Ecumenism: Still Not Committed?

Many of the old wounds of Christian division have been healed as we start the third millennium. There is also a great deal of official and unofficial activity between different denominations. These are two of the positive findings from a survey of all Buckinghamshire churches organised by the county’s ‘Churches Together’.
However the report Co-operating but not Committed shows that in many places working with other churches has not yet moved up the ‘Scale of C’, a ladder of ecumenical assessment which the 1987 Swanwick Declaration challenged churches at all levels to undertake. It also reflects a sense that some ecumenical structures are time-consuming or counterproductive.

Structures can hinder

While it is encouraging that no single church felt that they were on the lowest rung of ‘confrontation’ with other churches, no less than 15 described themselves as only ‘co-existing’. However, the vast majority used the term ‘co-operation’ (65%) as their assessment and only 23 went up the scale to ‘commitment’ and six to the top rung of ‘communion’.

It was the hope of the Swanwick Declaration that all churches should move from co-operation to commitment. However many survey replies reveal that co-operation is still restricted to a round of ‘ecumenical extra events’ rather than a commitment to shared life and mission. At all levels of church life it seems that our energy is taken up with our own affairs. The vision of a wider and deeper sharing is not yet possible or in some cases even seen as desirable.

Ecumenical assessment

The survey, to help people assess where they were ecumenically, was sent to Anglican incumbents, Roman Catholic priests and to Baptist, Salvation Army, Methodist and URC churches and Society of Friends groups. More than a quarter of the 300 churches responded (27%) and their replies showed that there is now no such thing as ‘purely denominational church’. Most churches now draw members from different Christian backgrounds.
It is clear that in recent years more ‘evangelical churches’ are working with others provided the emphasis is on ‘joint’ mission, an important point for the Oxford Diocese’s Sharing Life initiative. It is also significant that while a number of replies blame lay people for not working with others, far more see clergy and ministers as a block to ecumenical commitment.

Canon Derek Palmer is Secretary of Churches Together in Bucks.