SEMINAR ON METHODOLOGIES IN APPROACHING SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
Morges, Switzerland
8 – 12 October 2003
Communiqué / List of participants / Presentations

COMMUNIQUÉ

A WCC seminar on Methodologies in Approaching Social and Ethical Issues brought together participants from Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and free churches, as well as persons representing partner ecumenical organizations, in Morges, Switzerland, 8-12 October, 2003.

Origins and goals
The seminar follows on the work initiated by the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the WCC, whose final report speaks to both the problems and the possibilities of common reflection on social and ethical issues. The Special Commission makes recommendations as to how the WCC can best create a “space” for such common reflection, where open and honest discussion can take place without pressure, and where any decisions are taken by consensus. Paragraph 27 of the report was seen as of particular significance to this meeting:

27. The Council cannot speak for, nor require, the churches to adopt particular positions. It can, however, continue to provide opportunities for all churches to consult with one another, and wherever possible, for them to speak together.

The seminar also stems from the recommendations of a WCC team visit to Moscow in June, 2001. That visit was prompted by the recent social and ethical reflections taking place in the Russian Orthodox Church, resulting in the “Bases of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church.” This document identifies foundational principles from which the Church can deliberate on a broad spectrum of issues of the Church and society. The WCC team recommended a follow-up meeting bringing together a wider group of people to learn about the context and methodologies underlying the document.

Method
The seminar took the “Bases of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church” as its principal case study, and benefited from the participation of a substantial delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church, among whom were several of the document’s main drafters.

In addition, substantial papers were delivered in the areas of social and political ethics, bioethics and ecology, personal and public morality, and international relations and globalisation, by participants from Orthodox and Protestant churches who have particular experience in those areas. Each paper generated a formal responses from other members, as well as larger and smaller group discussions.

Outcomes
The seminar represented an effort to engage in constructive dialogue on social and ethical challenges confronting the churches. Focusing on the methodologies and contexts which underlie moral and ethical positions, the discussions served to deepen mutual understanding among participants of the particular configurations of Scripture, Tradition, experience and reason that are used within different ecclesial traditions.

In addition, participants were able to discover how churches in different regions and socio-political contexts deal with moral issues stemming from new and evolving realities, and more generally how the theological principles which underlie ethical positions interrelate with the particular concerns and needs of the society as seen by the respective churches.

Fostering a wider ecumenical engagement with the ethical statement of a particular church, the seminar in many ways reflected both the WCC’s expressed commitment to broadening and deepening church relations, as well as the Special Commission’s recommendations that the Council provide the space for precisely such deliberations. The discussions were honest about convergences and mutual resonances, as well as about divergences and tensions – some of which remain serious and divisive. Yet the discussions were characterized by a growing mutual trust among participants, by the attempt to listen to each other, and by the effort to understand churches’ struggles to provide guidance on social and ethical issues, old and new. The seminar proved to be a promising way forward within an area of ecumenical life that is often difficult and controversial.

Sincere desire was expressed that future opportunities be provided to discuss further, and perhaps with greater specificity, the sources and methods of the churches’ moral and ethical thinking.

PRESENTATIONS

  • "Suggestions for reflection", by Professor Anna Marie Aagaard, Aarhus, Denmark.
  • "Traditions and Changes in Orthodox social ethics", by Deacon Andrei Kurayev
  • Response to "Traditions and changes in Orthodox social ethics" by Deacon Andrei Kurayev, by Lewis S. Mudge
  • "The church and personal and public morality", by Prof. Dr Christoph Stückelberger, Switzerland
  • "The Orthodox Church and problems of bioethics and ecology", by Dr Gary Vachicouras

    • LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

    Dr Anna Marie Aagaard, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark
    His Eminence Metropolitan Anba Bishoy of Damiette, Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt
    Rev Dr Karen Bloomquist, Director, Department for Theology & Studies, The Lutheran World Federation
    Dr Peter Bouteneff, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Orthodox Church in America
    Dipl. Psych. Ulf Claussen, Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der EKD, Germany
    Rt. Rev. Dr. Denis C. Dutton , World Methodist Council
    Professor Mark Ellingsen, Associate Professor, Interdenominational Theological Center, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
    Dr Dag Hedin, Secretary for theology, Church of Sweden
    The Very Rev. Archimandrite Benedict Ioannou, Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
    Rev. Beate Kraus, United Methodist Church, Germany
    Ms Puleng Lenka Bula, Department of Systematics and Ethics, University of South Africa
    Professor Lewis Mudge, Robert Leighton Stuart Professor of Theology, Emeritus, The Graduate Theological Union, U.S.A.
    Dr Peter Pavlovic, Study Secretary of the Conference of European Churches’, Church and Society Commission
    Bischof i.R. Eberhardt Renz, Protestant Church in Germany
    Prof. Dr. Christoph Stückelberger, Professor of Ethics, University of Basel & General Secretary, Bread for all, Switzerland
    Rev. Peter A. Sulyok, Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
    Dr. Gary Vachicouras, Institute of Postgraduate Studies in Orthodox Theology at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Chambésy, Switzerland

    Russian delegation:
    Fr Andrei Elisseev, Department for external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate
    Fr Mikhail Gundyaev, Moscow Patriarchate Representative
    Prof. Edouard Afanasiev, Dean of the Economic Faculty of the Russian Orthodox University
    Rev. Antoniy (Anton) Ilyin, secretary of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions in Brussels
    Deacon Andrey Kuraev, Professor at the Theological Institute St. Tikhon, Moscow
    Rev. Konstantin Tatarintsev, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church Department on Relations with the Armed Forces and Law-enforcement Organisations
    Very Rev. Vldislav Tsypin, professor of Canon Law of the Moscow Theological Academy
    Prof. Andrey Zubov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations
    Mrs. Olga Piskunova, interpreter.

    WCC staff:
    Mr Georges Lemopoulos, Deputy General Secretary
    Ms Teny Pirri-Simonian, Church and Ecumenical Relations
    Mr Huibert van Beek, Church and Ecumenical Relations
    Dr Tamara Grdzelidze, Faith and Order
    Ms Ekaterina Pastukhova, Intern, Faith and Order
    Dr Melaku Kifle, International Affairs, Peace and Human Security
    Rev Dr Martin Robra, Justice, Peace, Creation
    Prof. Ioan Sauca, Ecumenical Institute Bossey
    Ms Luzia Wehrle, Administrative Assistant, Church and Ecumenical Relations