Discrimination
D. Current Christian thinking and initiatives
- The World Council of Churches
- Northern Ireland
- Taize: a French oasis
- Coventry Cathedral
- South Africa
D1. The World Council of Churches
The creation of the WCC in 1948 was the result of embarrassment on the part of Christians across the splintered denominational churches that they were agents of disharmony in the world instead of reconciliation. If they could not agree amongst themselves, how could they presume to be able to help people overcome their divisions in other respects? Weren't they letting sectional preference make them disloyal to their proper sense of oneness? This had been a danger since the very beginnings of Christianity, as is evident from what Paul has to say about the church in Corinth: one for Paul, one for Apollos, another for Peter - instead of all as one garden, one building (1 Corinthians 1:10-12, 3: 1-10). Their own divisions, with degrees of negative discrimination, were a scandal to the world of the very kind which Paul warned against (Romans 14:13).
They had become acutely aware of this in the decades following World War 1, but it was only after World War 2 that they were successful in acting on it. At a gathering of representatives of the different Protestant and Orthodox Churches in Amsterdam the World Council of Churches was formed. Its priority was to promote ecumenical understanding - for the sake of the church and of the world. The door was continually open to observers from the Roman Catholic Church, and openness on this basis began to develop in the decades following the Second Vatican Council
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/home.html
The special concern for reconciliation is explored in this recent book:
The Reconciliation of Peoples: Challenge to the Churches
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/recon.html
D2. Northern Ireland
The Corrymeela Community in N Ireland has been working for reconciliation between the peoples
http://www.corrymeela.org/
This is but one of over 130 peace and reconciliation organisations now working in N Ireland:
http://www.community-relations.org.uk/services/community-relations-groups/
D3. Taize: a French oasis
Church at Taize with reconciliation as its main focus
http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/taize/church.htm
D4. Coventry Cathedral
From the shell of a building destroyed by Nazi bombing raids in the 1940s, a new cathedral has been built. Amongst its priorities is reconciliation between between peoples and nations
http://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/
A Lutheran visiting Coventry Cathedral for the first time
http://www.thelutheran.org/9809/page29.html
D5. South Africa
The divisions between the peoples of South Africa during the Apartheid years were oppressive. Negative discrimination based on race and colour was institutionalised. Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of Joannesburg condemned it in the following words:
There is no peace in Southern Africa. There is no peace because there is no justice. There can be no real peace and security until there be first justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land. The Bible knows nothing about peace without justice, for that would be crying "peace, peace, where there is no peace". God's Shalom, peace, involves inevitably righteousness, justice, wholeness, fullness of life, participation in decision-making, goodness, laughter, joy, compassion, sharing and reconciliation.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1984/tutu-lecture.html
Since then there has been the release and Presidency of Nelson Mandela, the new South African constitution with its healing intent, and the Commission for Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Though strife continues, the churches throughout South Africa have made 'rainbow' reconciliation their byword
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/mandela/index.html