Ecclesiology and ethics: reflections by an Orthodox theologian

"Costly Unity" signifies an important stage in the development of an ecclesiology that is ethically responsible and an ethical reflection that is ecclesiologically grounded. In the context of the World Council of Churches it represents an attempt to develop an intra-theological dialogue between Unit I (Unity and Renewal/Faith and Order) and Unit III (Justice, Peace and Creation), based on the understanding of the church as koinonia, hoping that this may contribute towards the development of a coherent and transformational theology that challenges the churches to act together in upholding the integrity of God's creation and participating in struggles against injustice and violence. The aim is noble, long-awaited and needs to be continued.

My task in this paper is to assess from an Orthodox perspective how ethical commitment and reflection relate to theology. The relationship of ecclesiology and ethics is a perennial issue of tension in the life of the World Council of Churches, representing the concerns and sensitivities of the two great movements of Faith and Order and Life and Work that have given life to the World Council of Churches. These movements cannot move and contribute towards the visible expression of the church's unity unless they continue to be in a conversation of mutual enrichment and correction with each other.

I will begin by discussing in this paper the relation of unity and witness in the theological reflection of the Faith and Order Commission, arguing that the quest for the visible unity of the church has always been related to the church's witness and mission in the world. It is also true that the witness of the Life and Work movement was grounded implicitly and explicitly upon the basic precepts of the Christian gospel. We may disagree with some aspects of the theology or witness of both movements, but we cannot question their intentions. If both have recognized that ecclesiology and ethics cannot be separated, then our task is to search for a new way of doing ecclesiology, a new praxis that instills in our ecclesiology a will to act which is informed by both the gospel and the life of the world. Thanks to the advancement of critical hermeneutics, we have begun to recognize the ideological corruption of every discourse and action regardless of their intention or stated goal. This awareness is an impetus to our common quest to develop a critical ecclesiology rooted in the gospel, and leading to emancipatory acts that bring the world closer to God's intentions. Towards this process, I will review the dialectics of theory and praxis as it is generally understood by philosophers and contemporary theologians. What I wish to affirm with this review is that all actions are expressions of a theory, and all theories are reflections of some actions. Thus we must become conscious of what the primacy of praxis over theory really means, and whether we would like to affirm their dialectical relationship -- refusing to attribute primacy either to praxis or to theory -- by maintaining a constant conversation between them, remembering always that the transcendent God is not identical with our reflections and responses to God's presence and involvement in the world. Our attention then will turn to the eucharist, trying to understand its ethical precepts. This is important because, for the Orthodox, the eucharist defines what the church is in its identification with God in Jesus Christ through the purifying and uniting power of the Holy Spirit. Finally I will review the reports of the consultation which prepared the Orthodox contribution to the world convocation on "Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation" in Seoul (1990) and the seventh assembly of the WCC in Canberra (1991). Both reports discussed how the Orthodox relate issues of justice, peace and ecology to their ecclesiology. My hope is to contribute towards the development of an ecclesiology which is grounded upon the gospel and actualized in acts of love and witness for the salvation of the world.

Unity and witness

An investigation of the Faith and Order Commission's theological reflection on the church's unity would prove that ecclesiology was always related to ethics. The fifth assembly of the WCC in Nairobi (1975), in the report of section II "What Unity Requires", adopted the following vision of unity:

The one church is to be envisioned as a conciliar fellowship of local

churches which are

themselves truly united. In this conciliar fellowship, each local church

possesses, in

communion with the others, the fullness of catholicity, witnesses to the

same apostolic

faith, and therefore recognizes the others as belonging to the same church

of Christ and

guided by the same Spirit. As the New Delhi assembly pointed out, they are

bound together

because they have recognized each other's members and ministries. They are

one in their

common commitment to confess the gospel of Christ by proclamation and