International church leaders and theologians gathered at Yale University on February 4-6, 2000 to discuss the future of the ecumenical movement in the 21st century. The Yale Conference on Ecumenism: Justification and the Future of the Ecumenical Movement brought together key players from the Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed and Roman Catholic traditions to reflect upon the Joint Declaration on Justification, signed in October 1999 by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church.
The Joint Declaration, the first international agreement ever signed by the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, is considered by many to be the most important ecumenical development of the 20th century. It brings to an end four centuries of mutual condemnations by the two churches.
The conference presented the first significant opportunity to raise the question of whether the Anglican and Reformed traditions might also enter into the Joint Declaration on Justification. William Rusch, director of the Commission on Faith and Order of the National Council of Churches and an organizer of the conference, asked in his introductory remarks whether the bilateral agreement on justification might become multi-lateral as a vehicle for moving forward ecumenical relations among the traditions.
In his keynote address, Walter Kasper, a leading Roman Catholic theologian and officer of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity at the Vatican, remarked of the Joint Declaration, "We held our hands together as churches, and we wish to let go never again." Kasper, who made his first visit to the United States for the conference, went on to offer a conception of ecumenism grounded in the Trinity. "Our unity in reconciled diversity is an image of the triune God," he said.
Kasper charted three frontiers for ecumenism: the interpretation of Scripture; ecclesiology and ministry; and the need for a new common language in which to express the core of the gospel. Kasper noted that the language of the 16th-century debates on justification is no longer relevant to most Christians today.
Sir Henry Chadwick, former dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and a leading Anglican ecumenist, acknowledged numerous areas of agreement between the four traditions but also spoke of the historical difficulty between Anglicans, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics over the issue of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. According to Chadwick, the question of church authority will continue to remain significant in future ecumenical dialogue.
Gabriel Fackre, former professor of theology at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, and one of the leading ecumenists in the community of Reformed churches in the United States, responded from the Reformed perspective. Michael Root, professor of systematic theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and former director of the Lutheran Ecumenical Institute in Strasbourg, France, responded from the Lutheran tradition.
R William Franklin, dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and an Anglican representative in Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, noted that the setting of the conference signified an important development in ecumenical relations. "The fact that the university was the context for the discussion, with church leaders, theologians and students participating together, opens up a new model for the future," Franklin said. "As an inter-traditional divinity school, Yale offered a perfect setting for dialogue about how different traditions can learn, worship and work together."
George Lindbeck, professor emeritus of theology at Yale and a Lutheran theologian, gave in his opening remarks an overview of the history and significance of ecumenical theology at Yale. For Lindbeck, the conference constituted a revival within the academy of ecumenical theology, which he described as having been "relatively dormant" in the past few decades.
The conference was sponsored through a joint partnership of Yale University Divinity School, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches, with the assistance of the Luce Foundation. Among the church leaders attending were Bishop Christian Krause, head of the Lutheran World Federation, George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Robert Isaksen, bishop of the New England Synod of the E.L.C.A, and David Perry, director of ecumenical relations for the Episcopal Church.
Yale faculty participants included Margaret Farley, president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, L. Serene Jones, David Kelsey, Gene Outka, Letty Russell, Miroslav Volf and Anna Williams.
In the conference's final session, church leaders, faculty and students set forth as a next step the hope of organizing a North American conference on faith and order. Such an event has not occurred in thirty years.
Yale Divinity School students representing different traditions played an integral role in the organization of the conference, which was held in conjunction with Lutherans in Diaspora, the annual gathering of Lutheran seminarians on the East Coast. The conference culminated in an ecumenical vespers service led by students.
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, one of the twelve seminaries of the Episcopal Church, is affiliated with Yale University Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. More information about Berkeley and Yale can be found http://www.yale.edu/divinity/.