An Encounter with Brussels

We were to meet by the statue of the Embracing Couple at St Pancras, but it was possible by casting an eye over the bleary-eyed breakfasters, to guess who one’s travel companions would be. By 8.05 a.m., bleary-eyed or not, a group of twenty Oxford Diocese people, with a fascination for our European brethren, were on the way to Brussels. On arrival we were led by two reliable umbrellas (which were unfortunately needed opened as well as closed) via the Brussels underground to our first stop, the offices of the Conference of European Churches.

We gathered round a large table up some narrow stairs in one of those older city buildings that always seem closed and mysterious. We were greeted by Elina Eloranta, who explained how the Conference worked. History first: the Conference of European Churches(CEC) was established in 1959 two years before the building of the Berlin Wall. Its headquarters were originally in Geneva. The growth of the European Union meant there was simultaneously the growth of another organisation that enabled people to meet as Christians – this was the European Ecumenical Commission on Church and Society (EECCS). In the 1999 the two organisations united to form the Conference of the European Churches’ Church and Society Commission. In the Commission there are now fifteen full-time employees; eleven in Brussels and four in Strasbourg.  In October, 2008, they would also merge with the Churches Commission for Migrants.

The role of the Commission is to link the 125 Churches of the European Union. Its focus is on peace and reconciliation, social conditions, human rights, bio-ethics, intercultural dialogue and gender, the environment, globalisation and European integration and climate change issues. Elina was able to give us an idea as to how dialogue between the Churches is influenced by the particular historical journey of each nation. For example, Germany is always keen on reconciliation because of the pacifist response of Germany since the ending of the 2nd World War: the churches of the former Eastern bloc, however, distrust peace because of its use in Communist slogans; and the United Kingdom has a more pragmatic approach.

There was some talk of the Lisbon Treaty which will (eventually and maybe…) formalise what has been happening for the past twenty years. Through dialogue with both the Churches and the MEPs the conference is able to judge the reaction of different Churches to European legislation as well as informing the Churches of what effect particular legislation will have on their lives. In the case of the United Kingdom, Bishops are greatly helped in their discussions in the House of Lords.

Another interesting cultural difference arose here; the United Kingdom has a natural tradition of co-operation between politics and religion. This contrasts with France, for example, where the state and church are entirely separate and other Churches, which are minority Churches and so have to make their own approaches towards dialogue.

An interesting contrast was also drawn between the Roman Catholic Church and the other European Churches. The extension of Europe has meant that the Roman Catholic voice has become the strongest Christian voice in Europe mainly because it speaks with one voice whereas the 125 speak with 125 voices!

We met with the Revd Dr Gary Wilton who had just been appointed as the Church of England’s representative to the European Union and Canon of the Anglican pro-Cathedral in Brussels. Gary’s work had just begun but he was able to open our eyes to the strange fact that the Church of England is one of the three recognised faiths in Belgium. These are the United Protestant Church; the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England! Thanks to Queen Victoria having influence, her nephew became the first King of Belgium. Anglican church roofs are repaired by the state and the state pays some stipends!

Other issues covered in this most interesting part of our day were the place of youth in decision making – again cultural differences meant that some Churches expected youth involvement and other Churches did not – and how the voices of other faiths were heard. It appeared that the Muslim voice is culturally divided and has no one formal body representing it. The same applied to the Jewish faith although there is a conference of European Rabbis held regularly.  A future task for the Commission is to enable some links to be established between different faiths and European politics.

European Parliament

The umbrellas came out again and we walked, and walked and walked some more, before doubling back to the European parliament. A vast but rather empty looking building greeted us. After some nervous fingering of cameras we were shown to a large, rectangular room of no photographic interest at all. All the interest came from an introductory talk that was given to us by one John Fordham. This talk clarified for us the function of the three constituent institutions of the European Union. The Parliament, whose members are directly elected by European citizens every five years; the Council which, with the parliament, is involved in decision making and represents the interests of the member states and the Commission, the members of which are nominated by the Council and which represents the interests of the European Union. The Commission is responsible for the day to day running of the Union and for ensuring that European Laws are implemented.

The ethos of the European Union is co-operation and is an example of international, direct democracy. Much of the information given is already known but of particular interest was the fact that in parliament the members sit according to their political affiliations, not according to which member state they belong to. Thus you have all the members opposed to the European Union sitting together; the opposite of “divide and rule”! In order for one of these groups to be formed it must have twenty MEPs of six nationalities. This regulation has meant that the far right group has now disappeared. Interestingly there are now more Euro-sceptics in the European Union than in the “Thatcher Years”. These spend their time in parliament in indulging in spoiling tactics.

We were able to go into parliament as all its members were in Strasbourg so it was a case of imagining the groupings and busyness of the place. However, we then met Caroline Lucas, a Green Party MEP, elected for the south east of England. Caroline Lucas again emphasised the spirit of co-operation in the European Union saying that there was always a search for compromise and common ground – a completely different approach from the political scene at home. Caroline Lucas sits on the Environment Committee and on the Trade Committee. She emphasised that the tension at the heart of the European Union has at its core economic policies. Caroline said that although cross-party intergroups had no power they were often the best forums and she used the example of the intergroup meeting on Animal Issues leading to the banning of the import of cat and dog furs.

There was some concern expressed at the lack of engagement with European politics. This was put at the door of the media who showed little inclination to report on European matters in a positive way. Also, as the European Union expands the number of MEPs assigned to each country will be reduced which will further reduce the possibilities of engagement.

With that we did what every good school party does – we retired to the gift shop.

Holy Trinity Brussels

Our final visit was to the pro-cathedral of the Anglican Diocese in Europe. That took some finding too, but as soon as the party focused on finding a night club we were there. The cathedral is stationed between two night clubs, one of which, we were told with a smile, had been forced to close. We really appreciated the warm welcome we received here and listening to Canon Dr Robert Innes gained a vivid picture of life in this vibrant city.

The cathedral serves English speaking people living in Brussels. These may be short-term or long-term citizens, from forty different nations, single, married with families, refugees, expatriates, and long established citizens of the host country. The challenge the church has to meet is to serve this great diversity of people and help the individuals attending the church feel connected to Holy Trinity as the living and serving body of Christ. Sometimes the challenge can come from the fact that some people move on quite quickly. This had affected the afternoon service which was African in style and attended by people from one particular African nation. When those people left it was difficult to connect with people from different African nation states.

Nevertheless the journey of serving people and nurturing faith goes on with energy. There are four services during a Sunday; at 9 a.m. the Book of Common Prayer Communion service; at 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion with Sunday School classes and Youth Group, crèche and robed choir; in the afternoon there is a Holy Communion service led by an African Choir. This service is translated into French and finally there is informal Evening Praise at 7 p.m. It proved difficult to hold any groups during the week as most people do not live in the city and at the end of a working day are eager to return home.

Robert talked about the particular system that the Anglican Church is part of in Belgium, with the state paying for repairs and part of the stipends. There was obviously quite a bureaucratic load involved with the system which Robert had found another challenging aspect of his work.

I was also intrigued to hear how close the Catholic Church was to the Anglican Church with Catholic priests being known to lay on hands at ordinations and each receiving communion from the other.

Finally we visited the worship area of the Cathedral admiring the beautiful stained glass windows and the plaque to Edith Cavell which brought back memories for me of reading stories of heroes and heroines around the time the European Coal and Steel Community was formed. Long before the days of parliaments in Brussels and Strasbourg, the Channel Tunnel and even the Conference of European Churches.

Chris Collinge
Chris is Team Vicar of St James’s Church, New Bradwell, in Milton Keynes and the Anglican Ecumenical Officer for the city.