Over 2,500 delegates from all the main Churches of Europe gathered in Sibiu, Romania for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly from the 4-9 September 2007. They gathered each morning for prayer and worship, for Biblical reflection and to listen to keynote speakers talk on the theme The Light of Christ shines upon all. Each afternoon was spent in workshops on such topics as justice and peace, migration and European identity, unity and witness. At lunchtime and in the evenings, and during any other free time, delegates could attend various seminars, exhibitions, lectures, concerts, worship and discussions.
All of this was set in Romania, where official statistics tell us that 87% of the (22 million) population belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church. So this was an opportunity for the delegates to explore and understand something of the life, witness, worship, work and spirituality of their Church. There was a very beautiful icon exhibition which many people attended, a range of church music recitals and even trips to Orthodox Monasteries.
To me this seemed most appropriate, as one of the pleas of the Assembly was for Churches to discover more about each others faith and practices. And as we discover more about each other, to work with each other in our local settings. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of the Orthodox Church, specifically called for all Orthodox churches to work with other churches towards a visible unity.
This was one of the central themes of the Message of the Assembly, the final document produced to sum up the weeks events. It was a document not just intended as a summary, but also as a resource and an inspiration for the Churches. For in it, there is the plea to put Mission at the heart of the life of the church, to work towards churches living in unity "without uniformity", to work to integrate the wider European region and the influx of migrants into our societies, to look at themes of globalisation, fairtrade and debt cancellation, to work as churches on the issue of sustainable lifestyles, climate change and protection of the creation, and to use the Charta Oecumenica as a guideline for our ecumenical journey.
Amongst the keynote speakers, including Cardinal Walter Kasper, Rt Rev Richard Chartres Bishop of London, Bishop Huber of the Evangelical Church of Germany, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and Prof Andrea Riccardi of the St Egidio Community in Italy, the Assembly was most pleased to welcome Romanian President Trajan Bacescu, Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, Manuel Barroso the President of the European Commission, and Rene van der Linden President of the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe. This showed the importance of the gathering and the role the churches have to play today in their societies and in Europe. In his address Manuel Barroso praised the work of the churches and encouraged all the delegates at the assembly and said that religion can strengthen European values.
Finally, the Assembly was designed to be a process which takes these themes and discussions back into the life of the church throughout Europe, stimulating our involvement in local projects and initiatives, encouraging our theologians, church leaders and grassroots members to be part of the continuing ecumenical dialogue and showing that The Light of Christ shines upon all.