Devotional reflection for December 9, Second Week of Advent

Each year Gardner-Webb University publishes an Advent Devotional Book as an aid to personal devotion during this season in the Christian year, with brief devotional reflections for each day of the season written by faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The text of my contribution for today, December 9, appears below; the entirety of the 2013 Advent Devotional Book is also available online in PDF.

December 9 (Nahum 1:15; James 3:18)

On his very first Christmas, we began reading with our son Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz. Besides demonstrating the wonderfully varied ways children around the world say “peace” in their own languages, the book declares that “all around the world today, children will wish for peace, hope for peace, and ask for peace.” The children—and adults—of the world share a hope for peace because all people are created in the image of the God whose hope for the world is peace.  We also share a hope for peace because the world currently lacks the peace for which God created the world and toward which God is moving the world.

It’s appropriate that the first week of Advent’s focus on hope is followed by the second week’s focus on peace, for “peace” sums up in a word the biblical vision of the world for which God and people hope. Today’s text from Nahum is a call to envision this future peace: “Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!” (1:15). The whole book of Nahum is a contrast of two stories with different end-pictures: the story of violence that underwrites the present evil order of things, epitomized by Nineveh, city of the violent Assyrian empire, which ends in “devastation, destruction, and desolation” (2:10), and the radically other story of God’s goal of peace for all creation, epitomized by Jerusalem, city of those who seek the peace of God’s reign. Today’s text from James makes the same contrast, for the antidote to the diabolical wisdom of the world that leads to conflict is the heavenly wisdom that leads to “a harvest of righteousness…sown in peace by those who make peace” (3:18).

As we join God in wishing, hoping, and asking for peace this Advent, let us also join God in working for the peace for which we hope. Such pictures of the end, suggested the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, are “enough to make me change my whole life” (Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief, ed. Cyril Barrett [University of California Press, 1967], p. 57). Nahum tells us how to change our lives in light of this end: “Celebrate your festivals”—in other words, worship and in so doing be transformed by and become participants in the story of the peace of God’s reign, and “fulfill your vows”—in other words, live out the practice of peacemaking mentioned by James that we take on in our covenantal vows to live as the people of God, joining God in what God is doing to move the world toward its end of peace.

We won’t have to look very hard to find where God is working for peace. Wherever there is war, violence, division, and interpersonal conflict—in short, wherever there is broken relationship—God is already at work to realize the divine hope of peaceful community. Let us be open to opportunities to join in during this Advent season.

(Download the complete 2013 Gardner-Webb University Advent Devotional Book)

Georgian Baptist-Orthodox dialogue text published

The International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church has published "A dialogue between the Orthodox Church of Georgia and the ‘Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ of Georgia (1979–1980) with its wider Baptist context" by Paul S. Fiddes and Malkhaz Songulashvili, to which is appended the full agreed text from the dialogue (published in full and in English translation for the first time). The abstract of the article appears below:

In 1979–80 conversations were held between representatives of the Orthodox Church of Georgia and the ‘Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ of Georgia in a situation of oppression by the Communist state. The agreed document that emerged from this dialogue is printed here, and is preceded by an article which expounds it from a Baptist perspective, sets it in the wider context of Baptist theological and ecumenical theology, and relates it to the practices of the present-day Baptist Church of Georgia. The stated purpose of the dialogue was to achieve reconciliation and unity between Orthodox and Baptist Christians in Georgia, first by agreeing substantial matters of doctrine and then by adopting a common liturgy and common sacramental life. Among the range of subjects reviewed, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints, nationalism, confession and icons, the discussion on baptism is perhaps the most adventurous, and remains promising though flawed. The document does not represent the views of the present-day Orthodox Church of Georgia, and its contents clearly reflect the political pressures under which it was composed. However, it is of historical interest, and some will see it as a sign of hope for co-operation in the mission of God.

The full text of this article is published online by Taylor & Francis, the journal's publisher, in advance of its print publication as part of a rapid online publication program explained as follows: "For most journals, accepted articles are copy-edited and typeset and appear in a 'Latest articles' list on the journal's webpage. This counts as formal publication.  They are identical to the print edition in every way except that they lack page spans. They may be formally cited using their DOI and year of publication. These 'Latest articles' are later assigned to a particular issue of the journal, and given page numbers." Thus the time during which the article is available in this fashion may be limited; it is possible that at some point after being assigned to a specific print issue that article may only be downloaded through libraries that have electronic access subscriptions to Taylor & Francis journals. In the meantime, readers of Ecclesial Theology may try to access the article by clicking on the hyperlinked title above.

Global Baptist leader addresses World Council of Churches in unity plenary (VIDEO)

A previous post reported on Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam's address to the World Council of Churches in a plenary session on unity during the Tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, South Korea on November 5. Here is a video recording of the unity plenary (unfortunately audio and video are not fully synchronized); Callam begins speaking at 48:40 (click on this hyperlink to watch in a separate window on YouTube at the point that begins Callam's address). Callam's address is a grateful celebration of the progress that has been made toward full visible unity, an honest lament of the churches' failures in seeking this unity and incisive identification of contemporary impediments to the quest for visible Christian unity, and a stirring challenge to the churches to live into Jesus' prayer that his followers might be one in a way that the world can see, that the world might become unified under the Lordship of Christ.

I hope readers of Ecclesial Theology will listen to Callam's address and the other addresses in the unity plenary in their entirety. Below is a transcription of a portion of the "lament" portion of Callam's remarks:

We have reason to lament the painful divisions that still remain. We are the body of Christ, and we should reflect the koinonia inspired by the vision of the perfect unity existing in the Godhead. We are not what we should be. We lament persistence in cherishing our peculiarities and in failing to draw sufficiently from the from the well of divine provision that is able to quench our thirst for unity in the truth. We lament our inclination to seek in other expressions of the church a replica of the church to which we belong. We have not been content to seek in other churches, as much as in our own, signs of the one church of our Lord Jesus, nor have we been sufficiently vigorous in giving expression to the depth of communion in faith that already exists.

[Another previous post reproduces a BWA press release summarizing Callam's address and reporting on participation in the assembly by at least 77 Baptists from 24 countries.]

Baptist participation in World Council of Churches 10th Assembly

Today (November 8) the Baptist World Alliance issued the following press release regarding the noteworthy degree of Baptist participation in the Tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, South Korea October 30-November 8:

BWA leader appeals for church unity

Washington, DC (BWA)--Baptist World Alliance (BWA) General Secretary Neville Callam said the unity of the church, wherever and whenever it exists, should be celebrated.

 

Callam, who was speaking during the 10th assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Busan, South Korea, lauded the work of the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC to aid the church in its quest for visible unity. The commission has published such ground breaking documents as Baptism Eucharist and Ministry (BEM), which came about through extensive theological engagement in the Christian ecumenical community. He argued for detailed study of the most recent Faith and Order documents, The Church: Towards a Common Vision and Baptism: Towards Mutual Recognition.

 

Callam also took note of bilateral theological dialogues that have taken place between various Christian traditions. These, he said, have resulted in an "increase in understanding" and have "facilitated responsible rapprochement between Christian communions."

 

Despite these and other signs of progress, Callam acknowledged that disunity is a stain on the church's life and witness. There is "persistence in cherishing our peculiarities" and an unwillingness to see "signs of the one church of our Lord Jesus" in other churches other than one's own. Callam asserted that the church has failed to "reflect the unity for which our Lord prayed in John 17."

 

Such disunity has "compromised our faithfulness in mission;" has led to a failure to confront social and other injustices such as racism, poverty, exploitation and disease; has resulted in self-centeredness that leads to the degradation of creation; and has caused a failure to "respect peoples of other faiths who are all creatures of the one God and inhabitants of a shared planet."

 

The appropriate response to Christian disunity, the BWA leader claimed, is "to repent of the sin of our divisions, to petition God's forgiveness and to pray for the joy of full communion."

 

Callam called the assembly's attention to serious challenges that compromise the mission of the church because of disunity. These include conflicting positions on moral issues, which pose difficulty for the unity of the church. "Churches are actually participating in the entrenchment of divisions in society by offering disparate teaching on issues that profoundly affect people's lives. The current situation is intolerable."

 

The solution, Callam asserted, is for the church "to commit, with greater urgency, to the search for convergence around the sources of authority in the church, and on how to interpret responsibly the sources we regard as authoritative."

 

Callam urged the Faith and Order Commission to provide additional resources, in a variety of media formats, to aid persons involved in assisting the church's quest for unity, especially at the international level.

 

At least 77 Baptists from 24 countries, including BWA President John Upton, attended the WCC meetings, held October 30 to November 8 in Busan, South Korea's second largest metropolis after capital city Seoul. The assembly, normally held every seven years, elected a 150-member Central Committee that includes eight Baptists. The Central Committee serves as the chief governing body of the WCC until the next assembly. It meets every 12 to 18 months and is responsible for carrying out the policies adopted by the assembly, reviewing and supervising WCC programs and for adopting the budget.

 

Four BWA General Council members were elected to the WCC Central Committee - Samson Ayokunle from Nigeria, Yam Kho Pau from Myanmar, Karl Johnson from Jamaica and Carroll Baltimore of the United States. Other Baptist Central Committee members are Marceline Mbingasani Maluavanga from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joyanta Adhikari from Bangladesh, and June Totten and Angelique Walker-Smith from the US.

Note: This is an experiment in posting via iPhone using the Blogger app. Please pardon any resulting formatting oddities.

Global Baptist leader addresses World Council of Churches in unity plenary (updated)

Neville Callam (photo courtesy WCC)

Yesterday (November 5) the Tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, South Korea held a plenary session on unity at which Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam was one of the featured speakers. A press release issued by the WCC reports that Callam and Metropolitan Nifan of Târgoviste, patriarchal exarch for external and ecumenical relationships of the Patriarchate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, offered reflections on the “Journey of Fellowship: Hopes and Challenges on the Way.”

The Rt. Rev. Alan Abernethy, Bishop of the Diocese of Connor in the Church of Ireland, summarized Callam's address in a post to the Diocese of Connor web site:

The Rev Dr Neville Callam, General Secretary of the Baptist Alliance, Jamaica, encouraged us to give thanks for what has happened already. He also suggested three challenges:
1. We need to find convergence on the sources we find authoritative.
2. We should foster theological thinking with our young people on unity.
3. Let us not limit our thinking and actions to being textual.
He also prayed God would keep us restless on our journey.

Callam's address generated an enthusiastic Twitter response, with several participants in the WCC assembly tweeting excerpts from Callam's remarks that were re-tweeted by many other Twitter users (dates of tweets below are EST and thus dated the day prior to the November 5 plenary in Busan at which Callam spoke):

 Susan Johnson ‏@NationalBishop 4 Nov

"We face the scandal of our disunity." - Neville Callam #WCC10thAssembly

FPF oecumenisme ‏@FPFoecumenisme 4 Nov

@Pierre2m @MarcoDero @jlgadreau en train d'écouter Neville Callam à Busan, un belle et bonne contribution, et sa voix est magnifique

Nelus Niemandt ‏@Niemandt 4 Nov

#WCC Neville Callam: our focus on textuality alone and negligence of orality is a problem. pic.twitter.com/Rz7QqyDj6h

FPF oecumenisme ‏@FPFoecumenisme 4 Nov

Neville Callam #WCC 3 défis 1) les décisions des Eglises sur les questions morales endurcissent ces positions créent nouvelles divisions

Nelus Niemandt ‏@Niemandt 4 Nov

#WCC Neville Callam: nothong should restrain our passion for the unity of the church. pic.twitter.com/5g0h8xuQEX

As a Baptist ecumenical theologian, I am proud that the global Baptist community was represented on the program of the WCC plenary session on unity by Callam and gratified that his address has been so well received by these representatives of the church catholic. Anyone who has heard Callam speak will concur that "sa voix est magnifique"!

Update: The November 6 issue of Madang, the daily newspaper of the assembly, includes a story that references Callam's remarks on page 1 and a photograph of Callam on page 7 (click on hyperlink to view).

Global Baptist leader addresses World Council of Churches in unity plenary

Neville Callam (photo courtesy WCC)

Yesterday (November 5) the Tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, South Korea held a plenary session on unity at which Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam was one of the featured speakers. A press release issued by the WCC reports that Callam and Metropolitan Nifan of Târgoviste, patriarchal exarch for external and ecumenical relationships of the Patriarchate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, offered reflections on the “Journey of Fellowship: Hopes and Challenges on the Way.”

The Rt. Rev. Alan Abernethy, Bishop of the Diocese of Connor in the Church of Ireland, summarized Callam's address in a post to the Diocese of Connor web site:

The Rev Dr Neville Callam, General Secretary of the Baptist Alliance, Jamaica, encouraged us to give thanks for what has happened already. He also suggested three challenges:
1. We need to find convergence on the sources we find authoritative.
2. We should foster theological thinking with our young people on unity.
3. Let us not limit our thinking and actions to being textual.
He also prayed God would keep us restless on our journey.

Callam's address generated an enthusiastic Twitter response, with several participants in the WCC assembly tweeting excerpts from Callam's remarks that were re-tweeted by many other Twitter users (dates of tweets below are EST and thus dated the day prior to the November 5 plenary in Busan at which Callam spoke):

 Susan Johnson ‏@NationalBishop 4 Nov

"We face the scandal of our disunity." - Neville Callam #WCC10thAssembly

 

FPF oecumenisme ‏@FPFoecumenisme 4 Nov

@Pierre2m @MarcoDero @jlgadreau en train d'écouter Neville Callam à Busan, un belle et bonne contribution, et sa voix est magnifique

 

Nelus Niemandt ‏@Niemandt 4 Nov

#WCC Neville Callam: our focus on textuality alone and negligence of orality is a problem. pic.twitter.com/Rz7QqyDj6h

 

FPF oecumenisme ‏@FPFoecumenisme 4 Nov

Neville Callam #WCC 3 défis 1) les décisions des Eglises sur les questions morales endurcissent ces positions créent nouvelles divisions

 

Nelus Niemandt ‏@Niemandt 4 Nov

#WCC Neville Callam: nothong should restrain our passion for the unity of the church. pic.twitter.com/5g0h8xuQEX

 

As a Baptist ecumenical theologian, I am proud that the global Baptist community was represented on the program of the WCC plenary session on unity by Callam and gratified that his address has been so well received by these representatives of the church catholic. Anyone who has heard Callam speak will concur that "sa voix est magnifique"!

Baptists and the veneration of the saints

Today is All Saints' Day, and today the Baptist World Alliance circulated a link to an October 31 blog post by BWA General Secretary Neville Callam commending the Baptist retrieval of the practice of the veneration of the saints, invoking Baptist theologian James Wm. McClendon Jr.'s theological rationale for such a renewed and renewing practice offered in his book Biography as Theology (cf. a previous Ecclesial Theology post making this connection and argument, referencing a recommendation made in a chapter in my own book Towards Baptist Catholicity). Below is an excerpt from Callam's post:

Shouldn’t Baptist churches retrieve the practice of venerating the saints, that is, engaging in corporate worship acts designed not to worship the saints, but to remember, honor, learn from, and celebrate saints from our Baptist family and from other Christian communions? Until we regularly include commemoration of the saints in our worship celebrations, we will continue to neglect the opportunity to give proper value to those from our past who have borne courageous witness to faithful discipleship. Commemorative acts done in our Sunday morning services would provide a suitable accompaniment for the tradition some have already developed as part of their Vacation Bible School program, in which stories are told of great spiritual leaders worthy of emulation.... (Read the full post on the BWA General Secretary's Blog)

The Church: Towards a Common Vision

Participants in the Tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches meeting in Busan, South Korea from October 30 through November 8 will have in their copies of the assembly Resource Book the new convergence text The Church: Towards a Common Vision (Faith and Order Paper No. 214; Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2013). Their Programme Book will include the text of a draft statement on the unity of the church proposed to the assembly for action, "God's Gift and Call to Unity--and Our Commitment," that commends The Church: Towards a Common Vision for the study of the churches as a means of helping the churches better understand the nature of the visible unity that God calls the church to embody.

This is the first major ecumenical convergence text commended to the churches for study and response to be issued since the landmark 1982 document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Faith and Order Paper No. 111; Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982) [BEM]. The new text The Church: Towards a Common Vision has taken into account the responses of the churches to BEM and is rooted in twenty years of work that included the drafting of, responses to, and revision of the predecessor documents The Nature and Purpose of the Church: A Stage on the Way to a Common Statement (Faith and Order Paper No. 181; Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1998) and The Nature and Mission of the Church. A Stage on the Way to a Common Statement (Faith and Order Paper No. 198; Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2005).

I represented the Baptist World Alliance as a member of the WCC Plenary Commission on Faith and Order that met in Crete in October 2009. One of our tasks during this meeting was to discuss the 2005 paper The Nature and Mission of the Church. A Stage on the Way to a Common Statement in working groups and plenary session and to offer feedback that was taken into account in the drafting of The Church: Towards a Common Vision. The paragraphs below from the preface of The Church: Towards a Common Vision explain the background, process, and goals of this new convergence text:

For twenty years, the delegated representatives of the Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches in a World Conference on Faith and Order (1993), three Plenary Commissions on Faith and Order (1996, 2004, 2009), eighteen meetings of the Standing Commission, and countless drafting meetings have sought to uncover a global, multilateral and ecumenical vision of the nature, purpose, and mission of the Church. The churches have responded critically and constructively to two earlier stages on the way to a common statement. The Commission on Faith and Order responds to the churches with The Church: Towards a Common Vision, its common – or convergence – statement on ecclesiology. The convergence reached in The Church represents an extraordinary ecumenical achievement.

There are at least two distinct, but deeply interrelated, objectives in sending The Church to the churches for study and official response. The first is renewal. As a multilateral ecumenical text, The Church cannot be identified exclusively with any one ecclesiological tradition. In the long process from 1993-2012, the theological expressions and ecclesial experiences of many churches have been brought together in such a way that the churches reading this text may find themselves challenged to live more fully the ecclesial life; others may find in it aspects of ecclesial life and understanding which have been neglected or forgotten; others may find themselves strengthened and affirmed. As Christians experience life-long growth into Christ, they will find themselves drawing closer to one another, and living into the biblical image of the one body: “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

The second objective is theological agreement on the Church. As important as the convergence achieved by Faith and Order in Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry was the official response process that followed. The six published volumes of responses manifested the varying levels of documented convergences among the churches themselves on the key questions around baptism, eucharist and ministry. The effects of the ecclesial convergence surfaced by Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry toward Christian unity are well-documented and ongoing. The responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision will not only evaluate the convergence reached by Faith and Order but also reflect the level of convergence on ecclesiology among the churches. Just as the convergence on baptism in the responses to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry gave rise to a fresh impetus toward mutual recognition of baptism, similar ecclesial convergence on ecclesiology will play a vital role in the mutual recognition between the churches as they call one another to visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship.

“Ecclesial responses” for the Commission on Faith and Order includes the churches that are members of the Commission and the fellowship of churches in the World Council of Churches. It is also hoped that those churches that are new to the ecumenical movement will accept the invitation to study and comment on the text. The Commission also welcomes responses from ecclesial bodies, such as national and regional councils of churches and the Christian World Communions, whose official dialogues among themselves have contributed so much to the convergence reflected in The Church. The specific questions posed by Faith and Order to the churches to guide their response process are found at the end of the Introduction to The Church. The questions for study and response are theological, practical, and pastoral. The Commission requests that official responses be sent to the Faith and Order secretariat at the World Council of Churches no later than 31 December 2015.

I hope all readers of Ecclesial Theology will download and read The Church: Towards a Common Vision and contemplate how their churches might respond to the ecclesial vision proposed by this document.

10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches: you, too, can participate

The Tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches gets under way this week, meeting in Busan, South Korea from October 30 through November 8, 2013. WCC assemblies have been held once every seven years since the inaugural 1948 Amsterdam assembly. The explosion in social media and live streaming technologies since the last assembly (in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006) will make it possible for interested persons globally to follow and have forms of participation in the Tenth Assembly as it happens. Below is a WCC press release providing information on the Assembly, social media forums connecting people with the Assembly via Twitter and Facebook, downloadable mobile applications, and a link to the official WCC web site for the Tenth Assembly that in turn makes available program books and other resources in PDF, press releases, and live video streaming of worship services and plenary sessions.

WCC assembly ready to open, watch from afar

25 October 2013

Final preparations are underway for the opening of the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), to be held in Busan, Republic of Korea.

At the Sansung Presbyterian Church in Busan, more than 50 volunteers gathered Thursday and Friday, 24 to 25 October, to pack the welcome bags for assembly delegates and several thousand other participants who are expected to attend the 10-day assembly.

The bags include an array of assembly publications including worship and Bible study materials, programme and resource book and information about the work of the WCC since the last assembly, held in 2006 at Porto Alegre, Brazil.

During the two days of work, the volunteers individually filled some 3,000 bags with books and other gifts for the assembly participants.

The assembly, which has the theme “God of Life, lead us to justice and peace”, opens 30 October with an opening prayer service in which some 5,000 people, including 2,500 Koreans, will participate.

The opening service will be broadcast through an online live stream from the Christian Broadcast System in Korea, the oldest Christian television network in Korea.

The live stream will broadcast several other events from the WCC assembly. A schedule of programming is now available on the WCC assembly website.

In addition to a number of live stream broadcasts throughout the assembly, access to the assembly from afar will be facilitated through a number of other sources.

The WCC Assembly website will feature daily news stories and updates about the assembly.

For tablets and mobile phones, a downloadable free mobile application that will feature daily stories, photos and links to videos from the assembly is available through the iTunes Store and Google Market.

Each day a 15-minute video broadcast, Madang Live, will be available on You Tube and show highlights and feature stories from the assembly.

And the assembly will be trending through social media networks such as the WCC Twitter site, @oikoumene, @OlavTveit and the assembly Twitter site, @wcc2013.

The WCC Assembly Facebook event is now a running space on social media, engaging some 600 people from around the world through sharing of information, articles and links about the assembly. Information on the visitors’ programme organized by the Korean Host Committee of the WCC has also been made accessible through wcc2013.kr (in Korean).

 

Official website of the WCC 10th Assembly

Ecumenical theology in 140 characters or less (updated)

To encourage reading and reception of The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Report of International Conversations between The Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010, I've launched a series of occasional Twitter tweets on what #baptistsandcatholics affirm together, drawn from the bold type sections of the report that summarize Baptist-Catholic agreement (section numbers in parentheses). To keep up with this series, follow @srharmon on Twitter. Tweets in the series are searchable by hashtag #baptistsandcatholics. Tweets in the series are searchable by hashtag #BaptistsCatholics. (The first six tweets in the series were hashtagged #baptistsandcatholics; the new hashtag #BaptistsCatholics saves three precious characters for tweet text.)

Trio of articles on Baptist ecumenical dialogue

The current issue of Baptist World: A Magazine of the Baptist World Alliance (vol. 60, no. 4; October/December 2013) includes a trio of articles on Baptist World Alliance participation in ecumenical dialogue: my article "Gathering Discusses Baptist-Catholic Dialogue Report" on the presentation and discussion of the report from the 2006-2010 conversations between the BWA and the Catholic Church during the BWA annual gathering in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in July 2013 (p. 22); "BWA to Dialogue with Methodists" on plans for an upcoming series of conversations between the BWA and the World Methodist Council (pp. 22-23); and "Why Theological Dialogues Are Challenging" reporting BWA General Secretary Neville Callam's perspective on four major challenges facing Baptists when they participate in international theological dialogues with other Christian communions, shared during the 8th Baptist International Conference on Theological Education that preceded the BWA annual gathering in Jamaica (p. 23). The complete contents of this issue of Baptist World are viewable online by clicking on the hyperlink above.

Ecumenical theology in 140 characters or less

To encourage reading and reception of The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Report of International Conversations between The Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010, I've launched a series of occasional Twitter tweets on what #baptistsandcatholics affirm together, drawn from the bold type sections of the report that summarize Baptist-Catholic agreement (section numbers in parentheses). To keep up with this series, follow @srharmon on Twitter. Tweets in the series are searchable by hashtag #baptistsandcatholics.

Baptist-Catholic dialogue report (2006-2010) now online

Baptist-Catholic joint commission in Rome, December 2009

The report from the 2006-2010 series of conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church, The Word of God in the Life of the Church, is now available online.

The full text of The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Report of International Conversations between the Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010 is linked from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity page on the Vatican web site (click on hyperlinked title), along with the official Catholic commentary on the report by Thomas A. Baima, "Commentary on The Word of God in the Life of the Church: A Catholic Reflection on the Report of the International Conversations between the Catholic Church and the Baptist World Alliance 2006-2010."

The report from the first series of conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church (1984-1988), Summons to Witness to Christ in Today's World: A Report on the Baptist-Roman Catholic International Conversations, is also linked from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity page along with an official Catholic commentary on the report by Thomas A. Stransky.

The Word of God in the Life of the Church had its initial print publication in a special issue of the American Baptist Quarterly (vol. 31, no. 1) that includes the full text of the 95-page report along with introductions and commentaries. An editorial introduction by Curtis W. Freeman, who is co-editor of the American Baptist Quarterly as well as Research Professor of Theology and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke University Divinity School, makes connections between these recent international conversations and the national-level conversations that began in 1967 soon after the Second Vatican Council between representatives of the American Baptist Churches USA and the United States Catholic Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Baptist-Catholic dialogue commission co-chair and report co-editor Paul S. Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology at Oxford University, provides an extensive introduction to the report that contextualizes the themes of the report in relation to other ecumenical dialogues the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church have held with other Christian communions. The text of the report itself is followed by a pair of responses to the report by two Baptist theologians of note who were not members of the Baptist delegation to these conversations: a commentary by Josué Fonseca, who was Professor and Academic Dean at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Santiago, Chile from 1978 to 2008 before his current service as pastor of First Baptist Church in Concepcion, Chile, and a commentary by Stephen R. Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Theology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who is also a minister in the Baptist Union of Scotland. Single copies of the American Baptist Quarterly issue with the report may be ordered for $5.00 plus $3.00 shipping (in the continental United States) from Callie Davis at Duke University Divinity School: cdavis@div.duke.edu.

At some point the text of The Word of God in the Life of the Church will also be posted on the Baptist World Alliance web site and issued by the BWA as an e-book on Amazon.com. When the text is available in those ways, notice will be given here at Ecclesial Theology.

Baptists and Classical Christian Worship--podcast interview

Previous posts on Ecclesial Theology have called attention to the new book Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship edited by Rodney Wallace Kennedy and Derek C. Hatch and an Associated Baptist Press story exploring issues raised by the book. Yesterday (October 3, 2013) the talk radio program Issues, Etc. (with Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod associations) posted an hour-long podcast interview with book editors Kennedy and Hatch. It's fascinating and informative listening that provides insight beyond the book into what it means to implement worship grounded in liturgical catholicity in flesh-and-blood Baptist communities.

Listen to the interview "Baptists and Classical Christian Worship" either in online streaming format or as an mp3 download. (Disclaimer: my recommendation of this interview in no way constitutes an endorsement of any of the commentaries or advertisements in the interludes between segments of the interview.)

For what it's worth, a couple of delightful features of the interview with differing levels of significance: my gratifying discovery that Dr. Hatch is opening many of his classes at Howard Payne University--my undergraduate alma mater and the place where my academic theological pilgrimage that led to my present work began--with acts of worship from the Daily Office and structuring his Christian Doctrines course around the framework of the Apostles' Creed (and that First Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas where he is a member has engaged in a congregational study of the Apostles' Creed and has recited it in worship), and the use of a little Coldplay as bumper music in the interview.

Related posts;

Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship

Associated Baptist Press on Baptist reception of the liturgical riches of the whole church

For the feast day of Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961)

The following is the essence of an unscripted devotional reflection I shared at a School of Divinity faculty meeting at Gardner-Webb University this morning.

Today is one of those unorchestrated happy coincidences of the Scripture text specified by the Daily Office Lectionary, the commemoration of a saint whose life strikingly embodies that text, and the occasion for reflecting on these things that makes possible serendipitous connections between them.

Today's Epistle Lesson is 1 Corinthians 2:1-13:

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

The Word of the Lord; thanks be to God.

Today is the feast day of Dag Hammarskjöld, at least in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Many of you know something of his story (I first learned about it from James Wm. McClendon Jr.'s Biography as Theology, in which Hammarskjöld is one of McClendon's chapter-length test cases of what he proposes; I'm currently reading the new Hammarskjöld biography by Roger Lipsey). Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until his untimely death on September 18, 1961 in a plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, with perhaps sinister causes, while he was en route to negotiate a cease-fire agreement in the civil war in the Congo during that era of the Cold War proxy conflicts on the African continent. (The BBC recently reported on calls for the U.N. to re-open its investigation of the crash.)

In the aftermath of the crash two things were discovered that documented a rich personal Christian spirituality few had known about. His briefcase, thrown clear of the plane's wreckage, contained a yellow legal pad on which Hammarskjöld had been working during the flight on his own translation into Swedish of Martin Buber's I and Thou. Later in his New York apartment a journal was discovered in which Hammarskjöld had been recording his spiritual musings dating back to the completion of his undergraduate studies in 1925, with the last entries recorded a few days before his death. The journal, later published under the title Markings, revealed a long period of doubt and searching that continued until 1952, when not long before his surprise election as U.N. Secretary-General he experienced a profound personal re-embrace of the Christian faith in which he had been nurtured during his childhood and youth.

Three brief entries from that journal, the first dated New Year's Day in 1953, not long after his experience of owned personal faith and only a few months before his election as U.N. Secretary-General:

For all that has been--Thanks!
To all that shall be--Yes!
(Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, trans. Leif Sjöberg and W. H. Auden [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964], p. 89)

From later in 1953, sometime not long after his election as U.N. Secretary-General:

Not I, but God in me. (Markings, p. 90)

And this, from still later in 1953:

He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross--even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (Markings, p. 91)

What one encounters in this last passage and elsewhere in Markings is remarkably similar to the understanding of the cruciform character of the Christian life in the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer--that to follow Christ is to take up the cross, to come and die, to die to self, and to open up oneself even to death at the hands of the powers that be who, not understanding the cruciform wisdom of God revealed through the Spirit, thus crucify the Lord of glory and those who follow his Way.

Hammarskjöld was reticent about his spirituality in his public role, but he hinted at how it shaped his work in a speech during his first year in office as Secretary-General: "We cannot mold the world as masters of a material thing. Columbus did not reach the East Indies. But we can influence the development of the world from within as a spiritual thing."

Where did Hammarskjöld acquire the faith that seems to have guided his service to the world? One of the few other times he hinted at it publicly was when he addressed the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches that met in Evanston, Illinois in 1954. His host had offered to explain to Hammarskjöld the history of the WCC, and Hammarskjöld replied, "Oh, I know all about that! I was brought up under Söderblom" (quoted in Roger Lipsey, Hammarskjöld: A Life [Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2013]). Hammarskjöld was referring to Nathan Söderblom, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Archbishop of Uppsala who was an influential shaper of the institutions of the modern ecumenical movement in the 1920s and 1930s that led to the founding of the WCC. Söderblom was a neighbor and family friend of the Hammarskjölds during Dag's childhood and youth. In 1926 Dag served as a French translator for the landmark Stockholm Conference on Life and Work planned and led by Söderblom.

And that leads us to the occasion on which we reflect on these things, at a faculty meeting for discussing our ministry of theological education. We are entrusted with the task of forming the future Nathan Söderbloms--who may become known or may remain obscure--who in turn will influence the future Dag Hammarskjölds, who, whether noted by others or not, will have opportunities to "influence the development of the world from within as a spiritual thing." That can happen if we are faithful in forming our students in the cruciform wisdom of God revealed by the Spirit.

Let us pray toward that end:

Heavenly Father, who have taught us that the peacemakers shall be called the children of God: Grant that, like your servant Dag Hammarskjöld, we may always seek to live at peace with our neighbors, and to reconcile those living in strife and enmity; so that in this way we may follow in the footsteps of your beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect by James Kiefer)

Associated Baptist Press on Baptist reception of the liturgical riches of the whole church

Photo by First Baptist Church,
Dayton, Ohio

A story published yesterday by Associated Baptist Press explores the growing phenomenon of Baptist churches doing intentional retrieval and reception of the liturgical practices that belong to the whole church in its historical and contemporary expressions. A previous post on Ecclesial Theology called attention to the book Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship referenced in the story. I granted an interview for the ABP story, which includes a couple of quotations from me. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the article:

Pastors and scholars familiar with a new book about liturgical worship say its publication signals the practice’s spread in Baptist churches who realize ancient Christian practices are inherently missional and may lure younger generations to the faith.

Gathering Togther: Baptists at Work in Worship is a collection of essays with an index containing resources including creeds and procedures for employing sacraments.

“It represents an increasingly widespread Baptist recognition that our tradition by itself is not sufficient,” said Steve Harmon, an adjunct professor of Christian theology at the Gardner-Webb University divinity school and author of Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision.

Harmon, who also endorsed the new book of essays and practices, said its release this month coincides with growing enthusiasm for liturgical practices among divinity students and reports of churches blending contemplative forms into existing worship styles.

“My sense is it’s slowly picking up steam instead of being in the same churches,” he said.

Harmon isn’t alone in his intuition....(read the full story on Associated Baptist Press)

Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship

Over the weekend I received in the mail my copy of Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship, edited by Rodney Wallace Kennedy and Derek C. Hatch, a new release from the Pickwick Publications imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. I provided one of the back-cover endorsements for the book:

"Free churches are increasingly finding their way to the liturgical riches of the whole church and finding there the resources they need to form faithful followers of Christ. The contributors to this volume have drawn on a wealth of pastoral experience and theological expertise to provide ministers of such churches with invaluable guidance in this journey."

—Steven R. Harmon, Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity

The co-editors of Gathering Together have connections with the congregational life of a Baptist community that has undertaken the sort of liturgical retrieval and renewal their book advocates. Kennedy is Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio. Earlier this year Associated Baptist Press reported on the Eucharistic hospitality FBC Dayton extended to a neighboring Episcopal parish during renovations to its church building in the story "Baptists host Episcopalians, wine. " Hatch, now Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas, was a member of FBC Dayton during his Ph.D. studies at the Catholic-affiliated University of Dayton; a previous post on Ecclesial Theology called attention to Hatch's doctoral dissertation there examining critically the Baptist perspectives of E. Y. Mullins and George W. Truett on nature and grace in light of the work of Catholic theologian Henri de Lubac.

The book's Table of Contents appears below:

Introduction
Derek C. Hatch and Rodney W. Kennedy

1 Worship and Becoming the Body of Christ
Kyle Childress

2 The Christian Year: Practicing the High Priesthood of
Believers
Michael D. Sciretti, Jr.

3 Liturgical Ties of Community
Amy Butler

4 Pastoral Prayers in Worship
Sharlande Sledge

5 Creeds and Freedom: Another Baptist Witness
Philip E. Thompson

6 Reclaiming the Liturgical Heart of Preaching
Rodney W. Kennedy

7 Communing Together: Baptists Worshiping in the Eucharist
Scott W. Bullard

8 Baptism: The Substance and the Sign
Elizabeth Newman

9 Music as Liturgy
Randall Bradley

10 The Missional Heart of Liturgy
Cameron Jorgenson

Appendices

I Worship Resources
II Occasional Services
Bibliography

Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship may be ordered from the publisher in paperback and in a Kindle e-book edition from Amazon.

Announcing the Baptist World Alliance-World Methodist Council dialogue

On September 6 the Baptist World Alliance issued the following press release regarding plans for an upcoming series of international bilateral ecumenical conversations between the BWA and the World Methodist Council:

BWA to dialogue with Methodists

Washington, DC (BWA)--A planning meeting for the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) international dialogue with the World Methodist Council (WMC) took place at the Wesley Chapel in London in the United Kingdom, from August 28-29.

The BWA Executive Committee and General Council, in March and July of this year, respectively, endorsed a proposal that the BWA begin the process of preparation for a theological dialogue with the WMC.

The dialogue is planned for 2014-2018 and will explore the theme, Faith Active in Love: Sung and Preached, Confessed and Remembered, Lived and Learned.

"Participation in bilateral dialogues is an expression of BWA's commitment to continue the mission of God whose Messiah prayed for the unity of the church so that the world might believe," BWA General Secretary Neville Callam said, extrapolating from the Gospel according to John. "In asking how we might manifest this oneness, we are drawn to the words of the apostle Paul that 'the only thing that counts is faith working through love.'"

The preparatory meeting agreed that the dialogue should aim at: a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, one another; mutual exchange of gifts for the enrichment and renewal of Baptist and Methodist churches; increased participation in a common mission and witness in the world; and deeper fellowship and cooperation by identifying and overcoming barriers. "We believe that we can move toward the fulfillment of these aims by focusing on the agreed theme," Callam declared.

"Now that the focus of the dialogue has been identified, the international team to represent BWA will soon be appointed," the BWA leader announced. The teams for the dialogue will comprise six persons from each of the two communions.

The BWA team for the planning meeting in London was Callam, Timothy George, chair of the BWA Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity, Stephen Holmes and Curtis Freeman.

Baptist World Alliance®
© September 6, 2013

Introducing the Pacific Journal of Baptist Research

I’m pleased to announce that the Pacific Journal of Baptist Research, a peer-refereed journal for which I serve on the Editorial Board, has made the transition from print subscription journal to fully open-access online journal under the leadership of new Senior Editor Myk Habets, who is Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Head of  the Carey Graduate School, and Director of the R. J. Thompson Centre for Theological Studies at Carey Baptist College in New Zealand. While based in New Zealand, the Pacific Journal of Baptist Research has been broadening its scope beyond Australasia to include Baptist and Anabaptist communities in the Pacific Rim nations and beyond. Toward that end, the journal has added American and European representation to its Editorial Board, moved from print to online, and published work of international interest such a recent article on “The baptist Imagination of James McClendon.” I hope readers of Ecclesial Theology will visit the new web site of the journal and read new issues as they are published.

I also hope that scholars working on article-length projects with connections to Baptist studies will consider responding to the call for manuscript submissions. For those so interested, here's some information on the journal and submissions from the PJBR masthead:

The Pacific Journal of Baptist Research (PJBR) is an open-access online journal which aims to provide an international vehicle for scholarly research and debate in the Baptist tradition, with a special focus on the Pacific region. However, topics are not limited to the Pacific region, and all subject matter potentially of significance for Baptist/Anabaptist communities will be considered. PJBR is especially interested in theological and historical themes, and preference will be given to articles on those themes. PJBR is published twice-yearly in May and November. Articles are fully peer-reviewed, with submissions sent to international scholars in the appropriate fields for critical review before being accepted for publication. The editor will provide a style guide on enquiry. All manuscript submissions should be addressed to the Senior Editor: myk.habets@carey.ac.nz.

Funding the formation of the called

Students at Gardner-Webb University
School of Divinity

This post appeared last week on the Associated Baptist Press ABPnews Blog. It addresses a looming crisis regarding the theological education of ministers for churches affiliated with my own ecclesial communion, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, but the problem it addresses is not unique to the CBF, and its recommendations are applicable to other denominations and their institutions, mutatis mutandis.

Robert Dilday’s article on the educational indebtedness of the church’s future ministers published last Friday by Associated Baptist Press, along with the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education paper “The Gathering Storm: The Educational Debt of Theological Students” referenced in the article, should be pondered deeply by anyone who cares about the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and its future.

The CBF owes its very existence to concerns about the sort of theological education that would be received by the future ministers of moderate-to-progressive Baptist congregations that did not identify with the hard-right turn of the Southern Baptist Convention. During CBF’s first decade the Fellowship increasingly lent financial support to what it now describes as “the 15 seminaries, theology schools or Baptist studies programs in CBF’s network of ministry partnerships.”

As a teacher of theology in CBF partner schools, I’m grateful for the financial support my students have received from Fellowship Baptists. But in light of the realities described in Dilday’s ABP story, I’m convinced that it’s time for us to give renewed attention to increasing scholarship funding of students who receive theological education at our partner institutions.

I propose four ways we can do this, starting with the grassroots of CBF local congregational life:

1. Each CBF-affiliated congregation can fund a scholarship at a CBF theological education partner school. This might be the school nearest geographically to the church, or perhaps the school that educated its ministers or in which members are currently pursuing degrees. Each of the 15 divinity schools, seminaries, and Baptist studies programs has its own unique channels through which scholarships may be funded. The deans, presidents, or program directors of partner schools will be glad to supply information and guidance for next steps.

2. Individual members of CBF-affiliated congregations with the means to do so can fund a scholarship at a CBF theological education partner school. Some potential donors may happen to read this blog post. Other potential donors may come to the minds of other readers who can make them aware of this way to make a significant difference in the life of the church.

3. State CBF organizations can increase their scholarship funding for students attending CBF theological education partner schools. My own state organization, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, has long provided scholarship funds for students from its churches and in recent years has increased this funding. But in North Carolina, where there are more CBF theological education partner institutions than in any other state, other sources of scholarship aid available to students in the early years of these schools are now being phased out, and students are bearing ever-larger portions of the cost of their theological education, often in the form of debt—the repayment of which will be more expensive as the interest of loans for graduate education is no longer federally subsidized. In North Carolina and beyond, the health of CBF life at the state level will depend in no small measure on funding the theological education of the particular ministers most likely to serve churches in their states.

4. CBF national can increase its funding for scholarships for students attending its theological education partner schools. As I’ve written in a previous ABPnews Blog post, I’m enthusiastic about the direction of CBF national life under the leadership of our new Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter. The near future of CBF is one of re-visioning, reorganization, and realignment of resources. It represents a timely opportunity for all involved in the renewal of CBF life at the national level to recover a sense of the importance of theological education to the future of CBF and to address as an urgent matter the funding of students preparing for ministry.

In recent years many have spoken and written of the need to create a “culture of call” to cultivate the ministers the church needs to lead it into God’s future. If that culture is to be sustainable, it must be supported by renewed efforts to fund the formation of the called.