The official press releases and documents from ecumenical meetings do not always tell the personal perspective and reception of the meeting. This article is an attempt to give space to four participants’ individual voices and to raise questions regarding the EEA3 four-step process.

The Rome encounter gathered 150 delegates from various different denominations and countries. I met two Roman Catholic priests, Rev. Tom Shields S.T.L. from Scotland (Bishops Conference Scotia) and Very Revd. Pádraig Murphy (Adm.) from Ireland (Bishops Conference Hibernia), in a coffee break. “People here have the same attitude: they are looking for dialogue. They are committed to ecumenism”, describes Rev. Tom Shields his impression on the meeting. Very Revd. Pádraig Murphy continues: “Here we can become aware of the Christian Church, East and West. Normally we are in an environment of Catholic clergy only.”

Many people came to Rome with great expectations after the succesful assemblies in Basel (1989) and Graz (1997), the real festivals of "the people of God in Europe” who were full of enthusiasm to gather together after the collapse of the iron curtain. It was the pressure from the grassroots that encouraged CEC and CCEE to set up a journey towards the Third European Ecumenical Assembly. There is certain continuity between the former assemblies and this third one, but also something new. The EEA3 will not consist of one event but is a process of four stages - meetings in Rome, Wittenberg and on a local or regional level, culminating in Sibiu Assembly. Many people involved in this process have seen Basel and Graz. What are they expecting from this new process? Shields and Murphy summarize their expectations: "You may set up an idea beforehand, but it's only during the process that we will discover what the process will be like". Murphy continues: "I am enthusiastic about this journey: something can become concrete. One of the biggest challenges is to try to concretize this, to bring this to the local level and to the life of parish members. How can we communicate this to others? People find it difficult to get enthusiastic about ecumenism" and makes Shields to add: "I hope that the ecumenical journey will continue, that we won't give up." Shields continues describing his hopes for the final meeting in Sibiu: "We have to be open, we will go there to see what the Romanian church has to say. It is wrong to make too narrow expectations."

During the Rome encounter many topical challenges for the churches in Europe were identified and discussed. Shields and Murphy both underline the importance of paying attention to environmental issues. "This is something we can work with together as churches. Christians have not really had a sense of ownership about this question so far." Obviously some other themes such as same sex unions and bioethics, which the two Catholic priests mentioned, will be more challenging to work with. In the beginning of the ecumenical movement ethics was seen as something uniting, as an opposite to dividing dogmas, but coming to our time, churches have come closer in dogmatic questions, but ethics has become more and more dividing a question among the churches. For sure the process will bring many challenges in the field of ethics.

The whole process towards Sibiu will be guided spiritually. Cardinal Walter Casper (Pontificial Council for Promoting Christian Unity) underlined the importance of common prayer: "Prayer is the condition for ecumenical dialogue, otherwise everybody are so wise. It's time to come back to the spiritual heart of ecumenism. Churches need to return back to their roots." Shields and Murphy share the exactly the same opinion: "Unless there is spirituality on prayer, this process becomes meaningless."

The last question regarding the position of Christianity in today's secularized Europe makes Shields and Murphy to think for a while. "We have a big message to bring to all faiths and non-believers. We can still present Christ as a hope of humanity. Society is changing rapidly. There is a danger to start to panic, to reinforce all the traditional and institutional boundaries", states Shields and gives space for his colleague Murphy: "What I fear is that the churches do not address current issues. It is a question of relevance and how to communicate our message. Otherwise people will find their answers elsewhere. Europe is a continent which seems to deny its Christian roots."

After the interview with the two representatives from the Roman Catholic Church I decided to widen my perspective and met with an Orthodox layman, Dr. Th. Georgios Kakkouras who was representing the Church of Cyprus. "I have experienced the Graz assembly and I see this process as a good way to meet the other churches. That is perhaps the most important thing in this meeting. If we have visible unity... Well, that I am not so optimistic about", starts Georgios Kakkouras explaining his impression of the first meeting in Rome and expectations about the whole EEA3 process. He continues with the challenges of the process: "It is a good programme here but it will be difficult to express all these experiences to my people. Not all the Orthodox people accept these meetings. They do not find this important. It is more important for them to live the liturgical life of the church, the church life in Cyprus. It is not their first priority to have a good ecumenical movement". Having thought for a while he adds deepening his analysis of the challenges of the EEA3 process: "We need a more practical way. Here we start from the high level, but most important it is to continue in the lower level. Furthermore, after Sibiu we must continue. We cannot stop the way, but we must have an ecumenical movement and young people to be the ambassadors, to bring the message to the younger generation."

Also with Georgios Kakkouras we start to discuss about the role of spirituality in the ecumenical movement and in the EEA3. "The role of the Orthodox Church in this process? We can share our spirituality, the fathers, illuminated people and tradition, the way to live our spiritual life." All true spirituality leads to concrete acts and does not close our eyes from the society around us. Kakkouras reflects the role of the churches in our societies, in our Europe: "Every Christian church, organisation or movement must have good relations with politicians to vote right people to the parliament. Churches should have closer contacts with them, to be more committed to work with them and influence the decision making and planning processes. Churches should be interested in what is happening in European level and make themselves understood and heard. It is not very important to have a paragraph in the constitution of the European Union, but to have contacts to politicians.” As the small break is about to finish, I move to the last question. “One important theme during this process will be the meaning of the Gospel in these days, the meaning of Christian life in Europe. However, the most important topic to be discussed would be the meaning of the better methods in the ecumenical movement”, answers Kakkouras.

To conclude my interview I wanted to hear also a voice of a young person, “an ambassador” to bring the message to the younger generation, as Georgios Kakkouras put it. Before the encounter there were beautiful words in the documents, but not so many concrete actions to ensure the participation of youth as full members of the churches in all the levels of the process. The seven CEC and CCEE related youth organisations present in the meeting (CIJOC, EYCE, JECI-MIEC, Syndesmos, WSCF-Europe, YMCA and YWCA) together with Pax Christi raised the question during the encounter and drafted a proposal to involve youth representation in the planning committee. (After the meeting the letter was considered and agreed unanimously.) I had a change to meet Hanna Tervanotko, a Finnish Lutheran pastor working as the Regional Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation (Europe), very quickly before her departure on Friday and ask about her expectations: "What I am expecting from this process is a genuine encounter in the ecumenical framework between the different generations”, Hanna says and continues: “I am also hoping that the topical issues in our society will be discussed.”

All in all the participants were satisfied with the first stage of the EEA3 process and agreed that it was good to meet. There was joy in the air for being able to gather together: ”With great hope we have been waiting this. We want to witness together”, rejoiced CEC President Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont. Nevertheless, also some critical and doubtful voices could be heard in the middle of the joy and enthusiasm. Some people raised their concern about the position of youth and women in the process, others wanted to get concrete answers and to define better the aims and objectives of the process in order to be able to motivate people in their local churches. For me especially the latter concern is urgent: how can we start our journey if we do not have an idea which direction to take and where is the goal. We should not arrange anything if we do not know the purpose of doing so. Furthermore, we need an agreement what is ecumenical and what is ecumenism. Before asking whether unity is feasible we should ask what do we want to be united in. There should be a goal, a common vision, for ecumenism. If everything is ecumenism, soon nothing is ecumenism. In the world ever changing and with ever growing pessimism towards the feasibility of the unity, we need to know better where do we want to go and concentrate in. The ecumenical movement cannot do everything at the same time and or go everywhere in this very year. We need to be more focussed. During the meeting the importance of self criticism for the ecumenical movement to be able to continue its journey was underlined. Hopefully it was taken seriously enough and already the coming WCC General Assembly in Porto Alegre in February 2007 would pay enough attention to it. Many people see the ecumenical movement being in a crisis. How do we find a way out?

One major concern for me regarding the process will be the reception in the local churches, in the very local, grassroots level. Are the delegates capable or interested in involving ordinary parish members into this process? Ecumenism is not only an academic issue but should have a connection to the church life. What is the ecumenism that only takes place in the plenary halls and among the very small ecumenical elite? True ecumenism goes to local level, to be lived true on daily basis among the churches. The question remains: how to share the experiences and fruits of the big international meetings to those who were not there. On the other hand, many parish members are not necessary interested in ecumenism and do not consider it to be among the most important issues. It does not help the situation much if they are offered only simultaneous “secondary” meetings in their home cities at the same time when the V.I.P. church delegates travel to Sibiu. Who has a right to contribute to the ecumenical movement and in which level? And is there enough space for discussion in the meetings or is everything already prepared ready behind the scenery?

There will surely be many challenges on the journey towards the EEA3 Assembly in Sibiu. When everybody is brought together instead of bilateral negotiations, there is a need for lots of patience. Obviously one needs to be prepared for conflicts too; In Rome during one morning prayer the question of homosexuality was raised. Nevertheless, people have put lots of hope in the process and are enthusiastic about the many opportunities that it will bring. It really is worth starting the journey. A Letter to the Christians in Europe, which was written by the participants in the end of the Rome encounter, is finished with these words of Pope Benedict XIV which he spoke at the end of the week of prayer for Christian Unity 2006: “We have such a long way to go! But let us not be discouraged; rather, let us start out again together with greater vigour. We can count on Christ’s unfailing presence; humbly and tirelessly, we beg Him for the precious gift of unity and peace.”

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