Introduction to the Johannesburg papers - ecclesiology and ethics, from meeting of the World Council of Churches, Johannesburg, South Africa, June 1996

The four papers in this section of the Review continue the recent lively ecumenical discussion on ecclesiology and ethics. They stem from a meeting on this topic held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 1996, which brought together persons from the Faith and Order (WCC Unit 1) and Justice, Peace and Creation (Unit III) "communities", as well as from the South African context, including representatives of the South African Council of Churches, whose support and hospitality we gratefully acknowledge.

This was the third gathering in a series which began at Ronde, Denmark, in 1993 and continued at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalem, in 1994. The reports and papers from these meetings have been published as Costly Unity(1) and Costly Commitment(2) respectively. We are publishing here most of the papers from the Johannesburg meeting.(3) The Johannesburg report -- "Costly Obedience" -- will be published shortly, together with the reports from the first two meetings and several brief interpretative essays.(4) This comes in response to demands for a volume gathering results from the ecclesiology and ethics study as a whole, and identifying issues for future ecumenical work in this area.

The Johannesburg consultation took the earlier discussion forward in several areas. First, it tackled again the question of the nature of the church, including its unity, in relation to the churches' ethical reflection and action. This was grounded in John de Gruchy's close analysis of the South African churches' experience during the struggle against apartheid. The response by Margot Kassmann sharpens the discussion, showing parallels and contrasts with the German context of recent decades. Second, Johannesburg developed the theme of moral formation as a dimension of the life of the church, showing how (as was already suggested at Tantur) this happens not only through formal church "instruction" but through the whole life of the church, and not least in its worship. Thus Vigen Guroian's paper focusses on worship in relation to moral formation; his perspective is complemented by Duncan Forrester's response, with both papers emphasizing the intimate relation of worship to daily life. The consultation report also explored the implications of the ecclesiology and ethics study for the ecumenical movement, and the role of the WCC in particular in contributing to a "community of moral witnessing". The implications of the ecclesiology and ethics study, of course, need further discussion and that is precisely the reason for printing the present papers in this journal, and for bringing together in another publication the three reports from the study process.

The "ecclesiology and ethics" study ended with an accounting to the WCC central committee in September 1996, but its perspectives and concerns will be take up in forthcoming studies on ethnic identity, national identity and the unity of the church, and in the ongoing Programme to Overcome Violence. Information on these programmes is available from the undersigned at the World Council of Churches.

NOTES

(1) Costly Unity: Koinonia and Justice, Peace and Creation, Thomas F. Best and Wesley Granberg-Michaelson eds, Geneva, WCC, Unit M and Unit I/Faith and Order, 1993.

(2) Costly Commitment: Ecclesiology and Ethics, Thomas F. Best and Martin Robra eds, Geneva, WCC, Faith and Order/Unit I and Unit III, 1995. The papers from this meeting were also published in The Ecumenical Review, vol. 47, no. 2, April 1995.

(3) One of the papers will be published in an altered form elsewhere. See Anna Marie Aagaard, "The Present Status of the Ecumenical Movement", in the publication of the conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Ecumenical Institute, Tantur, on the topic The Present Status of Church Unity and Prospects for the Future, ed. Lawrence Cunningham, Notre Dame, Indiana, Notre Dame Press, forthcoming.

(4) Ecclesiology and Ethics: Ecumenical Ethical Engagement, Moral Formation and the Nature of the Church, Geneva, WCC Publications, 1997.

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