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What will our priorities be for the next 10, 20 years?” Said the Rev. Now we have to find a new way, which is our task. In addition, the religious leaders who met in May 1989 had no real idea as to how the end of the Cold War would affect their mission.”That was obviously a historic moment, though we didn’t fully know that at the time,”said Stefan Vesper, assembly secretary for the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences.”We didn’t really address the post-communist world. But in many cases it has showcased differences from within and not settled disputes. And as a result, I would say the success of that was a considerable groundswell to have another assembly.” Since then, dialogue among all Christians has increased. John Arnold, president of the Conference of European Churches.”It was the first time in history that there had been an assembly of this size. The conference goal was modest and achieved.”Simply to meet at all, to bring Christians together, was in itself an achievement,”said the Rev. The first ecumenical assembly was held in 1989, six months before the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Since the fall of communism, rifts among the Christian Orthodox churches have widened, with patriarchs in Moscow and Istanbul leading a very public drive for power.Īdded to the combustible mix is the centuries-old standoff between Rome and the Orthodox over the primacy, or leadership, of the Roman papacy. But conference participants will also be forced to grapple with the changing face of Europe after the collapse of communism in 1989 and the increasing disunity and hostility among religions on the continent.ĭemocratic reforms in Central and Eastern Europe have tested the conservative orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church, which is also straining from calls for reform in Western Europe. It is being sponsored by the Council of European (Roman Catholic) Bishops’ Conferences and the Conference of European Churches, which includes 118 European Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Old Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and other churches.Īgreement among the 700 official delegates, 350 from each group, is widely expected on a number of important issues, such as human rights and poverty. The conference will feature speeches from religious leaders, discussion of three documents promoting reconciliation, and dozens of workshops on everything from employment practices to environmental degradation. Some 10,000 Christians _ including Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholics _ will descend on Graz, Austria, June 23-29 to hash out differences that have divided the church for centuries.īut if the lead up to the Second European Ecumenical Assembly is any indication of the prevailing mood, reconciliation will take a back seat to well-practiced ecclesiastical warfare. UNDATED _ It’s being billed as the most important European religious gathering of the decade.