Ecumenical Christmas Quiz - Answers

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The Methodist Ecumenical News Christmas Quiz has kept you all guessing for weeks I am sure.  The quiz was so difficult, that no-one submitted any answers.  Here they are at last - most of them refer to significant events during 2010.

1. When is a LEP not a LEP? - Everyone has heard of a Local Ecumenical Partnerships, abbreviated to LEP from time immemorial.  Last year the British Government saw fit to introduce Local Enterprise Partnerships, also to be abbreviated.  So, take your pick. 
2. Who might be wearing their own ordinary hat from 2011?  I'm afraid this is a rather silly pun.  So, 'their own' would be 'personal' and 'ordinary hat' is of course the 'ordinariate'.  The first Anglicans were received into the Ordinariate on Saturday 1 January 2011.
3. Who is the odd one out? (Give your reason.) Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Archbishop Rowan Williams, Bishop Nathan Hovhanissian and Commissioner Elizabeth Matear.   These are the four Presidents of Churches Together in England.  Bishop Hovhanissian stood down during 2010, as reported in a post last year.
4. What do the following have in common? Be specific for extra points ... Revd Martin Atkins, Revd Roberta Rominga, Revd David Cornick, Revd Olav Fyske Tveit, Brother Stephen Smyth.   They are all General Secretaries of, in the same order, the Methodist Church of Great Britain,the United Reformed Church, Churches Together in England, the World Council of Churches and Action of Churches Together in Scotland. 
5. Join the dots ...

Edinburgh - World Missionary Conference in 1910

Lausanne - First Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation 1976

Edinburgh Cape Town - Edinburgh 2010 (Centenary of 1910) in June 2010 and the Third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelisation in October 2010.

Now pay attention through 2011 and see if you can answer the next quiz!

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The Way to the Global Christian Forum

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One of the realities many ecumenists encounter, locally through to international, is the separation of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches from the mainstream ecumenical movement.  This has been addressed internationally through the Global Christian Forum in recent years. 

I've found a blog post, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Global Christian Forum, which summarises the origins of this split and the story of how the Global Christian Forum was founded.

Here's a an excerpt from the account of how the split was formed:

One con­cern Evan­gel­i­cals and Pen­te­costals have often had is the loss of the mis­sion­ary spirit among ecumenically-minded Christians—a ter­ri­ble irony, con­sid­er­ing that ecu­menism was born at the Edin­burgh Mis­sion­ary Con­fer­ence in 1910. The Inter­na­tional Mis­sion­ary Coun­cil that was formed as a result of the Edin­burgh con­fer­ence even­tu­ally joined the World Coun­cil of Churches in 1961; many Evan­gel­i­cals left in protest. 1974 saw the for­ma­tion of the Lau­sanne Com­mit­tee for World Evan­ge­liza­tion, fol­low­ing a Con­gress in the same place and year, at the ini­tia­tive of the Amer­i­can evan­ge­list Billy Gra­ham. There 2500 Evan­gel­i­cal lead­ers from 150 coun­tries recom­mit­ted them­selves to world evan­ge­liza­tion in sign­ing the Lau­sanne Covenant. Clearly enough, they weren’t impressed by the WCC’s abil­ity to keep up the mis­sion­ary task of the church.

The post goes on to describe how the Global Christian Forum was founded and designed to compensate 'for their “under­rep­re­sen­ta­tion” else­where, as well as to demon­strate the will­ing­ness of “ecu­meni­cal vet­er­ans” to be in the minority'.

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Evangelical Congress takes Reconciliation as Key to its Mission

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This month's CTE News carries the following report about the third Lausanne Congress:

The third Congress of the Lausanne Movement met in Cape Town, South Africa. Delegates from 200 countries discussed evangelism [the way the Christian message is announced] in diverse contexts, styles and cultures. The theme of the event was “God in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5.19).

The Lausanne Movement seeks to be a global network of 'reflective practitioners' who share one vision for the work of world evangelisation. The movement began in 1974 when the Revd Dr Billy Graham and the Revd Dr John R.W. Stott convened the International Congress on World Evangelisation in Lausanne, Switzerland with the goal of framing “a biblical declaration on evangelism” and stating “what the relationship is between evangelism and social responsibility”. The Lausanne Covenant adopted by the first congress has been a rallying cry for many Christians, and for some it has come to define what is meant by “evangelical”. A delegation representing the World Council of Churches (WCC) and led by the WCC General Secretary, the Revd Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has been present at the third congress, in Cape Town, an event the Lausanne movement leadership refers to as its "most diverse gathering ever". Over the decades, the WCC and leaders of the Lausanne movement have engaged in lively dialogue concerning the nature of Christian mission, evangelism and social action. Tveit is the first WCC General Secretary to be invited to address such a congress. In his greeting on behalf of the WCC, Tveit spoke of Christians’ “common vision of the holistic mission of God.” He added, “Let us keep the road open, and the dialogue going, so that we learn from one another how we can participate in God’s mission together with respect to others as one Body of Christ.”

A landmark in Christian history

The year 2010 was chosen for this third Lausanne congress because it marks the 100th anniversary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, convened in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a climactic event following 19th-century missionary expansion, and has been identified by historians of Christianity as the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement. Several 2010 events are being held throughout the world in honour of this centenary, including a June consultation in Edinburgh at which Tveit provided introductory remarks.

Tveit told the congress in Cape Town that reconciliation is what being Christian “is all about." He said" "We are called to be one, to be reconciled, so that the world may believe that God reconciles the world to himself in Christ." In the opening session of the congress, the Revd Dr S. Douglas Birdsall, executive chair of the Lausanne Movement, also emphasised the theme of reconciliation. Birdsall welcomed participants, saying that reconciliation is "our focus, our calling and our passion. It is this reconciling gospel that brings us together." He encouraged delegates to draw close to each other as they were drawing close to God. "This is a working congress with a specific task. Its outcomes, shaped by us all as we look to God, could help to chart the course of world evangelisation for the next decades," he said.

The diversity of the congress in Cape Town was echoed by the Bible study groups in which delegates meet each morning to reflect together on a text from Ephesians. Participants shared their own observations and applied what they read to their own context. Each group was like a microcosm of the global church, providing an opportunity to sit together, learn from one another, show concern for one another, stimulate and build partnerships and also to pray for one another.

Voices for justice and reconciliation

In an interview, the moderator of the WCC Commission of World Mission and Evangelism, Metropolitan Geevarghese Mor Coorilos, said that in a historical context that requires greater unity among Christians, the participation of the WCC in this congress of the Lausanne movement would go a long way toward bridging the gap between evangelicals and the ecumenical movement, "a distinction that we need to overcome". "It is particularly reassuring to listen to the voices for justice and reconciliation," Mor Coorilos said. He added that he prays that the spirit of unity in the congress, which was also demonstrated by a broad constituency and in a tangible manner at the centennial celebrations of the 1910 World Mission Conference earlier this year in Edinburgh, could be sustained for a long time.

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The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization

Four thousand people are currently attending the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town.  It started on 16 October and continues until 25 October 2010.  There's a lot of material on the website.  Also John Baxter Brown is present and posting about it on his blog.  The following are a few excerpts from the Congress website that explain what it is about.

We believe 2010 is a significant year in which to hold the congress.  2010 is the 100th anniversary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, convened in Edinburgh, Scotland under the leadership of John R. Mott.  CT2010 gives the church an opportunity to celebrate the Edinburgh Conference and the progress made in missions and evangelization since that time.  It also offers an opportunity to take an inventory of where we are as a global church.  What have we learned with regard to missions and evangelization since 1910?  What mistakes have been made and what can we learn from them?  What new challenges and opportunities are before us in sharing the gospel? 

The Lausanne Movement is a dynamic, catalytic environment in which like-minded missional leaders can engage with one another face to face and through technology to deal with the seminal issues that are before us with respect to world evangelization.  Lausanne provides a theological basis (The Lausanne Covenant) that allows leaders to move forward in their development of collaborative relationships and partnerships in theological reflection and with strategic action. 

CT2010 is the third major Lausanne world congress.  In July 1974 some 2,700 participants and guests from over 150 nations gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland for the International Congress on World Evangelization.  Since 1974, dozens of Lausanne-related global, regional, and topical conferences have been convened all over the world.

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