we may say that the third Christian millennium began a hundred years ago. There then began a change in direction from fragmentation towards unity. About the same time in Germany, in both the Evangelical and Roman Catholic churches, the significance of the Church was re-discovered in a new way. The famous Roman Catholic liturgical scholar and theologian Romano Guardini spoke of the awakening of the Church in people's souls. The Evangelical theologian Otto Dibelius coined the later oft-repeated term "the century of the Church". Theological research and the modern ecumenical movement raised the Church and ecclesiology to the point of focus of theological debate and ecumenical dialogue.
The founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948 introduced most churches to lasting discussion and contacts. The Roman Catholic Church at first took a negative attitude towards ecumenism, but in the 1960s the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) implemented thoroughgoing reforms in the Church of Rome and introduced it to serious ecumenical efforts.
Especially the time since the Second Vatican Council has been one of great ecumenical development. Doctrinal talks at many levels and in many directions have moulded the ecumenical map. I shall take just a couple of examples of importance for our church. In 1982 the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches approved the document "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" (Lima 1982), which brought together the results of decades of theological work. This BEM document declares the churches' growing agreement on the definition of baptism, the eucharist and ministry.
In 1996 the Porvoo Declaration was signed, creating close church fellowship between the Anglican and Lutheran churches of Northern Europe. In this Porvoo Community Anglicans and Lutherans have found each other in common mission and service in Europe. The latest ecumenical step, which is very important to us, is the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation, which was signed in Augsburg on 31st October, 1999, Reformation Day. Our churches have reached agreement on the basic truths of the doctrine of justification, and they declare together that the doctrinal condemnations of the 16th century concerning the doctrine of justification do not apply to today's churches. The agreement also points forwards: "The Lutheran churches and the Roman Catholic Church will continue to strive together to deepen this common understanding of justification and to make it bear fruit in the life and teaching of the churches" (JD 43). I experienced for myself the astounding change that has already taken place in the churches a couple of weeks after the signing of the declaration when I preached on Luther's 95 theses at the altar of St. Peter's Church in Rome with the Pope by my side.
What then will the rest of the third Christian millennium look like? Will we be proceeding towards increasing unity or do another thousand years of ever-greater fragmentation lie ahead? Elements of both trends can already be seen today. In the traditional churches we are strongly continuing ecumenical efforts, although the road is not even and free of problems. On the other hand, there is today much individualism and there are calls for privatization, and these things cannot but affect people's religious thinking and behaviour. For more and more people religion seems to be a collection of private choices of outlook without commitment to a religious community or church. Such individualism is, of course, very alien to the traditional Christian emphasis on community.
At the beginning I touched upon the challenges posed to the churches by the world and by other religions. It is clear, I think, that if we wish Christian witness in this world to be genuine and convincing, we must avoid the road of fragmentation. In Jesus' prayer for his disciples and followers the words "that they might be one" are followed by the important words: "that the world might believe" (Jn. 17:11,21)
The justification for ecumenism is not merely functional. It arises from the view of the Church, which I outlined above for our own church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has in recent years consciously increased its ecumenical participation. At the present time our church has wide and diverse relations in all directions. Our aim to be the same church in all ecumenical contexts does not mean a balancing act of church politics or an equal amount of participation in every possible ecumenical activity. It is a matter of a clear theological and ecumenical programme in accordance with which those responsible for the ecumenical contacts of our church have in recent years clearly guided us. This programme includes inseparably preservation of our Lutheran identity, an emphasis on the historical continuity of our church and ecumenical openness.
In all its ecumenical contacts our church wishes to be genuinely the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, which understands itself as part of and representative of the one Church of Jesus Christ in this country and in the world. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has a strong Lutheran identity which colours all its ecumencial contacts. We value the church's historical continuity and its catholicity. The history of our Lutheran Church does not begin with the Reformation but with the missionary work of the Western Church in the Middle Ages. St. Henry was the first bishop of our church; he is my predecessor. The ecclesiastical legacy of the Middle Ages has moulded and continues to mould the Lutheran identity of our church. The more than seventy mediaeval stone churches still in use in Finland are a constant reminder to us that we belong to the universal Church.
We Christians of today belong to the same Church as our ancestors, the apostles and prophets, the martyrs and confessors, Bishops Henry and Hemming, St. Bridget, Mikael Agricola, Paavo Ruotsalainen and many others.
The Lutheran heritage also includes, of course, the Reformation and its legacy. The Reformation emphasized, as I mentioned, both tradition and reform. The continuity of the Church, the so-called historic episcopate, was preserved during the Reformation and in accordance with its original intent it was desired to reform church life on the basis of the Bible and early Church tradition.
The Reformation is the source of the strong desire of our church for continual reform. Ecclesia semper reformanda. Its guiding principle should be the words of the church prayer "that the witness to the Lord might be genuine and convincing". Church reform is always a return to the genuine, biblical and apostolic faith. Also when we think about the challenges of the third millennium.
Two of our church's revered teachers have said something as to what is the Church's principal and most important possession in this world, what is the Church's true treasure. St. Laurence, a deacon of the church of Rome in the third century, said that the Church's treasure was the poor. Martin Luther taught in his theses that the Church's true treasure is the most holy gospel of God's grace and glory. The genuineness of the Church's testimony is measured by how it looks after its treasure. What kinds of actions towards a suffering and impoverished world manifest its faith? This is what I believe will be more and more asked of the Church in the millennium that has just begun. But the Church's own members, despised and persecuted in this world, are its treasure and source of strength. Christ shares the lot of the suffering and of those who live in want. The lot of the Church is not the path of glory but that of the Cross and suffering, in the message and experience of grace associated with it.
Martin Luther's words remind us how the Church is above all a community of faith and salvation. The way in which we can respond to the questions and challenges of the new millennium is to emphasize this side. More than an ethical counsellor, provider of religious experiences or consultant on human relationships, the Church is a community of salvation where is preached and shared the Gospel of the salvation of sinners and the godless by grace for Christ's sake, and where believers live and grow in faith. This is the Church's true treasure. Only such a church whose preaching and activities confront people with the ultimate questions of faith, will preserve its identity and credibility. According to our Lutheran faith, the foundation of joy and hope for the world is the real presence of Christ, his real presence in the Word, in the sacraments, amidst the congregation. This is the true treasure which none other than the Church of Christ possesses.
The Lutheran and ecumenical line of our church which I have sketched is in fact only anapplication of its central principle, which is stated in the main confession of the Lutheran Church, the Augsburg Confession: "For the true unity of the church it is enough to agree concerning the teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments." (CA VII) What is enough for unity (satis est) is also necessary for unity (necesse est). In the Lutheran view, without agreement on faith and doctrine there is no possibility of church unity. On this basis our church has sought fellowship in different directions. In addition to fellowship with our Lutheran sister churches, close fellowship has been reached with the Anglican church family, as in the Porvoo Church Community it has been possible to reach close church fellowship because agreement has been found on baptism, the eucharist and ministry. This has led to close fellowship in church life and in common witness in today's world. As I have mentioned, significant progress has been made on doctrinal matters with the Roman Catholic Church.
As the third Christian millennium begins, the churches have ahead of them many great and difficult challenges, but also exciting opportunities. The Porvoo Church Community created on the basis of the Porvoo Declaration and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Roman Catholic Church achieved as the result of years of theological work are promising signs of hope in the world. The churches which were going their separate ways have found and are finding each other and, it is hoped, are taking sturdier steps on the road to unity. This must happen, "so that the world might believe" and "so that our witness might be genuine and convincing".