Kottayam

WEAVING COMMUNITIES OF RECONCILIATION AND UNITY

The main topic chosen for the October issue of the FOCUS journal is based on the theme of the 11th assembly of the World Council of Churches to be held at Karisruhe in Germany from 31Aug to 8 Sept 2022. The theme chosen for the assembly is ‘Christ’s love moves the world to Reconciliation and Unity’. (The WCC has 350 member Churches in 110 countries having 500Million Christians world-wide). The COVID -19 Pandemic has raised umpteen questions before us to search for the local and the national relevance of the subject. This Christo- centric theme has several theological overtones. Weaving communities of reconciliation and unity is the mission agenda of the Church, particularly in the 21st Century. The challenges of wider ecumenism led us to this focal point in mission concerns today. For the 10th assembly of the WCC (Bussan), the theme chosen was one of Theo-centric (“God of life-lead us to justice and peace”). In fact, the present theme speaks more of “Wider Ecumenism” which is deeply concerned with the healing of human brokenness in a borderless world. “Think locally and act globally” is the challenge posed before us. There is a close link between the Theo-centric and the Christo-centric missional concerns of the Church. The Christological affirmation of mission is indeed an enlargement of the Theo-centric missional concerns in God’s one world. So, we read in I Tim 2:5: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men the MAN JESUS.” This MAN JESUS is the saviour of the world and the mediator of the New Covenant between God and people of all races and nations. He is also the agent of creation and reconciliation. The three Greek prepositions used in the New Testament speak of the Divine plan of salvation (Oikonomia). In a nut shell, they are en, dia and eis (in, through and to respectively). The plan of salvation is well stated sotereologically in 2 Cor 5:18-19: “All this is from God, who through Christ (dia Christou) reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation and that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting the trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation.” The goal of God’s initiative in Christ is for the fulfillment of the divine purpose for unity, as we read in Eph1:10: “. . . as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite (anakephalaiosasthai) all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

Liberation and Reconciliation

Liberation and Reconciliation are the two paradigms for Christian mission in the contemporary world. In 2 Cor 5:17-20, as stated above, one finds five connected issues: i) Reconciliation is the work of God. ii) God’s reconciling work begins with the victim. iii) God makes both the victim and the wrongdoer a new creation. iv) The Christian places the suffering inside the story of the passion of Christ (Phil 3:10). v) Resurrection of Jesus and its message is the protest of God against evil towards, a unitive vision of new humanity.

In the process of reconciliation two things are imperative:

1) Truth telling

Symptoms of violence are seen everywhere. Lack of amity among the nations of the world has contributed economic imbalance, fear of death, violation of environmental rights, social disharmony created by the digital divide, market terrorism, rape of the Mother earth, religious intolerance, and denial of the freedom of dissent etc. In this context, a search for the thread that unites the terrestrial and the celestial is quite legitimate. Truth telling is an essential ingredient for the reconstruction of the community. There is need for the cleaning of wells, which have been polluted by the age-old deposit of prejudice, discrimination, inequality and violence. For example, In the case of the Post-Apartheid South Africa, ‘Truth, Reconciliation and Justice’ played a significant role in the process of restoration. The same should be the case in the relationship between the nations and also between the factions in churches. The issue of peace in pluralistic societies particularly in Asia calls forth the evolution of just social structures for which the spirituality of religion rather than its religiosity is required. Forgiveness and reconciliation are to be made visible in areas of “sinned