Ecumenical Leader Research Articles

Prophecies in politics: A review of integrity, impact on voter-behaviour and good governance

This paper examined the integrity, impact and good governance value of election prophecies (EPs) in the last 20 years in selected African countries juxtaposed with President Donald Trump’s EPs in America. As a primary source, empirical research was conducted alongside a historical survey. The data collected from 519 respondents revealed that a majority believe in prophecies, but they queried the integrity, impact and value of EPs due to the inconsistency, inaccuracy, confusion and unhealthy public panics engendered. Despite the adverse effects, many adherents still subscribe to the phenomenon due to the psychological and emotional influence. Subsequently, this article critiqued the research outcome through Biblical Theology. It held that EPs remain vital in the public life of nations, but the current approach in Africa needs some review. These include: (1) the need to revisit the tasks of prophets as Hope givers, Reformers and those who speak truth to power in pre- and post-election seasons; (2) the scrutiny of EPs by the plurality of Prophets, ecumenical leaders and the public, with the four suggested evaluation indices; and (3) the need to curb the negative effect of EPs on healthy electoral processes using enacted public account policies.Contribution: This article contributes to an interdisciplinary religious aspect of research covering Biblical theology, psephology and politics.

The pastor as an ecumenical leader: Reflections and Pastoral Ministry experiences at Bvumbura parish, Zimbabwe

This article explores the position and the role of the pastor in local ecumenism. It argues that the pastor is a central figure who consciously and unconsciously influences local ecumenical engagement between his/her local congregation and other denominations. Local ecumenism is ecumenism ‘from below’, whereby Christians in a given locality enjoy sharing spiritual and material resources as a way of being church together. It is in this context where the pastor is found to be an ecumenical leader as he/she gives services to the members of the community as families and member churches. The researcher has used his experiences at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ) Bvumbura parish as a point of reference on how a pastor would be found engaging in ecumenical work as well as in carrying out expected pastoral duties. It is within this context that many denominations cooperate with each other at various levels serving the church and community in general in the process. The paper ends up discussing the expressed five pastoral roles as a means of fulfilling the call of the pastor as an ecumenical leader.

Step by Step: American Interracialism and the Origins of Talk-First Activism

The idea that friendship and dialogue are the first steps to making a better world has a history. During the first half of the twentieth century, American Protestants powered a national movement for dialogue and cooperation among people of different races. In the 1940s and 1950s, Black leaders in predominantly white ecumenical Protestant institutions created a series of workshops and dialogue guides that popularized the notion that interracial exchange would lead to action. Backed by their institutions’ financial, moral, and organizational resources, they transformed both the interracial movement and dominant understandings of how to change society. Yet, while Black ecumenical leaders insisted that facilitating interracial exchange was just the beginning form of action in ending discrimination, they unintentionally facilitated problematic assumptions about the standalone power of “first steps” in creating a more equitable society.

Cultivating the “good city”: The theological engagement of the Institute for Urban Ministry within the City of Tshwane

The vision of the “good city” is worth striving for. Enacting the pastoral circle can be theologically generative towards cultivating the “good city”. The urban transition of 1993 in Pretoria/Tshwane, South Africa held unknowns and possibilities. During this time a small community with lived faith committed to journeying with the urban poor using the pastoral circle. Such contextual theological engagement birthed the Institute for Urban Ministry (IUM), and the pastoral circle remained at the heart of IUM. This article explores the possibilities of animating the “good city” in Tshwane and the Gauteng City-Region as IUM applies the pastoral circle within the Tshwane Ecumenical Leaders Forum.

The Church is Permanently Underway

AbstractThis article examines the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the unity of the human community in Japan, specifically Tokyo, where the 2020 Olympic Games have been postponed until 2021. This allows reflection on the issue of ecclesiology during this time of uncertainty. First, the article describes the critical response of the ecumenical leaders to the country’s first‐ever declaration of a state of emergency. Second, it reflects upon the impact of the compulsion to conform to intolerant social order and the neoliberal “self‐responsibility theory” that abandons the most vulnerable in society. Third, it explores the relationship between Tokyo and the Olympics, which has been inextricably linked to the aim of national unity. Finally, this article draws the conclusion that we must steer clear of any “unity” that conceals a deeper disunity. Therefore, the church must distance itself from both the “self‐responsibility theory” and the enthusiasm of nationalism and instead work toward the restoration of the human community and the renewal of the church, which are currently the main issues of concern.

Foundations for a New World Order: Uniting Protestant Worship during the World War II Japanese American Incarceration

During the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, visions of a peaceful new world order led mainline Protestants to manipulate the worship practices of incarcerated Japanese Americans ( Nikkei) to strengthen unity of the church and nation. Ecumenical leaders saw possibilities within the chaos of incarceration and war to improve themselves, their church, and the world through these experiments based on ideals of Protestant ecumenism and desires for racial equality and integration. This essay explores why agendas that restricted the autonomy of racial minorities were doomed to fail and how Protestants can learn from this experience to expand their definition of unity to include pluralist representations of Christianity and America as imagined by different sects and ethnic groups.

Asian Ecumenical Contributions to Theologies of Justice and Peace

AbstractIssues of justice and peace have been at the centre of Asian ecumenical theology, which has developed within the context of the Asian reality of multi‐religiosity, on the one hand, and rampant poverty, on the other. This article examines how Asian ecumenical theological expressions, such as Dalit theology from India, Minjung theology from Korea, the many Asian womanist theologies, indigenous theologies, the theology of struggle from the Philippines, Burakumin theologies from Japan, and homeland theology from Taiwan, have sought to engage with these realities. It examines the impact of socio‐political movements on theological formation through a focus on the life and work of the Indian ecumenical leader M. M. Thomas, and offers a detailed examination of Dalit and Minjung theologies as expressions of the Asian ecumenical theological engagement with justice.

Preface

Preface

Clarie Collins Harvey: the Transformative Vision of a World Citizen

This article examines the life and activism of Clarie Collins Harvey—entrepreneur, civil rights activist, and ecumenical leader. Despite her significant contributions to various aspects of American life, Harvey has not received the kind of scholarly attention she deserves. This essay offers a holistic presentation of Harvey's life in an effort to demonstrate not only the dynamic vision that guided her leadership, but also the significance of her work locally, nationally, and internationally. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of Black women's activism in movements for social justice.

Three Orthodox Models of Christian Unity: Traditionalist, Mainstream, Prophetic

The assumption is often made that the Orthodox Church has a unified approach to ecumenical engagement with other churches. This paper argues that while there is a ‘mainstream’ model (reflected especially in the thought of Georges Florovsky), there is also a minority ‘traditionalist’ model. While having radically different attitudes towards the modern ecumenical movement (traditionalists are vehemently opposed), both of these accept the premise that the historical Orthodox Church alone is the fullness of the Christian Church and that doctrinal agreement and incorporation into the Orthodox Church must precede sacramental communion. A more open alternative model (‘prophetic’) reflects proposals made in the twentieth century by theologians such as Sergius Bulgakov, Nicholas Afanasiev, Anton Kartashev and Nicholas Zernov. These were not taken up at the time but it is argued that they deserve to be studied again by Orthodox bishops and ecumenical leaders as possibilities for bold prophetic action toward Christian unity.

Barmen, the Ecumenical Movement, and the Jews: The Missing Thesis

Barmen, the Ecumenical Movement, and the Jews: The Missing Thesis

SALVADOR AS AN ECUMENICAL CLASSROOM:A MISSIOLOGICAL COURSE WITHIN THE SALVADOR CONFERENCE

Twenty seminary students from the USA and Canada went to Salvador, Bahia, to participate in the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Conference on World Mission and Evangelism and in a course: Gospel in Diverse Cultures: Missiological Interaction with the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism. The content of the course was provided through the preparatory materials and programme of the conference as well as in special briefings, times of reflection, and cultural outings planned for the group. It was a time of cultural immersion and intense interaction with a relational and dialogical pedagogy at work, a truly transformational experience. The course was designed and conducted by two missiologists, both faculty members of Presbyterian seminaries in the USA (and the authors of this article), in coordination with the US Office of the WCC. The students came from eight different theological institutions, representing a broad spectrum of Protestant denominations, including some with no formal ties to the WCC. Their own diversity and interaction was a part of the learning experience. They attended the plenaries, worked in sections and sub-sections, participated in worship, and mixed with the entire conference community in coffee breaks and special events. Their learning was especially enhanced by the opportunity to have intensive briefings with ecumenical leaders such as Emilio Castro, Christopher Duraisingh, Ana Langerak, Lesslie Newbigin, Konrad Raiser, and Aureo Bispos dos Santos from one of the host churches. These briefings helped the students clarify the themes and analyze the fascinating process they were observing. Our experience was also enhanced by our involvement in the Brazilian context. We were lodged about twenty-five minutes by public bus from the conference venue. Our evening meals together in the hotel, as we processed every day's events, were missiological delights. The travel back and forth, and the daily life in the hotel neighborhood, brought us a little closer to the fascinating and challenging cultures that Brazil represents. However, it was our involvement with a Brazilian theologian and educator, a woman deeply involved in the crises of poverty and racism in Brazil, that put the conference theme in high relief and raised many questions. Dr Gerusa Santil dos Santos, whose leadership in a protest event during the opening worship made her a controversial figure in the conference, was the third faculty person for the course! On Sunday, the entire group took a bus 100 kilometers away from Salvador to visit her home for children, located in her own home in a small compound in the centre of a very poor district of the city of Feira de Santana. A small congregation worshipped there that morning, and then they shared their life, their faith, their struggles, their hospitality and food, and their memorable Samba music with the group. It was perhaps the most profoundly moving encounter of the entire course! It was, after all, a seminary course, and so the students had to write papers about their experience. Out of these papers, read and assessed by the two faculty, emerge some themes and observations that put the conference in a somewhat distinctive perspective. (The quotations that follow are taken from the students' papers, with their permission.) Although many of the students had read about the history of the ecumenical movement and had some missiological orientation, the conference experience in Salvador was clearly a powerful learning experience that has had a strong impact on their faith and their way of doing theology. Gradually they began to grasp the significance of attending a unique conference whose lineage may be traced back to 1910 in Edinburgh. The distinctive dynamic of missiological theology, traced through the mission conferences of this century, and heightened by the preparatory process leading to Salvador, began to capture their imaginations -- and raise many questions. …

VISIONING WITH ASIAN YOUTH

Institutionalization of youth leadership and down-sizing of the role of the youth movement We have witnessed during the early and middle periods of the twentieth century that new leadership emerged in the process of destruction of the traditional values and authorities and through the establishment of new order. If we look at Korea, young people of those periods awakened at an early age and rose to become national leaders in the crisis-filled modern period. They experienced the fall of feudal dynasty, colonization by foreign power and division of the nation. The hunger and poverty these leaders had faced at an early age led to their concern for social problems. The restrictions on opportunity and growth forced them to devote themselves intensely to the pursuit of new social order. The North Korean president Kim Il Sung led the partisan army from his early twenties. When the South Korean former president Park Chunk Hee carried out his coup, he was in his thirties. I believe that such cases did not happen only in Korea. In the fields of politics, economics, the military and culture, we can find such examples in every country in Asia. Even the Bible says that Jesus started his mission to restructure the world from the age of thirty. The present Asian ecumenical leaders are persons who created many myths when they were young. Although the trends are a little different according to the patterns of social development in our respective countries, still it is very clear that we young people are living the time of our youth under the structures and institutions that were established by those (formerly) young people. Therefore, the period of our youth and theirs are different. Unlike us, their decision was that of the movement, and they did not have to spend much time getting approval from higher bodies. Their leadership also has a tendency to depend on special relations between people. Today they are the older generation. We, the new generation, have grown in comparatively stable surroundings compared to the past and in addition to this we are not required to carry out the same role and responsibility that burdened them. Disappearance of the lay movement and exit for the youth movement The youth movement is identified as one of the lay movements, and the ecumenical movement has been generated by young lay people. However, the historical irony is that the ecumenical movement nourished by the lay people has resulted in the disappearance of the lay movement. Let me quote from an article by the Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in Echoes 4 (1993) Laity in the Ecumenical Movement. The laity have almost disappeared from ecumenical discussion nowadays. This is all the more striking in that, only a generation ago, laity was an ecumenical keyword . . . . What caused the remarkable disappearance of this key ecumenical concept? First, was the inevitable process of institutionalization, and with it the diversification of the ecumenical movement. As a result of institutionalization, many ecumenical initiatives at local, national, regional and international level, which originally depended on the commitment of lay people, have now been incorporated into permanent church structure. Korean ecumenical youth have voluntarily devoted themselves to the realization of democracy and human rights, standing in the front lines of struggle, and through this movement they have formed new leadership. But to our regret, during the past five or six years, youth leadership has stopped growing in the church and has been scattered in many parts of the society. This has happened first because the church has no room to accept the new generation. The demand of the institutionalized church to young people was for a license, i.e., a graduation certificate from seminary and ordination as pastor. As a result, the ecumenical youth movement has produced many high-quality jobless activists. …