Ecumenism and Evangelicalism Where Are We?

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1 bs_bs_banner Where Are We? Emilio Castro The Rev. Dr Emilio Castro was general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1985 to 1992, after serving as director of the WCC s Commission on World Mission and Evangelism from 1973 to Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1927, Castro served, among his other church and ecumenical activities in Latin America, as coordinator of the Commission for Evangelical Unity in Latin America (UNELAM) from 1965 to 1972, and as president of the Evangelical Methodist church in Uruguay from 1970 to He died in Montevideo, Uruguay, in This article was written for Faith and Faithfulness: Essays on Contemporary Ecumenical Themes: A Tribute to Philip A. Potter, edited by Pauline Webb (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1984). Abstract Keywords While the ecumenical movement, and particularly the World Council of Churches, must always be an inclusive forum where the richness of the total life of the Christian church is manifest, this article argues that evangelicals cannot give up the quest for church unity because that would mean ignoring a central aspect of the prayer of Jesus Christ. Looking at areas of convergence between the evangelical and the ecumenical movement, four areas are identified for further cooperation and dialogue: the authority of the Bible; mobilizing all churches for the evangelization of the whole world; the perspective of the poor; and the challenge of justice and peace. World Council of Churches, ecumenical movement, evangelical movement, Lausanne Committee, Commission on World Mission and Evangelism Let me begin with a personal tribute. This book is being published in honour of a man who has been passionately involved in the debates about mission during the last two decades. Philip Potter stands in the best Methodist tradition both ecumenical and evangelical. He has experienced conversion; his whole life is rooted in the study of the 54 DOI: /erev Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

2 Emilio Castro Bible; he is totally committed to the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ with every creature. Philip is also a man of the Caribbean; he knows only too well how the powerless peoples of the world have been exploited by the powerful nations. His missionary calling has been to raise his voice on behalf of all the exploited of the world, and to say clearly and loudly to the powerful of the earth: Repent: see the whole reality. Stop saving my soul and crushing my person. In the name of the biblical God, the God of Abraham and Jesus, the God of history and eternity, he called the churches to faithfulness and to recover their identity as the missionary people of God. That is an ecumenical vocation which is also authentically evangelical. A Semantic Problem Ecumenism and evangelicalism: that immediately presents a semantic problem. Ecumenism cannot become fully real unless there is complete participation in it of all theological and spiritual currents prevailing in the Christian church. In the past, it was more or less limited to an encounter between different confessions or denominations; today the situation is more complicated because, among other things, of the development of so many contextual theologies in different parts of the world. Churches carrying out their mission in the most diverse cultural settings are learning to interpret Christian obedience within an intensive dialogue between the message of the Bible and their own cultural situation. They come to the ecumenical discussion with and from these local perspectives. This makes the whole ecumenical movement more than ever a centre of fermentation, of reciprocal inspiration and correction. Within these, the evangelical perspectives on spirituality and on theological convictions have a very important role to play. In the past, such contributions came basically from theologians in the North Atlantic region; today the evangelical theological perspective and spiritual discipline are themselves undergoing exactly the same processes of change which ecumenism had gone through in the past. This makes it imperative for the ecumenical movement to incorporate all manifestations of evangelicalism those of a more traditional doctrinal nature in the Western countries and those of a more spiritual and activist nature developed in the third world. If we begin with evangelicalism, we face the same semantic difficulty. Many churches use the word evangelical in their title, generally meaning Protestant. However, even within the more readily recognized evangelical movements today, several different Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches 55

3 The Ecumenical Review Volume 70 Number 1 March 2018 currents can be detected. Prof. Beyerhaus pointed out six, but if we take into consideration the contextual developments in theology, that list may become much longer. In any case, what characterizes evangelicalism is the affirmation of the centrality of the Bible as the basis of teaching and practice in Christian life. Therefore, evangelicalism, in trying to be faithful to the biblical roots, cannot possibly renounce the search for the unity of the church. It could prescribe conditions for that unity, especially in terms of doctrine or Christian practice, but it cannot desert the search for church unity without betraying itself. (This could explain why some of those who are severely critical of the WCC and even opposed to its work rarely fail to attend its meetings and read its documents and even make periodic pilgrimages to its headquarters!) It is clear, then, that the ecumenical movement, in particular the World Council of Churches, cannot become a ghetto or work on a limited party-line basis; it should always be an inclusive forum where the richness of the total life of the Christian church is manifest. At the same time, evangelicals cannot give up the quest for church unity because that would mean ignoring a central aspect of the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that we are condemned to live in a loving tension, each critical of the other but in no way giving up each other! The fact that personal relations and intercessory prayers were maintained all through the stormy 1960s and 1970s is a good basis to build on for the years ahead. Toward Convergence I do not want to minimize the issues or bypass the difficulties. In some places, like Latin America for example, deliberate attempts have been made to build barriers to protect churches from any influence of the World Council of Churches. The creation of CONELA (Confederacion Evangelica Latinoamericana) as a direct response to CLAI (Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias), specifically mentioning its plan to counteract the influence of the WCC in Latin America, is a sad example of such conflict. But such attempts do not represent either the vision or the decisions of the main leaders of the world evangelical movements, be it the World Evangelical Fellowship or the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. Nor have they received the support of leading evangelical theologians in Latin America or elsewhere. I am also aware that a few evangelicals were very critical of the WCC s 6th Assembly in Vancouver. They rejected the possibility of evangelical ecumenical cooperation. Nevertheless they felt obliged to nuance their criticism and to recognize the manifestations of the Spirit of God operating in the assembly. It was a rejection, not a wholesale condemnation. It is part of what I would call a debate within the family, even if it is a heated debate. 56 Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches

4 Emilio Castro Take, for example, the editorial which appeared in the 20 April 1984 issue of Christianity Today, one of the leading evangelical journals in the United States. It is by Kenneth Kantzer and Gilbert Beers; they write under the title Winds of Change in the World Council, and argue that changes within the council over the past 25 years demand a fresh appraisal. They recognize some of the positive trends in the World Council, and from an evangelical perspective make some critical remarks, concluding on a note of pessimism. They do not encourage evangelicals to identify with the WCC. But the fact that Christianity Today is obliged to make an assessment is itself an indication of concern and hope. The winds of change, however, are not confined to the WCC. Anyone who has followed the debate over the last 20 years will recognize that change is evident in all sectors of the Christian family. Already in 1975, at the WCC s 5th Assembly in Nairobi, M. M. Thomas, then moderator of the council s central committee, pointed to the growing convergence between the affirmations of the Bangkok World Mission Conference in 1973, the Lausanne Covenant of 1974, and the papal encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi. The convergence was evident at three points. Firstly, in their emphasis on the whole gospel for the whole man in the whole world; secondly, in their effort to relate evangelism to the identity of the Church and to its growth, renewal, and unity; and thirdly, in their affirmation of the realities of the contemporary world, especially the renaissance of cultures and religions, and the dynamics of service, development, and justice in society. Thomas continued: Precisely because of this convergence, it is worth looking at the remaining divergences in our concept of evangelism, so that our dialogue at this Assembly may be more ecumenical. 1 A few years later, John Stott, a respected leader of the evangelical movement, prepared a paper on the convergences among Lausanne, Evangelii Nuntiandi, and Nairobi. He hoped that these could provide a good foundation for common witness and cooperation in evangelism endeavours in England. The ten affirmations that Stott illustrates with quotations from the three documents are the following: The church is sent into the world. The church s mission in the world includes evangelism and social action. The content of the gospel is derived from the Bible. The gospel centres on Christ crucified and risen. 1 The Report of the Moderator of the Central Committee, in Breaking Barriers. Nairobi The Official Report of the Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, ed. David Paton (London: SPCK and Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), Appendix 3, Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches 57

5 The Ecumenical Review Volume 70 Number 1 March 2018 Salvation is offered to sinners in the gospel through Jesus Christ. Conversion is demanded by the gospel. Conversion invariably leads to costly discipleship. The whole church needs to be mobilized and trained for evangelism. The church can evangelize only when it is renewed. The power of the Holy Spirit is indispensable to evangelism. In 1980, two important meetings took place in Melbourne, the World Conference on Mission and Evangelism around the theme Your Kingdom Come, organized by the WCC s Commission for World Mission and Evangelism; and in Pattaya, Thailand, a world consultation organized by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization to study at depth the questions of techniques and methodologies for reaching specific groups of people with the Christian gospel. The Pattaya meeting was supposed to deal with practical questions how to evangelize Muslims, Hindus, nominal Catholics, nominal Protestants, etc. but a consideration of the radical problems confronting the churches today could not be set aside. In the event, both in Melbourne and in Pattaya the challenge of the poor of the earth to our Christian missionary concern was very much in the forefront. The poor biblically and concretely in contemporary history are the greatest challenge presented to the Christian faith. It is recognized that the credibility of our mission is at stake precisely here. This challenge confronts all Christians and all churches today, irrespective of our particular theological stance. During the last few years we have indeed come to a rich harvest of common vision. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and the World Evangelical Fellowship brought together 50 evangelical leaders in Grand Rapids, USA, in June 1982 to consider the relation between evangelism and social responsibility. The consultation affirmed that they both belong to our Christian vocation. Evangelism and social responsibility, while distinct from each other, are integrally related in our proclamation of and obedience to the gospel. A year later, the World Evangelical Fellowship organized in Wheaton, USA, three simultaneous consultations on The Church in Local Settings, The Church in New Frontiers for Mission, and The Church in Response to Human Need. A letter sent to the churches stated: The reality and the presence of the kingdom give us the courage to begin here and now to erect signs of the coming kingdom by working prayerfully and consistently for more justice and peace and towards transformation of individuals and societies. Since one day God will wipe away our tears, it grieves us to see people suffering now. Since one day there will be perfect peace, we are called to be peace-makers now. We humbly and urgently call upon you, the 58 Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches

6 Emilio Castro churches, to stand with us in this ministry of practising love and seeking to restore the dignity of human beings created in the image of God. 2 If we take the 1982 Ecumenical Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism as a point of reference, we realize the extent of agreement between the vision that prevailed at these meetings and the vision behind the present concerns in WCC circles. Such convergence, after all, is not surprising. We belong to the same churches, we face the same challenges in our common human situation, we read the same Bible, we pray to the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are inspired by the same Spirit. At another level, this convergence is also the result of the work and the hopes of many people, who fervently prayed that the polemics which came up within the Christian family by this division could be used by God for reciprocal correction and inspiration. For example, from the WCC side, we should be thankful to evangelical observers and participants in many ecumenical meetings for raising their voice in support but also in criticism, challenge, and encouragement. Thus John Stott urged the WCC in Nairobi to pay attention to the millions of people who have not yet heard of the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. The participation of many people of many viewpoints in the different stages shaping the Ecumenical Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism was singularly encouraging. Perhaps it is not for us to suggest that ecumenical voices have contributed to the rethinking within the evangelical movement, but it is obvious that there is a growing communication and mutual influence. My own participation in Pattaya, stormy as it was, was useful to me insofar as it reminded me of essential evangelical concerns, and I hope that my presence, and the presence of other ecumenical observers, helped remind the total family that we cannot escape from each other and that we are called together to pray for the unity that is God s gift to the church. From the evangelical side, this convergence was affirmed in the Open Letter written by a sizeable number of evangelicals who participated in the Vancouver Assembly. The letter stated: Do evangelicals not also have the obligation along with other Christians to seek to overcome the scandal of the disunity and disobedience of the churches that the world might believe (John 17:21)? Should evangelicals not seek to receive all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, even though they may seriously disagree on theological issues apart from the core of the gospel? There is no biblical mandate to withdraw from those who have not withdrawn from Christ. 2 Wheaton 83 Letter to the Churches, Evangelical Review of Theology 9:1 (January 1985), Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches 59

7 The Ecumenical Review Volume 70 Number 1 March 2018 Should not Christians gladly receive all those whom God has manifestly received? Are not the alternatives rejection, or indifference totally incompatible with the apostle Paul s affirmation that Christ is not divided (1 Cor. 1: 13)? Our experience at Vancouver challenged stereotypes some of us have had of the WCC. And our involvement in WCC processes and programmes made us realize anew the distortions in the popular evangelical understanding of them. Hence, we feel pressed to declare publicly our determination to be more actively involved in all efforts seeking the unity and renewal of the church. Because we have seen evidence of God at work; here, we cannot but share our growing conviction that evangelicals should question biblically the easy acceptance of withdrawal, fragmentation and parochial isolation that tends to characterize many of us. Should we not be more trustful of those who profess Christ s lordship? Should we not be more concerned with the peace, purity and unity of the people of God in our day? And if God thereby grants the church renewal for which many pray, shall this not forever demolish that all too popular evangelical heresy that the way to renew the body of Christ is to separate from it and relentlessly criticize it? 3 The Task Ahead However, the present situation should not be understood as a honeymoon. There are considerations that cannot be evaded. Some of the points that were believed to divide people along evangelical ecumenical lines are now being recognized as legitimate differences of opinion within each camp. For example, the relation between justice or service and evangelization is as much a controversial issue among the evangelicals as among any other groups in the Christian church. Some divisions are ideological and cut across theological differences. The Moral Majority and the Sojourners community in the United States may share the same doctrinal position and use the same doctrinal language, but clearly they represent two very different stances in Christian obedience and witness today. The sects in Central America are on a collision course with CEPAD (Evangelical Committee for Development in Nicaragua). In both cases in this instance, the doctrinal affirmations are the same, but there is a clear difference in the discerning of God s will for Central America. Once we recognize these differences, we will no longer anathematize each other in terms of doctrinal or biblical affirmations, but we will be obliged to face the reality of our ideological division. The WCC can never be expected to be an evangelical organization, even as it can never be an Orthodox or a Reformed, a Catholic or a Pentecostal 3 For the text of the open letter see Mid-Stream 23:1 (1984), Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches

8 Emilio Castro organization. The very nature of the ecumenical movement obliges it to be open to all contributions, which will submit themselves to reciprocal inspiration and correction. Of course, the WCC should be criticized if it is seen to represent only one particular theological perspective. It should allow for the fullness of the evangelical witness in all its programmes. Up to now we have been seeking, for the most part, the participation of evangelical theologians in discussions on mission and evangelism, but many other aspects of the programmes of the WCC will benefit from such participation like Faith and Order, development, justice and peace. The participation of evangelicals in the area of gospel and culture and the theological meaning of other religions will be of enormous importance, because they have already done a good deal of work in relation to these concerns. As I look at the situation from a WCC perspective, I feel we need to work together on some basic questions. The first is the authority of the Bible. According to the scriptures is a phrase written into the Basis of the World Council of Churches. The Bible is central for the ecumenical movement. Bible study has a central role in all WCC meetings. The authority of the Bible is equally basic for the evangelical movement. The controversy around the theory of inspiration cannot be easily resolved. But in practice the Bible is God s authoritative word for both the ecumenical movement and the evangelicals. (Even the Lausanne Covenant proves how difficult it is to agree on a precise formulation of this affirmation.) However, the practice of reading the Bible together; working together on ecumenical documents so that their biblical bases may become more explicit; articulating in a better way the relation between the roots of faith and the fruits of faith; recognizing and supporting the work of the United Bible Societies; strengthening the role of basic ecclesial communities in this regard; multiplying small groups of Christians who concentrate on the reading of the Bible all these offer possibilities for cooperation and mutual correction. Second, we have much to do together in mobilizing all churches for the evangelization of the whole world. We must reject escapist or docetic presentations of the gospel, but the need and the challenge to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature is inescapable. The debate between renewal and evangelization, church growth and social involvement in the struggles of the kingdom is absolutely necessary for the health of the whole church. Perhaps our evangelical friends have reminded us of the importance of sharing faith with non-believers while we in the WCC have been more concerned with the whole question of faithfulness. We have a lot to gain by bringing together these two dimensions. Third is the perspective of the poor. It is a recognized fact that most of those who are described as the unreached are among the poor of the earth. There is an intimate Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches 61

9 The Ecumenical Review Volume 70 Number 1 March 2018 relation between the injustice they suffer economically and socially and the spiritual injustice inflicted on them through denying them the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have recognized that justice and proclamation belong together. Christian involvement in questions of justice obliges us to explain why we are so involved; in that way we are obliged to give a testimony to our faith in Jesus Christ. Similarly, no proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom can afford to forget the justice dimension of the kingdom. All our missionary methodologies need to be tested and challenged from the perspective of the poor of the earth. The mission undertaken by Paul and the other apostles started at the periphery and moved towards the centre of the empire, from a poor nation to the richest nation of the time. It is necessary to explore together the implications of this reality for our witness today. Implicit here is a particular challenge to the affluent West that we must face together. Fourth, the whole issue of justice and peace was highlighted at the Vancouver assembly of the WCC. It is obvious that all Christians concerned with the future of humankind should be concerned with questions of justice and peace. This could be attacked as horizontalism; but the fact is that those who do not see the magnitude of the problem do not face reality. To escape from or remain in the horizontal/secular dimension are both untenable for Christians. Once we recognize that, we must do our theological work together, and we must join forces in expressing our common discipleship. How do we join forces against racism, for religious freedom, for human rights, against the armaments race? How do we articulate the much-needed eschatological perspective? Here there is a lot of work to be done. Theologically, too, provided the theology is done in the midst of the struggle, taking a clear stance to affirm God s saving and liberating will. The participation of bona fide evangelicals in the programmes of the WCC will introduce other items on the WCC agenda, coming out of the concerns of our friends. For example, they remind us that we do not pay enough attention to the power of sin, that we do not adequately recognize that the basic alienation of human beings from God is the root cause of all structural alienation. They demand more clarity on certain issues like universalism and syncretism; they would like us to be more precise when we discuss the potentials and the limits of dialogue with people of other faiths; etc., etc. I am sure, however, that all these basic issues are the concerns of all the churches and they can find their place on the ecumenical agenda. I am also sure that all of us, ecumenicals or whatever else we would like to be called, agree that the Spirit of God wants us to be together in our common witness to Jesus Christ and in radical obedience to the demands of the vision of the kingdom of God. As we try to express our loyalty to and our faith in Jesus Christ, we discover that we are not alone, that we belong together, and that we can travel together, bound together in the prayer that God s kingdom may come and in the confidence that it will. 62 Copyright VC (2018) World Council of Churches