44th International Ecumenical Seminar

July 6- 13, 2010 in Strasbourg, France

Theme:

"Mission and Ecumenism in the Global Village.
100 Years after the Conference of Edinburgh"

Theme:
The year 2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the ecumenical movement, which began, significantly, at the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. Concerned that disputes from missionaries' homelands were being imported to new soil and damaging the credibility of the gospel there, the first efforts to repair unity among Protestants had a distinctive evangelical and missionary purpose.

A hundred years later, Orthodox and Roman Catholics have joined the ecumenical movement, various churches have pulled out of it, and innumerable ecumenical organizations have formed at both the international and local level. In our 44th annual Summer Seminar, we will pursue questions about the interrelationship of mission and ecumenism. How has the understanding of mission changed in the past hundred years? Mission has attempted to shed its colonialist influences, and now people who were formerly the objects of mission have become the subjects. At the same time, traditionally Christian lands are increasingly secular. How have relationships changed between the churches on different continents? Is justice or evangelization the main content of mission today? And what does all this have to do with ecumenical efforts to achieve the visible unity of the church? Are mission and ecumenism-and which mission and ecumenism-still linked or have they gone their separate ways? Is the unity of the church still essential to defend the credibility of the gospel? Is the mission of the church aided by ecumenical cooperation?

We will begin our seminar with an overview of the history of ecumenism and mission, with particular attention to the seminal event of Edinburgh 1910. From there we will consider the response of various church bodies to the changing political and religious situation in the world. This will be followed by representative voices from Latin America, Africa, and Asia on the missional and ecumenical situation in their home countries. At the same time we will consider how mission itself has evolved in the past century, in particular the relation between mission as evangelization and mission as diakonia, and explore a case study on the challenge of migrant churches to established churches. In conclusion, we will consider place of mission in the classic doctrines of the church, what ecumenism and mission have to do with interfaith dialogue, and finally what we can anticipate from the next hundred years of ecumenism.

Our seminars are not only about formal theology and scholarship. They are also a chance for personal exchange, for participants to get to know each other and each other's different backgrounds. The fact that our participants come from such a variety of countries and churches makes these opportunities that much more fascinating. The seminar affords ample space, both in the plenum and in the workshops, for such exchange. Not planned, but all the more important, are the many spontaneous conversations at exquisite French dinners, in the cafeteria or over wine in one of the many restaurants in medieval Strasbourg.

Languages:
English and German are the main languages of the Seminar. Lectures and discussion will be simultaneously translated into and out of these languages. Participants may also express themselves in French in the plenary discussions. A French language discussion group will be set up if there is a sufficient number of French-speaking participants.

Dates:
July 6 (arrival and reception in the evening) to July 13 (departure after breakfast), 2010, in Strasbourg, France.

Information:
Inquiries by email should be directed either to
Sarah Hinlicky Wilson: Sarah.hinlickywilson[AT]ecumenical-institute.org or
Elke Leypold: strasecum[AT]ecumenical-institute.org
(please replace [AT] by the sign @ )

Postal address:
Institute for Ecumenical Research
8, rue Gustave Klotz
F - 67000 Strasbourg, FRANCE