Christian leaders look forward to centenary of ecumenical conference

Church leaders are preparing for an international ecumenical conference in Edinburgh, Great Britain, 100 years after a pioneering inter-Church gathering there.

Sister Clemens Mendonca

Sister Clemens Mendonca says she hopes the representatives of all Christian Churches attending “Edinburgh 2010″ will discuss doing mission work from the point of view of marginalized people and the socially weak.

The Indian nun, executive secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops´ Conferences Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (FABC-OEIA), noted that how one does mission in Asia is important because of the continent´s diverse religious and cultural traditions.

“The mission of the Church is to encounter the contemporary world through dialogue,” she said at a consultation held March 23-24 in Seoul to prepare for Edinburgh 2010, which has the theme “Witnessing to Christ Today.”

About 20 scholars and leaders from Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches attended from Britain, China, India, Hong Kong, Kenya, Korea, the Philippines, Russia and Uganda.

Mostly Western Protestant missioners attended the worldwide conference held in Edinburgh in 1910.

That historic gathering “symbolized the beginning of the ecumenical movement,” Daryl Balia, an African Methodist and international director of Edinburgh 2010, said at the Seoul consultation.

Church of Scotland Reverend Andrew Anderson, chairperson of the general council for the upcoming conference, told UCA News that he expects around 1,000 participants, more than half of them from the Global South, the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

He said the upcoming conference would include representatives from the Catholic, Orthodox and Pentecostal Churches. “That representation of ecumenicity is even beyond that of the World Council of Churches, which makes the occasion very unique and special,” he stated.

Reverend Ma Won-suk, convener of the Seoul consultation, told UCA News nine commissions are working on the 2010 conference, for which consultation meetings in Asia began in Taiwan in October 2008. Other meetings are scheduled to be held in Singapore in March, in Malaysia in June, and in India in July, the Korean Pentecostal Church pastor said.