A. The European roots of ecumenical dialogue

The period of global growth in witness and service that brought Mennonites out of isolation into social involvement also resulted in new opportunities for theological discussion with other Christians, particularly on matters of peace and war. It is significant to note that the most important efforts in this area grew out of the presence of American Mennonites in Europe after World War II, in particular a core group of young men who had gone abroad in relief and reconstruction efforts and remained to study in European universities.

We noted above that this group was at the center of postwar Mennonite theological renewal; they were also at the forefront of ecumenical dialogue. Along with contemporaries from the Brethren and Quakers, they undertook to engage in extended theological discussion with representatives of the major Protestant traditions.

A crucial beginning point for the dialogue was the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948. The first WCC General Assembly report stated that "war is contrary to the will of God," and then went on to elaborate the three positions taken by Christians regarding participation in warfare:

1)war as a given duty, based on national loyalty, assuming a just cause;

2)war as an unjust necessity, the lesser evil;

3)war as impossible for believers, thus the stance of pacifism.

This "trilemma" illustrates the problem of a divided church (or better, churches), obviously chastened by the horrors of two world wars, but still caught for the most part in the assumptions of the Constantinian heritage.

From the renewed "sectarian" bodies, the Historic Peace Church Continuation Committee was formed in 1949 to orchestrate a response to the WCC. Thus began an engagement with ecumenical circles that has continued up to the present. Donald Durnbaugh's book, On Earth Peace, traces the story of these 40 years of discussions, focusing mostly on the European scene.

The centerpiece of this story is the series of Puidoux conferences (1955 to 1962) that brought together mostly younger Peace Church scholars with a number of interested and distinguished European theologians. Significant names from those early encounters include M.R. Zigler, John Howard Yoder, Paul Peachey and Albert Meyer, and European scholars Heinz Kloppenburg, Jean Lasserre and Ernst Wolf.⁷

The work initiated at Puidoux ended in 1969, but efforts at international dialogue have continued in other settings. Church and Peace in Europe and the HPC/FOR Consultative Committee in North America continue to monitor and facilitate dialogue. Although thepeace churches seem to be relatively tiny and marginal to the major ecumenical bodies, peace church representatives have made contributions to various WCC study projects such as the 1972 Cardiff Consultation on Violence, Nonviolence and the Struggle for Justice. More recently, the Prague Conference of First and Radical Reformation Churches has brought Mennonites and others into a wider orbit of groups with a common sectarian heritage, initiating conversations that hold forth the promise of renewed interest in a radical witness for the present.

B. Justice, peace and the integrity of creation

The major recent effort in global ecumenism with a special peace emphasis is the World Council of Churches (WCC) program priority known as "JPIC." A brief account of that process provides background for possible peace church participation.

During the 1983 WCC Sixth Assembly in Vancouver, B.C., delegates from the member churches urged that the WCC should give priority emphasis to the integration of concerns for global ecology, peace and social justice. Their resolution called on the churches to engage in "a conciliar process of mutual commitment (covenant) for justice, peace and the integrity of creation."

From the start, the clear intent of this call has been to work with all the Christian bodies of the globe, including Roman Catholics and other groups not members of WCC. (No North American Mennonite bodies belong to the WCC, although Dutch and German Mennonites participate. WCC itself includes some 310 denominational bodies - Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and Old Catholic -- representing 400 million believers from more than 100 countries.)

To implement this vision, the governing bodies and staff of the WCC have moved deliberately to begin a long-range process, looking toward a culminating global event in 1990. Preman Niles of Sri Lanka was appointed as secretary of the process. At the first international consultation on the theme, at Glion, Switzerland, November 1986, Mennonite scholar John Howard Yoder and Quaker Stephen Cary, chairperson of American Friends Service Committee, were among the presenters.

Early in 1987, the WCC Central Committee acted to invite the Roman Catholic Church to be "co-invitors" for the World Convocation. In December 1987, the reply from Rome promised full participation but co-invitation was deemed impossible because of the "different nature" of the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church.

The JPIC theme is a deliberate effort to recognize the interrelatedness of these three elements of the biblical vision of "shalom." In today's world, however, they each tend to have distinct and at times rival constituencies.

"Justice" identifies the problem of the "southern" half of planet earth, with its millions of poor, powerless and oppressed peoples."Peace" is the concern of the developed nations of the North living with the nuclear threat. And although not usually as sharply focused, the creation theme reminds us that the whole globe is suffering widespread environmental damage as virgin forests are destroyed, water and air polluted, non-renewable resources depleted and human beings denied development to their potential.

Dr. Niles seeks to emphasize the common struggle: "As long as there are poor in the South crying for food and human dignity, we in the North can have no peace... Unless we resist the preparations of war in the North and challenge the arrogance of power, there can be no justice for the poor."

Emilio Castro, General Secretary of the WCC, has written: "To link together for peace and justice, to care for the whole inhabited earth -- these are integral components of our Christian identity, because they belong to our response to God's will as manifested in the old covenant and confirmed in the new covenant in Jesus Christ."

The communication from Glion recognized all these concerns and refocused the issues by calling attention to the "cry of God's people," the agony of a planet where 500 million humans are hungry while $750 billion are spent annually for weapons of death. Numerous study projects and regional consultations are planned for the 1988 to 1990 period of time.

C. Theological implications of the Vancouver call

Several aspects of the JPIC process raise important theological and ecclesiological considerations. First, the original Vancouver resolution called for a "conciliar process," but that language provoked serious questions in ecclesiological circles, because traditionally "council" refers to a body with authority to act on behalf of the whole church. Such a lofty goal creates problems for both the Roman Catholic Church and the more conservative Protestants not members of WCC. What would be the nature of a genuine "conciliar process" that would include widely differing ecclesial traditions?

The WCC project has also had to take account of a parallel endeavor in the call from the German Protestant Kirchentag in June 1985, for "the churches of the world to convoke a Peace Council." Other church groups, including the Lutheran World Federation, have also endorsed this call. German nuclear physicist C.F. von Weizsaecker, a major spokesperson for the Peace Council vision, has tried to find a way to relate this vision to the WCC emphasis.⁸

The Vancouver call also spoke of "covenanting," a biblical term that implies accountability and bindingness. This considered use of "covenant" language was intended to challenge all Christians to a more explicit level of commitment to the goals of JPIC. John Howard Yoder addressed the issue from a "peace church" perspective, observing that historically the majority churches have been on thewrong side of all three JPIC themes and that repentance therefore must be the first step toward an authentic new covenant for peace and justice.⁹

Reviewing the documents emanating from Geneva, it seems clear that at least some of the WCC leaders recognize the throughgoing character and cost of the challenge expressed in the JPIC goals. Dr. Niles has said, "When the churches do make faith commitments on issues of life and death, which is what JPIC calls for, it will have implications for how they relate to one another. It may even change the course of the ecumenical movement.¹⁰ And another has written about the implications of the Vancouver action: "The biblical vision of peace with justice for all, of wholeness, of unity for all God's people is not one of several options for the followers of Christ. It is an imperative of our times.¹¹

D. Basis for dialogue: Theology or action?

How then do the peace churches continue to contribute to these ecumenical efforts? The Church of the Brethren and Friends United Meeting are WCC members. Many Mennonite leaders are interested and involved in the process. Reports from the European churches indicate a high degree of enthusiasm.

The historic peace churches, however, have a problem in our dialogue with most of the mainline traditions, not just because we refuse to go to war, but also because of the approach we bring to basic theological issues. Our central emphasis, typical of the classic sectarian stance, is on living the faithful Christian life, rather than on holding correct theology.

This problem is illustrated by the experience of Mennonite theologian Thomas Finger, an observer working with the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches on its study project "Confessing the Apostolic Faith Today." Begun in 1982, this study has focused on the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. as a basis for Christian ecumenicity. But as Finger observes:

The Creed focuses mainly on the relationship between God the Father and God the Son... It says little about God the Spirit or the church, and nothing really about Christian life and action. The [Nicean] Council was convened by Constantine -- the first Roman emperor to confess Christianity -- to promote the church's unity which, not incidentally, would strengthen that of his empire.¹²

By inviting new partners -- Wesleyans, Pentecostals, black churches, Anabaptists and evangelicals -- into the ecumenical dialogue, the Faith and Order group began to discover how apostolicity actually functions in a more sectarian frame of reference. It is not just creeds, but also Scripture, worship, holiness, discipleship and mission that become the tests of true faith.

This same issue is eloquently treated in Quaker Stephen Cary's address to the Glion consultation. He refers to the Quaker history of worldwide service outreach as the most important expression of the JPIC theme:

Over many years they have tried, in William Penn's phrase, "to see what love can do," testing their faith in places where conflicts rage and the alienations and the despair and the hatreds are deepest... We believe that it is in witnessing creatively and imaginatively -- if always imperfectly -- to Christ's love in an angry world that our Christian commitment (sic) to justice, peace and the integration of creation will be given substance -- as it will in no other way.¹³