With a special interest in the Orthodox world and after working and studying the mentalities and the history of the Orthodox Churches with other confessions, Dr. Kaisamari Hintikka will work as Project Secretary for the Church in Dialogue Commission of CEC, a position which will allow her to grasp the future orientation of relations between the Orthodox Church and the Churches of Reformation. This interview tries to shape an outline of these relations.

Q: How did you get involved in studying the Orthodox Church?
Originally, I was interested in churches in socialist states. When it became time to choose the topic of my PhD Romania and especially its Orthodox Church seemed to be a good choice, because at the beginning of the 1990s there were only few studies concerning the recent history of the church and state relations there. On the other hand, for a Finnish Lutheran the Orthodox Church is rather familiar because the Orthodox culture is very visible in the Finnish society and the two churches have close relations.

Q: What are the responsibilities coming from your new position as a researcher to the Conference of European Churches?
The main aim of the project is to collect good experiences on dialogues between the Orthodox Churches and Churches of Reformation in Europe. My main responsibility is to collect information on the ongoing dialogues as well as to analyse how the theological work, methods, follow up and finally reception has been executed in respective churches and dialogues. Since I am myself working only part time in this project and the project time frames are limited, there will be other persons involved in the analysing process. On the basis of this information, we aim to formulate methods, structures and concrete steps which can be taken to improve the reception of the results of the dialogues in different churches.

Q: One of your objectives as a researcher will be to see how the recommendations will be implemented by the respective churches. How do you plan to accomplish this goal?
I’m afraid that there is a slight misunderstanding here: even if the results of the project will be produced in a form of recommendations, CEC’s Churches in Dialogues Commission has no pretensions to try and control the implementation of these on the church level. Naturally, we hope that the churches will find the results of the project useful when preparing the future dialogues, but whether they are introduced in practice is to be decided by the respective churches alone. 

Q: The Orthodox world is reluctant to receive and implement the theological implications of the ecumenical dialogue. What will be your strategy to better improve the reception of the ecumenical dialogues in the "real" Church?
I wouldn’t say the Orthodox world as such is reluctant to receive the theological implications of the ecumenical dialogues. The Orthodox world, even though it quite often tends to appear as one, is composed of many local churches, representing quite a variety of ecumenical approaches. Some Orthodox churches are open to ecumenical dialogues and willing to receive their results – some again are more reluctant in this. It is rather biased to say it is only the Orthodox churches that are unwilling in promoting the reception process, but this is the frailty of the dialogues also in the churches of Reformation. For decades the churches have had dialogues of high theological quality and ecumenical importance, but the implementation of these in the local level has been and is still rather poor. 

Q: Inside the Orthodox world, especially in the monastic world, there are voices saying ecumenism and ecumenical relations are undermining the "pure faith of Orthodoxy". How do you think this resistance can be drawn towards the ecumenical goals?
Some of the questions should to be dealt within the churches themselves. On the other hand, we have to face also in the ecumenical movement the fact that even the Christians cannot agree about everything. It is a fallen world we are still living in. I don’t see any other way for weakening any opposition to ecumenism than continuing the efforts to find deeper understanding between different churches – that is, to continue the dialogue – and thereby prove that this way is essential to the churches and individual Christians.

Q: The common members of the Orthodox and the Protestant Church think the churches should have closer relations with each other. How far can you think these relations can go?
The ultimate goal of all ecumenical work is “that they will be one”. As we all know there still many steps to be taken before this goal will be reached, and it has become evident that in this path it is the small steps that actually take us further than the giant leaps. The local ecumenical atmosphere is a result of so many factors; the theological tendencies affecting within respective churches, the collective history and memory of the members of the churches, the social and political situation, cultural traditions… In some countries, like Finland, the relations between the Orthodox and Lutherans are very close both in the practice of local parish life as well as in theological level, and the churches are able to work very closely together e.g. when participating in public discussion about the values of the society, and thus giving a joint statement as Christians in the society. But it hasn’t always been like that, and the present good conditions are a result of persistent work in both churches.
Unfortunately, there are still areas even within Europe where denominations are not constructive but dividing forces. In these cases the non-theological factors are hindering the possibility to built closer relations on the level of theology.

Q: After pope John Paul II's visits to Romania and other orthodox countries, the relations between the Catholics and the Orthodox have opened a new era in the ecumenical relations. Why do you think the ecumenical relations between the Orthodox and the Protestants are not received at the same level by the Orthodox and the Protestant church members?
As mentioned earlier, there are certainly local churches and countries where the ecumenical atmosphere, the relations between individual Orthodox and Protestant church members and local parishes are in a very high level. However, the local ecumenical relations often are problematic in countries where there are small Protestant churches living besides Orthodox – or Catholic – majority. Even if these minorities are considered as historic churches, they may be so small that from the view point of an average citizen they are rather unknown and thereby cause prejudice. It is very difficult to affect on this kind of attitudes of everyday life, even if the official churches approach each other. On the other hand, the Protestant world has no pope who could act on behalf of the whole community.

Q: The Orthodox Churches see themselves as the guardians of tradition. Is there a possibility they can be convinced that the other churches have their own tradition to share with the others?
The relation between Scripture and Tradition has been one of the central theological questions in the dialogues between the Orthodox churches and the Churches of Reformation. Within the frame work of the global discussions in the Lutheran – Orthodox Joint Commission or in the EKD - Romanian Orthodox dialogue, valid steps have been taken in understanding the Tradition and traditions in both sides.

Q: What comes next after the evaluation is over?
The dialogue continues.

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Comments (1)

1. John, the Baptist Written by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , on 19-08-2007 14:35 Hi,    In whose name John baptised men in water?    I have the answer.

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