Hosted by the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) commission on Faith and Order (F&O) , the world’s most comprehensive theological forum for Christian unity kicked-off yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 150 members of the clergy and laity as well as scholars, youth and outside observers are gathered under the theme “Receive one another as Christ has received you, to the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).

The first world conference on F&O took place in 1927 in Lausanne. Over the past 77 years, it has committed “to proclaim the oneness of the Church of Jesus Christ and to call the churches to the goal of visible unity”. The chief means of achieving this goal is through study programmes dealing with theological questions that divide the churches. Moderator Rev. Dr David K. Yemba addressed three challenges faced by the F&O nowadays at the beginning of the conference.

- To foster visible unity
- To make its work more meaningful to the life of the churches
- To help to overcome denominationalism

Yemba reminded all the delegates that even though the forum is for theological debate, it is not a purely academic exercise. Instead, they should “focus on the aim of Faith and Order which is to call the churches to move together towards visible unity.”

He also addressed “denominationalism as one of the big obstacles in the way of Christians and in the way of the churches”. Denominationalism refers to the inclination of religious groups to experience schisms and separate into to numerous independent branches over disagreements about doctrinal matters.

Especially, he said it has especially influenced the churches in the Southern Hemisphere, “although the church is growing in the Southern hemisphere to the extent that it is possible to affirm that ‘the future of the Church of Jesus Christ is above all found in the third world,’ the ‘mother churches’ of the Northern hemisphere ‘continue to exert excessive denominational influence’ on them.”

Rev. Dr Judith McKinlay from Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, refers to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and he said it “indicates that this same struggle of Christian identity and acceptance was present in the earliest Christian communities”. Her conclusion was that “Once the fundamentals have been agreed upon, different interpretations, different practices and different ways of ordering are to be respected as we take each other alongside in our Christian journey.”

Rev. Fr Frans Bouwen from the Roman Catholic Church in Jerusalem spoke about Christ’s kenosis, a humble self-emptying.

He asked, “Do we truly realise what that means for the way in which we meet, welcome and accept one another, as persons and as communities?” The mutual understanding and unity between denominations can only be achieved by the one and only one Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The theology forum will be closed by 6 August.