A CLOUD OF WITNESSESOpportunities for Ecumenical

Commemoration

Proceedings of the International Ecumenical SymposiumMonastery of Bose, 29 October – 2 November 2008

Edited by Tamara Grdzelidze and Guido Dotti

Faith and Order Paper No. 209WCC Publications

Geneva 2009

Cover Design : Judith Rempel SmuckerCover photo: The Last Judgement, from an illumination of

the Beato de Liébana Commentary (11th century). Reprinted with permission from the Monastery of Bose.

Published by WCC PublicationsPO Box 2100

CH-1211 Geneva 2Switzerland

oikoumene.org

ISBN 978-2-8254-1533-7

©2010 World Council of ChurchesAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

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Printed in France

Table of contents

Foreword 9by Guido Dotti and Tamara Grdzelidze

List of Contributors 15

Introductory Section 21

On Witness and Holiness by + Rowan Williams 22

Witness and Martyrdom in the Bible by Enzo Bianchi 26

Faith and Order Roots of Ecumenical Commemoration 35

From Bangalore 1978 to Bose 2008 by Tamara Grdzelidze 36

The Achievement of Bilateral Dialogues and Some Implications for a Common Martyrology by Mary Tanner 41

Traditional Insights and Practices for Witnessing 53

The Sanctity of Blood. Martyrdom as Ecclesiastical Witness According to Orthodox Tradition by Panaghiotis A. Yfantis 54

Spiritual Life, Love, Martyrdom in Roman Catholic Tradition by Marco Gnavi 62

Norwegian Lutheran Tradition for Commemoration by Øystein Bjørdal 71

The Working of God’s Power: Towards a Pentecostal Understanding of Martyrdom and its Commemoration by Dale M. Coulter 74

Case Studies on Witnessing from Different Regions 81 A Witness of Courage and Faith in Brazil: Pastor Richard Wangen by Karen Bergesch 82

The 20th Century Martyrdom in Latin America by Daniel A. Bruno 89

Remembering Rightly: A Response to Karen Bergesch and Daniel A. Bruno by William T. Cavanaugh 99

Commemoration of Martyrs of the Struggle as a Contested Terrain in a Democratic South Africa: The Case of Inkosi Albert Luthuli by Simangaliso R. Kumalo 106

Protestant Martyrs under the Nazi Regime by Andreas Kurschat 118

Martyrs for Christ in Communist Romania by Iustin Marchis 124

The importance of the self-sacrifi ce of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by Alexander Mazyrin 134

The Russian Myrrh-bearing Women of the 20th Century by Lidia Golovkova 140

Light and Shadow of a Cloud of Witnesses unto Death. An Experience of Korean Churches’ Martyrdom and its Theological Refl ection by Seong-Won Park 146

Experiences and Theology of Christian Martyrdom in Korea: A Response to Seong-Won Park by Helen Rhee 155

Called to be Peacemakers (Melanesia) by Richard A. Carter 160

United in the Fellowship of Christ: Analysis of Theological Criteria Used in the Case Studies by Alan D. Falconer 170

Reconciliation through Memories and Places 179 Reconciliation between Mennonites and Roman Catholics by Helmut Harder 180

Reconciling Memories and Peace by Hansulrich Gerber 192

Places of Memory by Hans Uytenbogaardt and Guido Dotti 200

Celebrating Saint Olav. An Ecumenical, Contemporary Commemoration of a Saint from the Time of the Undivided Church by Knut Kittelsaa 210

Ecumenical Opportunities for Commemoration. Suggestions from Different Traditions 217 Refl ections on the Question of an Ecumenical Commemoration of Witnesses. Challenges, Obstacles, Possibilities and Suggestions from a Lutheran Perspective by Dagmar Heller 218

Ecumenical Experiences in Commemoration of the Cloud of Witnesses from a Reformed Perspective by Martin Hoegger 224

Celebrating All Saints, the Known and the Unknown: An Orthodox Approach for an Ecumenical Commemoration of Witnesses by Job Getcha 233

Ecumenical Opportunities for Commemoration: A Roman Catholic Perspective by Keith F. Pecklers 239

Liturgical Resources 245

The Final Message to the Churches 299

Appendix 305a) Memorandum I (2004) 306

b) Memorandum II (2007) 313

c) Note on Bibliography 317

FOREWORD

10 - A CLOUD OF WITNESSES

The Bose Symposium on A Cloud of Witnesses: Opportunities for Ecumenical Commemoration became a testimony to the driving perception in the process towards this event – that witnesses of faith can be commonly shared by all Christians. Despite specifi c contexts, a witness may bear universal meaning. The means of acquiring the status of witness is also commonly shared: hardship, suffering, endurance, persecution are of a universal nature and move the hearts and minds of all human beings in various parts of the world.

The fi rst person to be mentioned in this volume is Lukas Vischer, former director of Faith and Order and untiring servant of the dialogue among Christians. As soon as Lukas learned about Il libro dei Testimoni. Un martirologio ecumenico1 he connected it with the Bangalore statement2 which initially inspired the Monastery of Bose to undertake such research, and strove to mobilize ecumenical energy around this theme. It was on his suggestion that the Monastery of Bose and the Faith and Order Secretariat worked jointly on “A Cloud of Witnesses”.

Brothers and sisters in the Monastery of Bose come from various Christian churches and this has been for them a stimulus for seeking to retrace their way to the common biblical patrimony, to the teaching and testimony of the undivided church of the fi rst centuries. They are accustomed to celebrate a shared memory in the liturgy of these sequentiae sancti Evangelii, these “passages of the holy gospel” that are the witnesses, the martyrs, the saints who have obeyed the commandment “you shall be holy for I our God am Holy” (Lev. 19:2). In this they felt encouraged also by the decree on ecumenism of Vatican Council II, where it says:

…Catholics must gladly acknowledge and esteem the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage which are to be found among our separated brethren. It is right and salutary to recognize the riches of Christ and virtuous works in the lives of others who are bearing witness to Christ, sometimes even to the shedding of their blood. For God is always wonderful in His works and worthy of all praise. Nor should we forget that anything wrought by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of our separated brethren can be a help to our own edifi cation. Whatever is truly Christian is never contrary to what genuinely belongs to the faith; it can always bring a deeper realization of the mystery of Christ and the Church.2

Thus, already in the early 1970s, the Community of Bose began to edit a small ecumenical martyrology and to seek ways of commemoration that would conform to the gospel and

1 Comunità di Bose, Il libro dei testimoni. Martirologio ecumenico, Cinisello Balsamo, San Paolo, 2002 (French translation: Communauté de Bose, Témoins de Dieu, Martyrologie universel, Bayard, Paris, 2005; Polish translation: Klasztor Bose, Księga świadków. Martyrologium ekumeniczne, Święty Paweł, Częstochowa, 2004.). Available on line in Italian (http://tinyurl.com/Bose-Martirologio), English (http://tinyurl.com/Bose-Martyrology) and French (http://tinyurl.com/Bose-Martyrologe). on: http://www.monasterodibose.it/index.php/content/section/34/484/lang,it/

2 Sharing in One Hope, Commission on Faith and Order, Bangalore 1978, Faith and Order Paper no. 92, WCC Publications, Geneva, 1978.

FOREWORD - 11

respect the deepest convictions of the various churches. The suggestion made at the Faith and Order Commission meeting in Bangalore in 1978 appeared to them to be an ecumenically authoritative confi rmation of their path.3

When later, in the course of a few months between November 1994 and May 1995, two texts of Pope John Paul II – fi rst the Tertio millennio adveniente, then the encyclical Ut unum sint – forcefully returned to this hope, Bose found the courage to prepare a volume of common witnesses:

At the close of the second millennium the Church has again become a Church of martyrs… the witness rendered to Christ to the shedding of blood has become the common patrimony of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and Protestants… A testimony not to be forgotten… because the ecumenism of saints, of martyrs, is perhaps the most convincing.4

In Ut unum sint, then, the refl ection widened from martyrs in the strict sense to witnesses of the faith.5

Two MemorandaIt was in Bose that a project on “Cloud of Witnesses” (later referred to as the “Bose project”) initially started. First, in 2004, through the joint efforts of Lukas Vischer and the Community of Bose, representatives of various institutions gathered to discuss the possibility of creating a common martyrology. As a result of conversations over a few days, the initial group (for the constitution of this group see signatures on Memorandum I) was convinced that the common martyrology was one of the outcomes of a much wider and more inclusive project. A Memorandum and a letter signed by the prior of the community and the director of the Faith and Order Secretariat went out to the churches. In 2007, on the basis of the responses from the churches (some of these responses suggested a list of common witnesses) and simultaneous initiatives in different places regarding commemoration of witnesses from different confessions, the Faith and Order Secretariat together with the Community of Bose initiated a new round of communication with the churches and the ecumenical sister organizations. This was Memorandum II which described the process and urged churches to commit themselves to a fi rst step of the Bose Symposium project. Its proceedings are published here.

The Bose Symposium The style and methodology of papers presented here vary. Speakers at the Symposium were invited ad personam. The overarching theme was Christian witness, its biblical, spiritual,

3 Unitatis redintegratio 4, Enchiridion Vaticanum 1. Documenti del Concilio Vaticano II, EDB, Bologna, 1981, pp.298-299.4 Tertio millenio adventiente 37, in Enchiridion Vaticanum 14. Documenti ufficiali della Santa Sede 1994-1995, EDB,

Bologna, 1997, pp.986-988.5 Cf. Ut unum sint 84, in Ibid., pp.1668-1671.

12 - A CLOUD OF WITNESSES

historical, confessional, contextual and liturgical expression(s). Most of the speakers took seriously that witness to faith, martyria, goes beyond any stereotype about living out one’s faith. This spirit which was overwhelmingly present at the Bose Symposium was also refl ected in the Message sent to the churches.6

The proceedings of the Symposium began with a paper by the primate of the Church of England, Archbishop Rowan Williams. His message affected many participants so that discussion groups between plenary sessions tried to discern this spiritual refl ection and some of its themes appeared in the fi nal Message signed by all. The biblical-historical perspective of the theme of witnesses was offered by Enzo Bianchi, the prior of the Monastery of Bose.

The bi-lateral and multilateral treatment of the theme was introduced by Mary Tanner and Tamara Grdzelidze, followed by the traditional understanding of witnesses among the Lutherans (Øysten Bjørdal), Orthodox (Panaghiotis A. Yfantis), Roman Catholics (Marco Gnavi) and Pentecostals (Dale M. Coulter).

The bulk of the papers presented here are on the regional “case studies”. In this section organizers used various methodologies for introducing the theme. Along with single presentations from Germany (by Andreas Kurschat), Romania (by Iustin Marchis), South Africa (by Simangasilo R. Kumalo), Melanesia in the South Pacifi c (Richard A. Carter), there are also paired papers from Russia on witnesses and martyrdom in the Russian church during the 20th century regarding the clergy (by Alexander Mazyrin) and lay women (by Lidia Golovkova). Two other contexts, Korea and Latin America, are presented by the “paper-response” methodology. In the fi rst case Helen Rhee responded to Seong-won Park, in the second case a response was offered by William T. Cavanaugh to the Brazilian (by Karen Bergesch) and Argentinian contexts (Daniel A. Bruno). The analysis of the case studies was shared by Alan D. Falconer.

The fi nal part of this volume covers liturgical refl ections on ecumenical commemoration of witnesses. Lutheran (Dagmar Heller), Reformed (Martin Hoegger), Orthodox (Job Getcha) and Roman Catholic (Keith F. Pecklers) share challenges and perspectives according to their own traditions. Liturgical material suggested by these authors as examples to choose from during ecumenical gatherings follow these papers.

The theme of reconciliation through commemoration of witnesses was a special issue at the Symposium: reconciliation between two confessions (Mennonites and Roman Catholics by Helmut Harder), reconciling the memories of the past (Hansulrich Gerber), reconciliation through places of memory (Hans Uytenboogardt, later helped by Guido Dotti), pilgrimage as a way to commemorate anew a saint thus reconciling the past with the present in the church (Knut Kittelsaa).

6 See the Message on pp. 299-304.

FOREWORD - 13

It is a great pity when the richness of group discussions at symposia similar to the one on “A Cloud of Witnesses” does not reach the reader. However, the Message at the end of the papers highlights some of those riches. This Message has already been sent to the member churches of the World Council of Churches as well as to the other ecumenical organizations with the hope that one day it will bear fruit.

The proceedings end with two Memoranda and a note on bibliography; a bibliography compiled of books suggested in the papers and then extended by some other sources on the theme was too long to be included in this volume. However it can be found on the website of the Monastery of Bose.

A number of persons need to be thanked in connection with this event and the volume. Our gratitude for help in various matters of planning the symposium and fi nal editing of the proceedings goes fi rst to Matthias Wirz. For continual support we thank the sisters and brothers of the Community of Bose whose spirit of love and devotion provided fruitful soil for a successful symposium on witnesses of faith. For their excellent work and dedication we express deep gratitude to the drafters of the fi nal Message, Mary Tanner, Dale Coulter and Job Getcha.

For a grant to Faith and Order to be used for this publication our deep gratitude goes to the Presbyterian Church USA and to Joseph D. Small, the director of Theology, Worship and Education.

The editorsPentecost 2009