Ecumenism in modern Europe: adaptation to secular society

Abstract

The ecumenism ideology is based on evangelical foundations and is aimed at achieving universal Christian unity. The historical differentiation of Christianity and the various circumstances of the church organizations development have caused the ecumenical movement internal heterogeneity. Each of the Christianity directions is guided by its own theological interpretation of ecumenism. Doctrinal agreement of these interpretations cannot be achieved. The political situation in the world and the situation of national churches within countries also hinder organizational unification. Therefore, ecumenical organizations, mainly the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches, develop dialogue and cooperation programs aimed at Eucharistic and liturgical communication between different Christian confessions believers, as well as joint social services of representatives of different churches. The ecumenical movement in the twentieth century developed almost synchronously with the deployment of large-scale secularization. The secular nature of modern European societies determines the priority of social activity over theological activity in the ecumenical movement. The dependence of international ecumenical organizations on current politics is also obvious - they currently follow the European Union governing bodies’ ideo-logical rhetoric. The current situation of the ecumenical movement cannot be called a crisis, rather, there is a transformation into a new state - going beyond intra-Christian cooperation and inclusion in an interreligious dialogue, as well as in a dialogue with non-religious institutions of modern society.