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The future of theological education in Central and Eastern Europe: challenges for ecumenical learning in the 21st century.

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Abstract

The article focuses on the context of Central and Eastern Europe. The introduction surveys earlier references to this context in the activities of the WCC programmes on theological education. It then characterizes the situation regarding theological education in this region, especially after the changes of 1989/90. The central section summarizes the earlier discussions on ecumenical learning, especially in the WCC, and applies the insights gained to the field of theological education. The concluding part spells out some of the consequences for the future of theological education in Central and Eastern Europe looking especially at the situation in the Orthodox churches, the Protestant minority churches and the evangelical communities.

Introduction

The seminar for young lecturers and professors of theology, organized jointly by WCC/ ETE, the Council of European Churches (CEC), and the Academy of Volos on "The Future of Theological Education in Central and Eastern Europe" was a significant initiative by these ecumenical organizations responding to a need that has been neglected far too long--at least by the WCC, i.e. directing the reflection on the future of theological education to the specific situation of churches and institutions for theological education in Central and Eastern Europe.

Considering the involvement of the WCC, it is true that its former Programme on Theological Education organized a consultation on theological education in Europe 28 years ago in Herrnhut. Among the preparatory regional groups was also a group in Eastern Europe; however it had only two Orthodox members (from Russia and Poland) and its contribution reflected almost exclusively the situation in the Protestant churches. Financial and other limitations prevented a follow-up to this first effort to address questions of theological education in Europe from an ecumenical perspective. Many of the recommendations of the consultation remain valid, however, and we shall return to some at the end of this paper.

Already two years earlier, i.e. in 1978, and under the auspices of the same WCC programme, a consultation had been organized on "Orthodox Theological Education for the Life and Witness of the Church". It brought together representatives of Orthodox theological schools in Armenia, Czechoslovakia, France, Georgia, Greece, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Romania, USA, USSR, and Yugoslavia, thus including most of the relevant countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting addressed in particular three themes which were meant to "challenge and stretch the understandings and practices in Orthodox theological education today". These were: (1) Ministry of the Eucharistic Liturgy and the Ministry of the 'Liturgy after the Liturgy'; (2) Extending the Benefit of Theological Education Beyond the Ordained Ministry to the People of God; (3) The Ecumenical Dimension in Orthodox Theological Education. The initiative for this consultation was warmly welcomed by the participants and the PTE/WCC was encouraged to provide further opportunities for such exchanges and to deal with ecumenical demands "both inherent in the Orthodox tradition and as they are present in contemporary situations". However, once again there does not seem to have been a deliberate follow up to this initiative, either from the side of the WCC or from Orthodox churches.

In 1996 the WCC's ETE organized the global consultation on the "Viability of Ecumenical Theological Education" at Oslo. It was the culmination of a three-year programme and brought together a broad cross-section of participants from over 40 countries, including Orthodox and other representatives from Central and Eastern Europe. In its assessment of the challenges facing Ecumenical Theological Education the consultation pointed to the "dramatic changes in institutions for theological education particularly in Eastern Europe (which) demand new attention and a counterpart in the WCC". It acknowledged "that the particular challenges of theological education institutions in Eastern Europe, both of Orthodox and Protestant/Catholic churches, had received little attention during this conference and deserve more deliberate focus in the future working period of ETE". Therefore, after the Harare Assembly in 1998, the WCC, in a conscious effort at regionalizing its programmatic work in ecumenical theological education, appointed a consultant for the region of Central and Eastern Europe in the person of Fr Vladimir Fedorov from St Petersburg who had already been present at the consultation in Herrnhut in 1980. His work and experiences form an important background for this present meeting.

The Conference of European Churches, on the other hand, which had in earlier years kept a directory of European institutions of theological education, and thus facilitated an initial process of networking and exchange, recently has acknowledged the importance of theological education in any effort to strengthen the spirit of ecumenical cooperation among the European churches. Thus, it has organized two consultations of Theological Faculties in Europe in 2002 and 2006. The Final Declaration of the first consultation of July 2002, recommended as a concrete step to convene "Europe-wide consultations on theological issues and education regularly every two to three years; setting up partnerships between different educational institutions independently of the confessional ties of each; and finally, as a long-range goal, the creation of an Ecumenical Conference of European Theological Faculties, Colleges and Institutions." The 2nd consultation, meeting in 2006 at Graz under the theme "The Challenges of Theology in a Pluralistic Europe" discussed in particular the Bologna Process as an ecumenical challenge to develop new forms of cooperation and the consequences for the mutual recognition of academic achievement. It specified and strengthened the earlier recommendation and agreed that a permanent body be established called the "Conference of Theological Formation, Faculties and Colleges in Europe" to be based in Graz. It also proposed to create a web-site to facilitate exchange and to set up a planning committee to implement these recommendations. Neither of these two consultations, however, seems to have given particular attention to the issues regarding theological education arising specifically in Central and Eastern Europe.

Further, the Charla Oecumenica of 2001 which was prepared jointly by CEC and the CCEE declares in section 3 "Moving towards one another": "It is important to acknowledge the spiritual riches of the different Christian traditions, to learn from one another and so to...

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