Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders

Abstract

A Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) was first held under that name in conjunction with the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Busan, South Korea, in 2013, bringing together around 200 university-level students and seminarians from churches around the world. It followed an earlier Ecumenical Congress held parallel to the WCC’s 9th Assembly at Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006, and was followed by a further GETI at the 2018 Conference on World Mission and Evangelism. This article presents the next instalment of GETI, being held in 2022 in conjunction with the WCC’s 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany. It situates GETI within the broader ecumenical historical trajectory, vision, and strategy for ecumenical formation and education, presenting it as a transformative pedagogical project that is grounded in ecumenical encounter and dialogue, what Paulo Freire has termed an epistemological relationship. The article further explores the theological rationale of the GETI 2022 theme, “Christ’s love (re)moves borders,” which is a derivative of the WCC’s assembly theme, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” In that regard, the theme locates GETI 2022 within the wider discourse of the WCC’s 11th Assembly. Finally, the article outlines the six thematic tracks of GETI 2022 in terms of how each explicates the theme and generates avenues for encounter and dialogue among participants in epistemological relationship. It concludes by underlining the value of nurturing critical awareness of, and reflection on, global issues as an act of passing on ecumenical memory to a new generation.