Migration: Building Bridges or Barriers?

The Church puts the sacredness of human life at the forefront of the migration debate.  As Christians, the dignity and equality of all human beings is fundamental to our belief.  We are all created in the image of God and are loved by God as part of one human family. The Scriptures challenge our preconceptions about each other and call upon us to speak out about injustice where we find it. Jesus was never afraid to cross social, cultural, geographic and religious boundaries. Racial Justice Sunday provides us with an opportunity to work together to create a society where the hatred, which breeds violence and division, is unacceptable and where everyone in our society, including all migrants, are allowed to realize their full potential and their human dignity.

This paragraph is from the long awaited Churches Together in Britain and Ireland's publication for Racial Justice Sunday, Migration: Building Bridges or Barriers?  The publication can be downloaded from the site and includes background material as well as biblical relflections, sermon notes, personal stories, hymns, prayers and resources for use with children.

The material is based upon the experience of the Migration 2010 initiative of the Conference of European Churches and the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe.A message delivered at the International Migrants Day towards the end of the year fills in some of the detail.

In Memory of Those Who Have Died at the Borders of the EU

Refugee boats in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. Sculpture by Kalliopi Lemos

20 - 26 June 2011 is Refugee Week and this site offers a large amount of information backed by an impressive group of 12 refugee agencies.  Whilst the material on this site might be used to inform liturgies and prayer gropups during the week, it dioes not include, as far as I can see, any material designed for use in Christian worship.

I have however found some on the Conference of European Churches website.  Simply click on this link to download a resource guide, Day of intercession in memory of those who have died at the borders of the EU .  This has been put together by The Commissioner for migration and integration of the Evangelical.Church in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz, German Ecumenical Committee on Church Asylum, EKD Church Office, CCME - Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe, German Ecumenical Committee on Church Asylum.  Some of these sites are in German but the link is to an English version of the report.

Here are some extracts from the introduction to the paper:

In July 2009 the Conference of European Churches declared in Lyon: “As churches in Europe we commit ourselves: to remember those who have died on their journey to find a dignified life in Europe, through an annual day of prayer.” Churches and human rights groups in several European countries will commemorate together on the same day, 26 June 2011, the lethal consequences of the sealing off of the external borders of the EU. Such sealing off takes place through highly perfected technical border protection, through the displacement of border protection measures to neighbouring and transit states of the EU, and through legal agreements with neighbouring and transit states on refugee return, even if this violates human rights.

Churches will remember in prayer the nameless dead who frequently disappear without trace in the sea or in the desert. Their lament, which went unheard by human beings, will be brought before God. What takes place at the borders - far from public scrutiny and control – will be brought to public awareness. Background reports will provide information about the situation of human rights at the borders. Politicians will be reminded of their responsibility to take at long last effective measures to protect human beings and human rights.

The paper includes:

• Ideas for worship
• Proposal for a prayer of intercession for those who have died at the borders of the European Union
• Proposal for a prayer of intercession for those who assist
• Instead of a sermon: personal testimonies
• What we can do
• A summary for newsletters
• Further information and resources

10 Years Since the Charta Oecumenica

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Another article from the May edition of CTE News:

This year is the tenth anniversary of the Charta Oecumenica signed in Strasbourg on 22 April 2001 by the then presidents of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC), Cardinal Miloslav Vlk and Metropolitan Jérémie Caligiorgis respectively, at the end of a European ecumenical meeting and a long path of dialogue involving all the European churches.

The Charta Oecumenica has no dogmatic-magisterial character, nor is it legally binding under church law (cf. Introduction to the Charta Oecumenica). Its realisation is left to the free reception by Christians in Europe. Nevertheless, CCEE and CEC recognise in this document a step and an important aid for the Churches to achieve together that call to unity which is at the same time an obligation for all Christians and a gift of God to be requested incessantly. The Charta Oecumenica is a continual process of construction which, in one way or another, has already marked the ecumenical journey of various church communities in Europe as testified by the numerous translations (more than thirty: from Arabic to Castilian, from Greek to Esperanto) and the scores of churches, communities, church associations and movements which have signed the document.

The penetration of the Charta Oecumenica into the European church and social institutional fabric is such that it is now also quoted in documents by lay institutions as testified by the frequent recourse to it on the part of PACE (the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) in its 25 March 2011 report on The religious dimension of intercultural dialogue (cf. doc 12553 nn. 93, 94 ff.) In order to celebrate this anniversary together, CCEE and CEC decided to collaborate in organising an ecumenical seminar on 9 May at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) organised by the Institute of Ecumenical Studies in collaboration with the Christian Churches in Switzerland Community of work. Participants at the meeting included the two General Secretaries of CCEE and CEC, Fr Duarte da Cunha (CCEE) and Revd Prof. Viorel Ionita (CEC), and speakers included the Bishop of Nanterre (France), Mgr Gérard Daucourt, and Pastor Daniel de Roche, President of the Synodal Council of the Canton of Fribourg, in a round table discussion on accomplishments and challenges for ecclesial communion in Europe.

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Budapest Call for Climate Justice

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Delegates of churches from 32 European countries, with participants from churches from all over the world, met in Budapest from 8 – 12 November 2010 for the consultation “Poverty, Wealth and Ecology in Europe”.

The consultation was part of a broad ecumenical process initiated by the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre in 2006.  It was organised jointly by the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches.

In a preamble to their statement, the report makes the following points about the experience of the consultation:

• In visiting local communities, we have been faced with the impacts of the economic crisis in Hungary.
• We have discussed widespread poverty in the rich continent of Europe, worsened by the present financial collapse.
• We are concerned by growing injustice, social polarization and sharpening regional disparities of Europe.
• We note the broad social and economic gap between old and new member states of the European Union.
• We recognize that great sections of Eastern Europe and many in the Western parts in the present situation are confronted with the suffering of people living under abject poverty, and that this is therefore a priority of the churches concerned.
• We acknowledge that we are part of societies which are obsessed by the ideology of growth and consumerism.
• We demand that people should be in the centre of economic policies.
• We have criticized the primacy of economy over people and creation as a whole.
• We as the people of God are called to participate in the work of God in this world, extending God’s love and care to all human and non-human members of the ‘community of creation’.
• We recognize that unsustainable methods of wealth creation and the adherence to unlimited growth impoverish communities and harm creation as a whole.
• In the light of these insights, which we identify as signs of a profound spiritual crisis, we, the delegates of European churches released the Budapest Call for Climate Justice – addressing poverty, wealth and ecology.

This is followed by their Call for Climate Justice.  They argue the great challenge of climate change calls for a great transition and that God's promises encourage the churches to make a start.

Ekklesia have posted a useful summary of the background to the consultation, wherein they quote  Dr Rogate Mshana, director of the WCC programme on Justice, Peace and Creation, who says: "The meeting in Budapest showed the importance of international ecumenical cooperation on the issues of poverty eradication and care for creation.  Christians have an important message for today's world: we are all responsible to advocate and work for systems that eradicate poverty and must not let our lives be defined by systems of greed.  The churches in the different countries and regions can make this message heard in different places and can hold each other accountable."

Related articles

• The Way to the Global Christian Forum (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Evangelical Congress takes Reconciliation as Key to its Mission (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Poverty of Ambition? Churches and a Politics of Hope (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• All Things in Common (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

Relationships with Other Denominations 4: Ecumenism in Europe

Image by Erik D via Flickr

This is the fourth of 5 posts introducing the ecumenical section of the Methodist Church website. I suggest you open the site in another tab so that you can see what I'm writing about. Relationships with Other Denominations can be accessed directly, or if you go to the website home page, click on Ecumenism under Open to the World. Click on Ecumenical Information and then on Ecumenism in Europe, which should bring you here.

Where we work: Europe is a page from the World Church Relations section of the Methodist Church website.  This page offers an overview of the Methodist Church in Europe.  It is complemented by the account of the European Methodist Council.  This is where the European Methodist Churches collaborate.  Notable examples of collaboration is the Methodist Representative to the Holy See and the European Methodist Youth Council.

The other two links cover the ecumenical structures in Europe, the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and the Conference of European Churches.

If you want to know more about European ecumenism, you might consider subscribing to the Church of England's European Bulletin.  A link can be found on the Ecumenism in Europe page.

Please comment below if you have points to make about European ecumenism or questions to ask. 

I will respond to comments when I return from leave on or soon after 24 August 2010.  The final post in this series will be next Tuesday.

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• Second Ecumenical Kirchentag 2 (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)