Geraldine Smyth OP recounts the uplifting experience that was the third European Ecumenical Assembly in Romania last September (2007) and leads us towards further steps for unity.
Sibiu, in Romania, was the location of the third European Ecumenical Assembly last September. Until the invitation to be part of the Irish delegation of churches arrived from the Catholic Episcopal Conference, I had possessed scant knowledge of Sibiu, with its history reaching back to the Stone Age and forward to 1989, when Romania freed itself from Communist domination.
At the crossroads of East and West, it was subject to invasions and wars and to rule by successive foreign dynasties, but it was also known for its inter-religious and inter-ethnic exchange. Sibiu, with its ancient Orthodox tradition, promised that this assembly would represent a unique encounter between Western and Eastern churches.
The Light of Christ Shines Upon All – this was the chosen theme. For the Irish delegation this was embodied in a specially commissioned metre-long candle bearing the assembly logo and inscription. It was crafted at the Benedictine Holy Cross Abbey, Rostrevor, Co. Down, and became a symbol of communion for the Irish ecumenical movement.
It was lit for the first time at the opening worship of the Irish Inter-church Meeting. Before making its way to Sibiu, the candle journeyed around Ireland: it became the focus of worship for 3,000 people at inter-church occasions, at Corrymeela and Glenstal, and during the RTÉE broadcast of the Irish School of Ecumenics’ liturgy for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The candle found its way from Western Europe to Sibiu in Eastern Europe, a gift from the churches in Ireland to the Romanian churches hosting the assembly.
If only all the barriers between us, seen and unseen, could be so easily traversed. Yet such symbols do encourage us to follow the Gospel and they inspire new expressions of unity. This is a land where divisions have cost lives, where the Iron Curtain has been drawn back only to reveal new forms of separation dividing citizen and alien, rich and poor, Christian and Muslim.
The need for dialogue between church and politics was strongly visible at the assembly. Cardinal Walter Kasper reminded us that the unity of the Church is not for its own sake, but so that the world might believe (Jn. 17:21). He linked this with the process of European unification:
‘It was the light of Christ that united Europe and made her great,’ he claimed, citing Christian leaders like Cyril and Methodius, and Bridget of Sweden, before adding, ‘One cannot think of Europe without the Reformers or Johann Sebastian Bach, or witnesses like Dietrich Bonhoeffer.’
Cardinal Kasper also expressed sobering thoughts about how Europe has betrayed her mission, ‘in so many wars between Christian peoples, in colonial plundering and the subjugation of other peoples, with two terrible wars in the last century and the holocaust of six million Jews.’
However, he suggested that today, our main danger is forgetting our ideals, forgetting God and disregarding new challenges such as ‘the call for justice in a globalized world, the threat from terrorism, and the necessary encounter with Islam.’
We Christians were called to a new evangelization, embracing the goal of the unity, not the uniformity of Europe: ‘What unites us is the idea of the God-given dignity of each person, the sanctity of life, coexistence in justice and solidarity, care for creation and a new culture of mercy and love.’
One might have expected something quite different from another keynote speaker, the President of the EU Commission, but Jose Manuel Barroso’s words were also alive with the vision of true unity. Beyond the goals of economic and political unity, he said, ‘Europe has a higher significance. It must defend the values that are close to European citizens’ hearts, and make them shine: human dignity, tolerance, social justice and the rule of law.’
In retrospect, it is the friendliness of the local people and their readiness to share their rich culture that stands out. It was a joy to them to open their houses and hospitality to us. Even the heavy skies and thunder bursting from across the Transylvanian mountains could not dampen our spirits. The organizers deserve credit for allowing the worship of the assembly to reflect the intercultural colour and encounter.
We took up the invitation of the local churches – Orthodox, Reformed, Lutheran and Greek Catholic – to join them in their own places of worship. To recall the Solemn Vespers for the Feast of the Birthday of Our Lady in the Orthodox Cathedral is to be uplifted once more in heart and spirit. Participating in the Greek Catholic Mass on our last day lingers in the memory as a blaze of Byzantine glorification of divine mystery.
As we made the long journey back we felt a bond of friendship and communion. Our horizons had expanded immeasurably. There were questions too, that troubled us: what was now needed to make the ecumenical fire that is the Holy Spirit’s gift, blaze up again in our hearts and churches? We have an Ecumenical Charter for Europe commended by our churches but which is little known or discussed here. Is that where we might make a new beginning?
We live now, no longer as strangers but friends as we turn our vision outwards to those in our country who, for want of a welcome are compelled to live as aliens among us. We are called to continue the ecumenical journey as God’s community of nations in the light of Christ who shines on all.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (June 2008), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
