ECUMENISM.

Ecumenism derives from the Greek adjective oikoumenikos (ecumenical) and the noun oikoumenē, the latter term employed since the time of Herodotus (5th century b.c.e.) to mean "the inhabited earth" or "the whole world." Oikoumenē then came to refer specifically to the realm of the Greco-Roman empire and its culture as distinguished from so-called barbarian lands and cultures. During the fourth century c.e., oikoumenē took on the combined political-religious meanings of "the one Christian empire" or "the unified Christian world."

Christianity

The word ecumenism itself became prevalent after the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. Delegates from missionary organizations met to address the incongruity—and scandal, no less—of historically divided and competing Christian denominations preaching a message of peace and harmony among non-Christian peoples. The World Council of Churches, the primary organizational outgrowth of the Edinburgh Conference that currently comprises more than 330 communions in over 120 countries, applies "ecumenical" to all that relates to the whole task of the whole unifying church to bring the message of Christ to the whole world.

This inhabited earth that was the point of departure for what it is to be ecumenically minded is becoming ever more interconnected and "smaller" as a result of dramatic technological advances in communications and mobilization. Whatever threatens or is of advantage to some carries embedded repercussions for all. The past half-century also witnesses to a slowly evolving consensus on what constitutes authentic human life. (The United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a significant moment at the beginning of this process.) With the emergence of these phenomena collectively known as "globalization," there is a growing awareness in all religions that to be religious is to be interreligious; also, that each religion bears the responsibility to contribute to human security, justice, peace, planetary well being, and the development of a global ethic. Attenuation of the role that religions play as an intensifying factor in regional social conflicts and the increasing incidence of interreligious marriages further accent the need for improved interreligious relations.

Globalization "opens out" the concept of ecumenism beyond its original identity as an intra-Christian concern for unity to include the sense of mutual understanding and reconciliation among all the world's religions. The World Council of Churches stipulated dialogue as the most appropriate method to foster improved interreligious relationships at its 1967 consultation in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Stephen J. Duffy elucidates the dimensions of interreligious dialogue:

1. Dialogue of life and hospitality, in which people living in open neighborliness share joys and sorrows, problems and concerns.
2. Dialogue of concerned service that promotes collaboration for the integral development of all persons and a more humane world.
3. Dialogue of religious experience, in which persons firmly grounded in their own traditions share their spiritual riches, prayer life, contemplation, and ways of searching for the absolute.
4. Dialogue of doctrinal exchange, in which specialists seek deeper understanding of the doctrines and practices of other heritages as well as their own to establish a communion of horizons arrived at through critical evaluations, correctives, and above all, through the openness of all to change in a shared quest for truth and identity.

These dialogues are intended to assist in breaking down prejudices and misconceptions accumulated over centuries. They enrich, enlarge, challenge, and correct the way some religions have understood and approached religious life in other traditions.

The World Council of Churches' interreligious subunit lists the following as being among its foci: multireligious reflection on secularization; the role of religion in public life and the challenges of religious plurality; Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue on the issue of Jerusalem; Hindu-Christian dialogue on issues such as proselytization, religious extremism, and caste; and Christian-Muslim forums on human rights.

The Roman Catholic Church, though not a member of the World Council of Churches, committed to the ecumenical enterprise unreservedly two years before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) was called into session. In 1960 Pope John XXIII established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, renamed the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity by Pope John Paul II in 1988. Pope Paul VI established the Secretariat for Non-Christians in 1964, re named the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

The following catalog illustrates the fact that impetus for improved interreligious relations is not derived from solely Christian initiatives and responses.

Buddhism.

His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, freely offers direction on Buddhism's spiritual path to enlightenment that entails the three higher trainings of wisdom, meditation, and moral living. The majority of the path's foundational precepts are monastic in nature; thus it is that believers that identify with religions possessing monastic traditions find a ready dialogue partner in Buddhism with regard to this particular religious aspect. Establishments that serve the dialogues of life, religious experience, and academic exchange that involve Buddhist participation include the following: The Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue in Sri Lanka; Inter-Religio, a network of institutions in eight East Asian countries; the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Japan; the bulletin published by Monastic Interreligious Dialogue. The "dialogue of concerned service" is an emerging new frontier as witnessed by the success of a 1996 conference, "Socially Engaged Buddhism and Christianity," sponsored by the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. This fifth international conference of the society included such noted Asian Buddhist leaders as the Dalai Lama, Maha Ghosananda from Cambodia, Sulak Sivaraksa from Thailand, and A. T. Ariyaratne from Sri Lanka, as well as leaders from the Japanese Rissho Kosei-kai and Soka Gakkai movements, and the Korean Chogye Buddhist Order.

Issues between the two main types of Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism of South and Southeast Asia and Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet and East Asia, reflect a universal human tendency to advocate either a literalist-conservative regard for tradition (Theravada Buddhism) or a more open-ended, experimental and expansive handling of tradition (Mahayana Buddhism).

Hinduism.

Philosopher-statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) was a particularly powerful advocate for a "dialogue of religions" while at Oxford in the early 1930s. Presently, Seshagiri Rao, general editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia on Hinduism, is an active promoter of interreligious dialogue. Foundations that embody religious intercourse between Hinduism and Christianity include The North American Board for East-West Dialogue and the European Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique (same as the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, mentioned above), both founded in 1978, and the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies, founded in 1994.

Hindus and Muslims have lived together in the subcontinent of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh for over a millennium. The story of their coexistence is one of frequent and violent bloodletting. Here the main ecumenical challenge is to convince that dialogue is even possible. Hinduism initially encountered Islam as the religion of conquerors, and this fact continues to condition the reflexive reaction that some individual Hindus have toward Muslims in general. Yet the "dialogue of life" continues by the very fact of their juxtaposed and intermingled lives. Courageous visionaries who espy possibilities for the full range of dialogical types issue the call to fellow Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs alike to acknowledge and celebrate their commonalities (for example, their love of intellectual pursuits, the arts, and literature) while forging a common effort to raise the quality of life in that part of the world.

The three principle Hindu branches of Vaishnavism, Saivism, and Shaktism have at times each splintered into sectarianism at their outermost reaches; at those points, Hindus who embody their religion's renowned characteristics of toleration, inclusiveness, and ease amidst conditions of plurality are challenged to come to the fore.

Islam.

"Historically, Muslims have had little or no interest in interreligious dialogue even with other believers in God, including the 'Ahl-al kitab' ('People of the Book'—Jews and Christians) … [Muslims] have, in general, taken the truth of Islam to be self-evident and have not expressed any great interest in having an open-ended philosophical and theological dialogue with people of other faiths," writes Riffat Hassan. Hassan then registers the point that the universal quality of the Islamic truth as affirmed in the Koran should condition reception of non-Muslims for the purpose of constructive dialogue (in Swidler, 415–416). Indeed, representatives of the Muslim World Congress, the World Muslim League, and the World Islamic Call Society have met regularly with representatives of the Vatican and the World Council of Churches. The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, established in 1994 in Amman, Jordan, provides a venue for interdisciplinary study and rational discussion of religion and religious issues, with particular reference to Christianity in Arab and Islamic societies.

Trust building with Jews is a crucial issue. In the early 1990's Dr. Gutbi Ahmed, the former North American director of the Muslim World League, called for cooperation between Muslim and Jewish communities for the good of society. Joint efforts leading to trust building that can affect the world at large are rightly promoted, not as a luxury, but as an immediate necessity.

In Dialogue we affirm hope. In the midst of the many divisions, conflicts and violence there is hope that it is possible to create a human community that lives in justice and peace. Dialogue is not an end in itself. It is a means of building bridges of respect and understanding. It is a joyful affirmation of life for all.

source: Article 20, the World Council of Churches' 2002 document, "Ecumenical Consider ations for Dialogue and Relations with People of Other Religions."

As with other religions, Islam itself exhibits diversity in interpretations and expressions, and is an incubator for both dynamic growth and internal conflict. The distinctions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are subtle but very real. They have hurled the charge "Worse than the infidels" against one another. When and where they can peacefully coexist is primarily a matter of political rather than religious exigency; this reality places in relief the value of emphasizing their common religiosity whenever the traditional alarm-cry "Islam in Danger!" is sounded. Behind the bold headlines, a quieter revolution in discourse and activism is transpiring as Muslims, like Christians and Jews, struggle with the challenges of secularism and materialism.

Judaism.

Spokespersons from Judaism in ecumenical forums attest to a sense of speaking in Galuth, that is, in exile. A primary task of these representatives is to stress that Judaism is a living, complexifying religion not to be simply equated with the religion of the Hebrew Scriptures. Judaism must be defined by Jews themselves rather than by others who speak from a majority position and who have little or no sense of exile. For this reason Jewish ecumenical initiatives are numerous, and a high degree of presence is maintained in multilateral dialogues worldwide.

Relations with Christians vastly improve wherever there is real and perceivable growth in awareness of the horrors of the Shoah (Holocaust) of the World War II period, and in detection and condemnation of anti-Semitic attitudes among church members. Bilateral Bible studies also contribute to enhanced relations. This writer's personal experience with meeting Jewish initiative was in assisting Catholic-based Villanova University to join Jewish-based Gratz College in establishing the "I Am Joseph, Your Brother" partnership program in Jewish studies for Christian educators (1996–1999). Another fine, and continuing, example of academic cooperation is the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College.

Of course, there are diverse ways of being Jewish: Reformed, Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructed, secular, Yiddish ethnic, and Zionist among them. The image of Jacob wrestling with the stranger (Genesis 32: 23–32) has been employed to portray the dynamic of Jewish internal and external relations. The stranger blesses and changes Jacob's name to Israel, meaning "he who has wrestled with God and human beings and prevails." Adherence to Judaism continues in internal dialogues on the meaning of being a Jew and in interfaith dialogue on improved human relations. (World Religions Today, p. 178.)

Conclusion

The ecumenical movement does not proceed without opposition. One source of rejection stems from the fact that the contemporary globalization process is not celebrated by all. Religious fundamentalists tend to be suspicious of dialogue and cooperation across boundaries; their preference is to live within closed sets of codes and beliefs. In some eastern religions contact with the "other" continues to be regarded as an occasion of defilement. For many, ecumenism represents a temptation to religious syncretism. For such as these, truth is not served but sacrificed in dialogue, and obedience to the mission imperative dictates that conversion should be the only goal of conversation. There can also be detected among "grassroots" members of highly institutionalized religions the conviction that ecumenism is the work of elite, self-justifying cadres of ecclesiastical bureaucrats. Yet, despite determined pockets of resistance, the ecumenical spirit has created numerous college and university interfaith centers and continues to energize an ever increasing number of religious adherents and imbue them with a worldwide sense of accountability for that which lies beyond the realm of privatized concern.

See also Deism ; Religion ; Toleration .

bibliography

Bretton-Granatoor, Gary M., and Andrea L. Weiss, eds. Shalom/ Salaam: A Resource for Jewish-Muslim Dialogue. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1993.

Duffy, Stephen J. "Mission and Dialogue in a Pluralistic Global City." Ecumenical Trends 25 (April 1996): 10–12.

Esposito, John L., Darrell J. Fasching, and Todd Lewis. World Religions Today. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Distinguished among the myriad of survey-type works for its ecumenical perspective.

Gros, Jeffrey, Harding Meyer, and William G. Rusch, eds. Growth in Agreement II: Reports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical Conversations on a World Level, 1982–1998. Geneva and Grand Rapids: WCC and Eerdmans, 2000.

Hassan, Riffat. "The Basis for a Hindu-Muslim Dialogue and Steps in that Direction from a Muslim Perspective." In Muslims in Dialogue: The Evolution of a Dialogue, edited by Leonard Swidler, Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1992.

Kinnamon, Michael, and Brian E. Cope, eds. The Ecumenical Movement: An Anthology of Key Texts and Voices. Geneva: WCC, 1997.

Lossky, Nicholas, et al, eds. A Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement. 2nd ed. Geneva: WCC, 2002. Seven hundred entries by 370 leaders in the ecumenical movement—a cornerstone for any ecumenical library.

Rusch, William G. "The State and Future of the Ecumenical Movement." Pro Ecclesia 9, no. 1 (2000): 8–18.

Joseph A. Loya

Ecumenism

National Council of Churches

When the churches of the American Protestant establishment—Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians—joined together in 1950 to establish the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America (NCC), their postwar self-confidence and long-established respectability seemed to promise success in their ultimate goal, the restoration of Christianity as a single, unified body of believers. In midcentury America their rather modest theological differences and historical antagonisms seemed eminently less important than the goal of restoring the unity of the body of Christ. Just as importantly, the Protestant mainstream seemed to share common cultural expectations, language, and experiences. Sharing communion and creed did not seem too difficult to achieve with an adequate supply of goodwill. Such expectations were not misplaced. By the end of the century, enormous ecumenical strides had been made within the mainstream. On 31 October 1999, the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his Ninety-Five Theses, official representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Churches of the Lutheran Federation signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification—a key area of disagreement between Protestant and Catholic theologians—in the Sankt Anna Kirche in Augsburg, Germany. The agreement proclaimed "a consensus in basic truths" on how sinners are justified, or deemed righteous, in God's sight. Lutherans and Roman Catholics declared that the condemnations each side had leveled against the other for centuries no longer applied. The Joint Declaration allowed both traditions to retain their distinctive ways of talking about growth in holiness and the persistence of sin in the life of the believee—issues that remained controversial and theologically complex. It was a substantial move toward healing divisions that had divided Protestants and Catholics since the sixteenth century. Still, these and other ecumenical breakthroughs could not overcome the perception that the thirty-five denominations, with their combined fifty-two million members, that made up the NCC, were finding it impossible to speak with a single voice. The Christian Right, far more unified and clear in its agenda, was heard with much greater clarity than that of the NCC. Even more critical for the future of ecumenism, denominationalism itself seemed to be in decline in the United States.

Unity and Fragmentation

Though Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians reached unprecedented agreements, there was a wide perception that the NCC, though it had created an "ecumenical climate" that made intra-denominational conversations possible in the first place, had outlived its usefulness. Andrew Young, who became president of the NCC for 2000-2001, summarized the problem, saying that American Protestantism "is at a crisis moment" needing "a dramatic infusion of the Spirit… It's not just that people are losing interest in the ecumenical movement. They're losing interest in their own denominations and in the mainstream local churches." The continued success of nondenominational churches, such as the Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, seemed to bear out Young's observations. Established in 1975 by Bill Hybels, Willow Creek sought to provide a "comfortable place" for people who felt uncomfortable with traditional liturgy and preaching, and were uninterested in denominational labels. Although the theology taught there was distinctly conservative and evangelical, it was doggedly nonsectarian. Its ministers, who were not usually seminary graduates, rarely emphasized theology. The services incorporated contemporary music, drama, and video, and Hybel's sermons focused on the role of faith in the everyday lives of middle-class suburbanites. The second largest church in America, Willow Creek became a defacto denomination when it established the "Willow Creek Association" of 1,400 other churches that shared its "seeker friendly" methods. With increasing numbers of churches and churchgoers rejecting denominational traditions, the NCC found itself struggling to carve out a new role for itself in a climate where the old mainline churches, that had been its core support, were increasingly marginalized.

Ecumenism at the End of the Century

Joan Brown Campbell, executive secretary of the NCC for most of the decade, acknowledged, "One of our big challenges is to deepen the unity between the churches that are National Council of Churches members. We are beyond the getting-to-know-one-another phase. It's time for churches to be more intentional about their unity regarding some of the topics about which they are uncomfortable." That would prove to be virtually impossible. While nondenominational churches could find unity fairly easily on key issues, and Evangelicals managed to define their positions clearly, the mainstream NCC had become too large and diverse to find many points of unity. Campbell said, "One of the things that the presence of the Christian Coalition reveals is that,

RELIGION LITE

Various religions and denominations in late the twentieth-century United States experienced growth and revival, but increasing numbers of people identified themselves with particular affiliations without necessarily accepting all those traditions taught or becoming part of a local community of faith. A 1999 Gallup Poll indicated that 39 percent of Americans said that "there are a lot of things taught in my religion that I don't really believe," 45 percent said they paid more attention to "their own views" than to religious teaching in how they lived their lives, and 30 percent considered themselves "spiritual but not religious." This individualizing-of-religion phenomenon accompanied a trend toward "feel-good" religion, one that offered hope and comfort without a great deal of challenge. Examples of this trend were found in television shows such as Touched by an Angel and Nothing Sacred. The former dealt with compassionate angels who each week helped different individuals (seldom part of a religious community) deal with alienation, despair, sin, and death in a definitely religious and moral but nondenominational context. Theology was at a minimum. Touched by an Angel premiered in 1994 and was still popular at the end of the decade. On the other hand, Nothing Sacred was a serious and realistic look at an inner-city parish whose clergy and lay people were, from a specifically Catholic perspective, confronting controversial issues without simple answers—abortion, clerical celibacy, ordination of women, U.S. policies toward Central America, and homelessness, among others. It offered no miracles, coming closer to the actual experience of twentieth-century Christians in America than Angel did, and it did not last the entire 1997-1998 season.

The increasing popularity of angels was itself a part of this individualistic, comforting religious trend. According to a 1993 poll by Time, 69 percent of Americans believed in angels, 46 percent believed they had a guardian angel, and 32 percent said that they had felt the presence of an angel in their lives. In popular thought angels offered greater-than-human help without the awe-inspiring presence of God. They were, to use a common term, "user-friendly": supernatural help without supernatural demands. Interestingly, while 69 percent of Americans believed in helpful angels, only 49 percent believed in demons, their less comforting counterparts.

The movie What Dreams May Come (1999) was an excellent example of undemanding religious security. Angels abounded in this movie, although most were the souls of human dead (which no Jewish, Christian, or Islamic theology recognizes as angels). These characters inhabited a Heaven in which each individual is able to create his or her own perfect paradise; there is no ultimate reality except personal preference. While these angelic beings refer two or three times to God, there is in no sense such a character to be taken into account—the same is true of Prophecy (1995) and End of Days (1999), where Satan is an active and compelling character but God is not present; Dogma (1999) reversed this trend by presenting God but not Satan. Like Ghost (1990) and Jack Frost (1998), What Dreams May Come offered the dead hero a chance to make amends to a loved one for things never said or done in life. Many other movies, especially toward the end of the decade, dealt with survival after death without any kind of deity. In 1999 viewers learned about undying evil in The Blair Witch Project—or did they?—while The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes featured individuals who alone could see and offer help to the tormented dead.

As American culture became increasingly secularized, the religious issues of meaning in life, redemption in human relationships, and the nature of death and a future beyond it, were as important and widely discussed as ever. Movies offered traditional and moving views of religion—as in Schindler's List (1993), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), and Kundun (1997)—but the treatment of Christianity, the dominant faith in the United States, tended to be nontraditional and revisionist, as in Stigmata (1999) and The Omega Code (1999). Dogma, which took Catholicism far more seriously than any other major film of the decade, was widely protested by Catholics even before its release. More and more, religious issues were being presented without any sort of religious context. Many popular movies showed the universe as hostile, dangerous, and out of control: aliens nearly destroyed the human race in Independence Day (1996) and Mars Attacks (1996), while Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998) were about giant asteroids endangering Earth. Godzilla (1998) menaced New York, Gattaca (1997) presented a nightmarish, futuristic, scientifically based society in which there could be no privacy, and The Truman Show (1998) took reality-based TV to its paranoid limits by creating a hero who was unaware that his entire life had been manipulated for broadcast to the world with the participation of his "family" and friends. Matrix (1999) went one step farther, positing that all human reality' is an illusion engineered to hide the fact that the human race is being used by aliens as carbon-based batteries. Such popular entertainment emphasized modern life as painful and meaningless. It is, therefore, not surprising that of the five movies nominated for Best Picture of 1998, three dealt with World War II (1939-1945)—Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, and Life Is Beautiful—while the other two were set in fifteenth and sixteenth century England, Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love.

Sources:

Nancy Gibbs, "Angels Among Us," Time (27 December 1993): 56-65.

Cathy Lynn Grossman, "In Search of Faith," and "An Unbound Spirit," USA Today, 23 December 1999.

by comparison to the NCC, the Coalition is a group of like-minded people." The coalition claims 1.5 million members. The NCC has in its member churches 49 million people, and their viewpoints are diverse. Even the historic role of the NCC as an advocate for social justice proved problematic. The NCC played a major role in publicizing the plight of African American churches burned in 1996 and 1997, as well as raising funds for rebuilding, in what was seen as an upsurge in hate-motivated arson attacks. Its uncritical advocacy, however, was assailed by critics who questioned whether the arsons were racially motivated and whether the Council was using the problem for its own purposes. Symptomatic of the malaise in the NCC was a funding crisis. In 1999 it reported a $4 million shortfall in its $70 million budget. The deficit was blamed on $2.5 million in consulting fees paid to find ways to streamline the organization, as well as a $500,000 error in the 1995 employee retirement fund and $330,000 paid into a fund to help restore burned churches. Concerned that the NCC was not adequately addressing underlying financial problems, the United Methodist Church suspended payment of more than $300,000 until things were cleared up. The Methodists were concerned about the failure of the NCC to maintain a budget based on its actual—rather than anticipated—income, and "lack of clarity on future liabilities." Other denominations raised questions as well. Robert W. Edgar, elected General Secretary in November 1999, said that the NCC got into financial trouble because it was "not very systematized or organized," was "coasting on a 1950s reputation," failed to maintain "a very good identity or clarity about our work," and did not keep adequate control of spending. The Methodist funds were restored early in 2000, but some critics and supporters of the NCC saw a troubled future for the fifty-year-old organization.

Sources:

"The Ecumenical Climb: An Interview with Joan Brown Campbell," Christian Century, 112 (8 November 1995): 1048-1052.

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, "The Augsburg Signing—An Overview of the Joint Declaration on Justification," America, 182 (19 February 2000): 17-21.

"NCC Chief: No More 'hemorrhaging'," Christian Century, 117 (8 March 2000): 266-267.

Jeffery L, Sheler, "Christians Unite!" US News and World Report, 127 (15 November 1999): 100.

ecumenical council [Gr.,=universal], in Christendom, council of church leaders, the decisions of which are accepted by some segment of the church as authoritative, also called general council. Although councils can declare themselves ecumenical, this designation has often been applied retrospectively; even the Roman Catholic Church has no formal decree on the number of ecumenical councils. As with all councils, its canons usually begin with a detailed statement of the common faith. The acceptance of the canons is unequal; thus, Roman Catholics regard them as binding (canonical) only when a pope has subsequently ratified them, and many canons of several councils have never been accepted.

Recognized Councils

The following is the list of the general councils recognized by Roman Catholics (the numbering is the customary one, and the opening year is given): (1) 1 Nicaea, 325; (2) 1 Constantinople, 381; (3) Ephesus, 431; (4) Chalcedon, 451; (5) 2 Constantinople, 553; (6) 3 Constantinople, 680; (7) 2 Nicaea, 787; (8) 4 Constantinople, 869; (9) 1 Lateran, 1123; (10) 2 Lateran, 1139; (11) 3 Lateran, 1179; (12) 4 Lateran, 1215; (13) 1 Lyons, 1245; (14) 2 Lyons, 1274; (15) Vienne, 1311; (16) Constance, 1414; (17) Basel and Ferrara-Florence, 1431, 1438; (18) 5 Lateran, 1512; (19) Trent, 1545; (20) 1 Vatican, 1869; (21) 2 Vatican, 1962 (see separate articles on each council; e.g., Nicaea, First Council of ). The Orthodox Eastern Church recognizes the first seven and counts the Trullan Synod of 692 as an ecumenical extension of the Third Council of Constantinople. The first council was the model for the rest.

Purposes of the Councils

The common purpose of the first eight councils was to determine whether specific theological novelties were orthodox or heretical (not orthodox). The rest of the councils, all held in Western Europe, have dealt chiefly with church discipline and morals. Two of them, the Second Council of Lyons and the Council of Ferrara-Florence, were occupied with abortive attempts at reconciliation between East and West. Conciliar theory, which held that an ecumenical council is superior to the pope, played a central role in attempts to heal the Great Schism. Conciliar theory was in its heyday at the Council of Constance (see Schism, Great ). The Council of Trent, convened to deal with the Protestant Reformation , was probably the most far-reaching in its effects. Pope John XXIII established as one of the principal themes of the Second Vatican Council the reunion of all Christians with the Church of Rome.

Authority of the Councils

The traditional opinion is that when the bishops of the world unite to define belief in the light of what they have received from their predecessors, God will protect them from error. This is a manifestation of the infallibility of the teaching church, and papal infallibility is compared to it in the definition published by the First Vatican Council (see infallibility ). Two famous councils that claimed in vain to be ecumenical are the Robber Council of Ephesus (see Eutyches ) and the Council of Pisa during the Great Schism.

Protestants recognize the authority of the first four ecumenical councils, but, as first expressed by Martin Luther, do not regard ecumenical councils and their canons as binding on the conscience. Only when council decisions follow scripture do Protestants consider them authoritative. Nevertheless Protestant observers have officially attended the last two councils. The ecumenical movement among Protestants is not to be confused with an ecumenical council, although they share a similar aim.

Bibliography

See studies by L. Jaeger (tr. 1961), P. Hughes (1961), F. Dvornik (1961), and E. F. Jacobs (rev. ed. 1963).

ecumenism is the name given to the aspiration for the visible union of all Christians throughout the world. Although ecumenical stirrings within the churches can be detected down through the centuries, the modern ecumenical movement dates from the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910. This multidenominational conference generated a number of other international organizations, culminating in the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Similar processes were at work in early 20th‐century Ireland, resulting in 1923 in the formation of the United Council of Christian Churches and Religious Communions in Ireland, which in 1966 changed its name to the Irish Council of Churches. The constituent members include the three main Protestant denominations (Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, and Methodist), and a number of smaller churches, including the Lutherans, the Moravians, and the Society of Friends. The Roman Catholic church enjoys observer status, and since 1973 there have been regular inter‐church meetings between Protestant and Roman Catholic churchmen at Ballymascanlon, Co. Louth, to discuss a wide range of social and theological issues.

Ecumenism, ironically, seems to have prospered amid the social, political, and ecclesiastical divisions of modern Ireland. Organizations unlimited, from the Irish School of Ecumenics and the Corrymeela community to charismatic renewal movements and local community groups, meet to pray, study, discuss, reflect, and co‐operate. There are well over 100 clerical fellowships, ecumenical study groups, and councils of churches issuing discussion documents on almost everything. There is, however, another side to the story. While relations between church leaders remain good, ecclesiastical unification has proved to be a mirage. Moreover, recent polling evidence suggests that while many churchgoers are prepared for social co‐operation with members of other churches, fewer are prepared to contemplate joint religious services between Protestants and Catholics, and fewer still have any enthusiasm for church unity. Divisions over education, mixed marriages, and old Reformation doctrines have proved remarkably resistant to ecumenical enthusiasm.

Overall, then, the main denominations in Ireland, Protestant and Roman Catholic, have become far less hostile to one another in the decades since the second Vatican Council. If a long slow thaw in inter‐church relations has begun, however, its progress is as yet uneven. Under pressure from its evangelical wing, made nervous by Roman Catholicism and trendy liberation theology, the Irish Presbyterian church in 1980 withdrew from the World Council of Churches, though not from other ecumencial councils. In addition, there remains a formidable fundamentalist rump in most of the Irish Protestant denominations (proportionately larger in the smaller and more evangelical churches), which regards closer relations with Roman Catholics as a betrayal of Reformation principles. Similarly, conservative ecclesiastics within the Roman Catholic church may no longer regard Protestants as advanced heretics, but they have no wish to see the church relinquish any more of its authority and control. Even the ecumenically well intentioned are now beginning to wonder if a global super‐church with impeccable ecclesiastical discipline and almost no popular appeal is a goal worth striving for. Meanwhile, in Ireland, ecumenists continue their efforts to ensure that ecclesiastical diversity is not necessarily the mid‐wife of religious sectarianism.

David Hempton

Ecumenism or ecumenicism (Gk., oikumene, ‘the inhabited world’). The Christian quest for recovered unity among the many different Churches of Christendom. The Ecumenical Councils are claimed to represent the mind of the whole Church and thus to have distinct authority. The beginning of the modern ecumenical movement is usually traced to the Edinburgh Conference of 1910, when many (but no Roman Catholic) missionary societies met, at the end of a century of immense but competitive expansion, to explore the nature of mission and the ways to overcome debilitating divisions. The World Council of Churches, a direct descendant, was formed in 1948. This preoccupation with internal Christian affairs began to seem to some parochial, who called for a ‘wider ecumenism’, one which would explore the relations between religions. Spiritual ecumenism seeks to gather and share the spirituality of separated parts of the Church, or of religions. See Index, Ecumenicism.

ecumenical council (general council) Ecclesiastical convention of worldwide Church representatives. Pronouncements are considered binding on all church members. All Christians recognize the first seven councils, the last of which was held in Nicaea in 787. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes 21 ecumenical councils convened by various popes. Since the Reformation, the councils have been restricted to Roman Catholics. The most recent was the Second Vatican Council (1962–65).

ecumenical council see council, ecumenical .