SALVADOR AND CHURCHES SHARING ACROSS CULTURES

Abstract

The gathering at Salvador, Bahia, Brazil was a very impressive one. The World Council of Churches is definitely a valuable ecumenical instrument when it can bring together such a plural and diverse community. However, one could hope that future gatherings would pay more attention to implementing the criteria for fairer and better balanced representation. I would like to reflect on some of the positive and negative aspects of crosscultural sharing that took place at Salvador which may serve to shed some light on them as churches continue to engage in mission in the twenty-first century. Sharing biblical insights across cultures Bible study was an important part of each day's programme. The selection of all the lessons from the Acts of the Apostles facilitated a certain level of continuity as far as the background, historical context and purpose of the book was concerned. Even if the participants did not go through the Bible studies that had been prepared and sent out in advance, the familiarity of the participants with the Bible was an asset to the discussions. The focus of the Bible studies was clear -- the encounter of the gospel and cultures in the early era of Christianity. Discussing this issue from one's own perspective and the contemporary experience of the gospel and cultures encounter facilitated a good level of crosscultural sharing. The subject matter was broad and challenging enough for everyone to share his/her experience and did not allow any individual or group to claim global expertise on the issue. This enabled the participants to give due weight to one another's experiences. Therefore, all the members of the study group became co-learners in discerning the intricacies in the gospel and culture matrixes in different contexts. The Bible, as the common binding instrument in the future of crosscultural sharing, has to be explored and encouraged, inspite of its being used as a tool to perpetuate the various divisions within the Christian community throughout the centuries. Sharing in worship across cultures The worship was very vibrant but not particularly nurturing. Throughout the conference it was very well planned, but its strength was also its weakness. Worship in a tent, with liturgical experts guiding the daily services, tends to be somewhat theatrical. If bits of different traditions are put together, one is not confronting in depth any existing tradition that is part of the conference participants'. For example, the service led by the Orthodox participants carried impact because it came from a tradition familiar to many. Ecumenical worship sometimes becomes an end in itself, creating a hybrid but not necessarily facilitating crosscultural sharing and communication. Certainly such worship is valuable and definitely will make people look into their own liturgical practices when they return to their local situations. What is needed for future such gatherings is the possibility to encounter one another's worship traditions that are not easily found outside one's own community. Encounters of cultures across the world The Rainbow Festival (the exhibition of expressions of the gospel in diverse cultures) was an innovative way of demonstrating the rich variety of gospel and culture encounters around the globe. The significant feature of it was the artifacts and other materials on exhibit, which served as expressions of the involvement of the crosssection of the community -- male and female, young and old, clergy and laity, leaders and commoners, etc. In other words, it was a clear expression and demonstration that the church's mission calls for the participation of every Christian. But how these rich resources shaped the outcome of the report of the conference is not very clear, and if they have not shaped the report, to what extent will they be shared with those who were not present at the conference? While such crosscultural learning should be promoted, care should also be taken so that too much reliance on written statements and literature does not marginalize other forms of human articulation and expression that may prove to be more powerful ways of communicating in the future. …