Rev Tony Franklin-Ross (MCNZ Mission & Ecumenical / World Methodist Council – Ecumenical Relationships) attended the 5th International Conference on Receptive Ecumenism in June 2022, hosted at the ecumenical centre of the Sigtuna Foundation in Sweden. Here he reports on the gathering.

The opening speaker, Rev Dr Sofia Camnerin (Christian Council of Sweden) introduced the theme of listening to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 2:7): to be attentive and hear the silenced voices, the cracked voices, and what is silent within ourselves. Camnerin referenced Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931) from Sweden, who was an important leader in the ecumenical movement. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1930 for his efforts in the area of international understanding.

Söderblom believed that peace could only be achieved by overcoming ‘the ancient Adam within each of us’. He saw the ecumenical movement as a revival movement, applied to nothing less than the saving of the whole world. Camnerin asked if the challenge remains: do we still believe that visible unity is that crucial, and that the saving of the world still depends on it? (Indeed, Sigtuna had hosted Dietrich Bonhoeffer and international churches leaders to hear his concerns of Hitler and Nazi fascism.)

Receptive Ecumenism is offered as a strategy and place of transformative imagination for contemporary ecumenism, and promoted as a Christian spirituality. “It needs to be understood as the initiative of the moving Spirit of Christ. It has the feel of the stirring of the Spirit,” offered Professor Paul Murray (University of Durham, UK).

Murray’s keynote presentation suggested Receptive Ecumenism encompasses a formative thinking on ‘discerning what might be’ and ‘enacting a future in love’. But first is ‘attending to what is’, of taking our lived reality seriously (the good and the messy) and “to step away from ecclesial defensiveness and sense of completeness in ourselves”. Murray moots the transformative potential within ecclesial communities as a means of walking the way to a church reformed, and being moved to realise the need of our healing for our flourishing in the communion of God. This represents a conversion and growing into the fullness of Christ.

Dr Antonia Pizzey (Australian Catholic University) suggested metaphors for Receptive Ecumenism: the receiving of gifts, a school of learning, a healing or reparative ministry, a pilgrimage. But Pizzey suggested the most important image is an ethic of ‘friendship’. This exhibits confidence in intrusting your thoughts, being able to speak frankly with each other, of praying for each other, and working to preserve and nurture the friendship. “It is God who calls us to be one – it cannot be manufactured; it requires a pathway of interior conversion. The primary relationship is not between Christians, but between us and Christ. The true friendship is between us and God.”

Receptive Ecumenism is commended as a ‘disposition’ rather than a ‘methodology’, where its intent is an encouragement for learning within traditions from observing other traditions. This vision of Full Communion does not seek the reduction of the traditions or a bland uniformity, rather through mutual learning nurtures greater flourishing and fulfilment. Receptive Ecumenism does not promote a one size fits all method or process - it works in different ways in different contexts, and diversely engaged in the flax-roots of local church communities, ecumenical practitioners and academics.

An example was shared from the journey of relationships between the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. The mutual learning within the Tanzanian church, which was formed from seven missionary organisation origins, has been an important journey as it reflected on its own diversity of inherited traditions and theologies. Further, the increasingly liberal Swedish church and the more traditional Tanzanian church have consciously embarked on intentional mutual learning and sharing; not to teach or instruct the other but to trust, listen and comprehend.

The Conference offered a wealth of reflections, learnings and offerings across nine plenary sessions, and 30+ short presentations. I presented a short paper on my discernment of Receptive Ecumenism in the international multilateral dialogue of the five communions formally associated with the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican and Reformed).

Having also attended the 4th Conference held in Canberra (Australia) in 2017, I noted how the 5th Conference reflected how Receptive Ecumenism is increasingly seen in new contexts and expressions. For some it has ‘given a name’ to practices that were already expressed. My hope is that there is a 6th Conference, where there could be further explorations offered from indigenous and non-Western contexts – such as in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and I hope to formulate a project to talanoa the concepts of Receptive Ecumenism as interpreted and discerned by tikanga Māori and Pacifica understandings. As for Methodism, Receptive Ecumenism resonates with John Wesley’s ‘Sermon on the Catholic Spirit’.