Eradicating racism: a central agenda for the Faith and Order movement

When Richard Allen walked out of St George's Church in Philadelphia over two centuries ago he was making both a confessional statement about the doctrine of the unity of God's creation and of the universality of Christ's redemption, and a judgment on Christian behaviour through the centuries. This statement about the incompatibility of racism with faith in the triune God is central to any orthodox ecclesiology. This is true no matter how unorthodox the behaviour of church members may have been. Until the stigma of racism is eradicated from the church, the church cannot be a credible witness to the apostolic faith or to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church which it is called to be in Christ. In the US context, until the dominant Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches have found the zeal for, and means of, restoring communion with the African American churches, the pilgrimage of the churches towards koinonia in faith, life and witness will be without credibility. A non-racial community is a constitutive dimension of the koinonia of the Christian church.

In this essay we will touch on three dimensions of the modest contribution of the Faith and Order movement to the eradication of racism: (1) the history of the US African American churches and the Faith and Order movement; (2) the present context in the US as it influences the ability of the ecumenical movement, and Faith and Order, to contribute to the eradication of racism; and (3) proposals for a realistic future in the journey towards full visible unity, in the context of the issue of racism.

The Christian churches are, by their biblical constitutions, committed to the full visible unity of the church. This is, of course, understood differently among them. This biblical commitment has been formalized for our time in the first purpose of the World Council of Churches: "to call the churches to the goal of visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship expressed in worship and in common life in Christ, and to advance towards that unity in order that the world may believe".

The quest for full, visible unity not only entails reconciliation between divided churches, but also reconciliation of those elements within the churches that inhibit their witness to their own unity as Christ intended it. As Desmond Tutu noted in his 1993 Faith and Order address,(1) apartheid could not have developed save for the divisions within the Christian church. Union may be a precondition for reconciliation. The ecumenical movement is a place, even in our divided state, where churches can admonish one another about their own doctrine and practice, and about the basis on which they enter into common witness. Therefore, for example, the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Lutheran World Federation have all taken strong admonitory positions, even suspending fellowship with churches that sanction the heretical and sinful views of apartheid.

The vision of visible unity, including the eradication of racism in the Christian community, will require a deep conversion on the part of Christians and of the institutions which serve the church.(2) While there will always be tension between the quest for unity and the prophetic quest for justice, a biblical view of the church keeps this tension within its reconciling centre.(3) A recent volume on the African American churches in the United States should be an important contribution to this process.(4)

This essay deals with the unity between the churches, which is the mandate of the Faith and Order movement, and with the US churches, the African American churches among them, which is our particular context. This recognizes fully that political action, community organization and social analysis among the churches on this crucial issue are going on in other contexts, both in the conciliar movement and in various coalitions which are wider than the ecumenical movement, but in which Christians participate. Furthermore, it presumes that the global ecumenical analyses and struggles for liberation of oppressed peoples, Africans and African Americans among them, is central to reconciliation. However, these dimensions of the common struggle will not be the focus of this paper. On an issue of this importance to the Christian mission an appropriate division of labour needs to be observed. If Faith and Order were to give up its responsibility for reconciliation with the US African American churches, in order to meet needs for common witness or concerns about the African churches, for example, then a dimension of the struggle to eradicate racism would go unattended.

Finally, by way of introduction, it is necessary to note that the initiative for reconciliation with the African American churches, and for the ecumenical participation of African American minorities in the other churches, may not come from African Americans themselves alone -- nor should it. Those whose predecessors caused t the original alienation, and whose successors may yet profit by its continuance, will have to create a credibility in the African American community so that unity with them and with the churches that are the offspring of white racism will be possible.