SCM represented at US ecumenical youth conference

by Sheryl Johnson
National Representative (elected co-chair of SCM)
November 14, 2008

I had the pleasure of attending a young adult pre-conference, entitled New Fire, to the National Council of Churches, USA Annual Meeting in Denver Colorado.

The pre-conference involved young adult representatives from many American denominations (mainly Mainline Protestant, but also some Catholic, Orthodox, and “Evangelical” Protestant) as well as individuals from Ecumenical organizations.

It was very interesting to be present to see what is going on with ecumenism in the United States! One particularly exciting programme I learned about was Ecumenical Advocacy Days, where over 1000 individuals from various denominations gather each year in Washington, DC to lobby government representatives, after a few days of learning about various issues (divided into topical caucuses).

This year the dates are March 13-16…perhaps something to check out if you are at all able!

As the gathered group, we had good conversation about who was and was not present around the table, and whether our presumptions were exclusive. One particular assumption that kept coming up was the presumption of Democratic/liberal politics (particularly as this gathering was days after Obama’s victory). At the same time, the election was obviously an event of great excitement for many people and the energy and hope in the promise that this election will bring was hard not to notice. Many individuals had stories about their “election night” experiences which were incredible to hear. At the same time, the vast contrast to my experience of the recent Canadian election stood out in stark contrast. When sharing this experience, many of the Americans present offered sympathy and committed to being in prayerful support during this phase of Canadian political life and noted the support of Canadian churches as many Americans experienced similar despair and frustration with their government.

The American ecumenical context seems a fair bit different – I suppose because of sheer numbers there is less overlap of individuals and organizations than in Canada. Something that I wasn’t really anticipating was the militarized language that seemed to come up both at the conference and that I just overheard in public. Analogies like being in the “trenches” were a little unsettling for me – there are many things that the ecumenical movement makes me think about, but going into military struggle is certainly not one! An issue that came up that also surprised me was around language speaking of the “renewal” of the church which particularly some of the Orthodox and Catholic participants described as exclusionary. Always much to be mindful of!

We had dinner one night with a lot of the “ecumenical officers” of various denominations. It was great that they took us “seriously enough” to come to our gathering and really engage with us in over an hour of question and answer time. Sometimes I wonder, though, about the ideology of “passing along the torch” that seemed to come up over and over. Are we as young adults not doing ecumenism right now? Many times, too, the more “seasoned” in the gathering commented that it wasn’t up to them to decide where the ecumenical movement would go in the future when questioned. That to me seems like a bit of a cop-out – the choices and directions they are taking today is certainly affecting where the ecumenical movement will go in the future. Can we not perhaps work together to consider this direction, drawing both on their experience and also that of younger members? Perhaps the intergenerational divide is too vast compared to the denominational and ideological differences that the ecumenical movement tries to bridge,…?!

One really meaningful component of the gathering was sharing stories or “testimonies” about individuals’ experiences with ecumenism and how we came into the ecumenical movement. I had often thought about ecumenism in more of a pragmatic sense and not as a something personally transformative and faith-shaping as it is and left me with many ideological questions. Is ecumenism about tolerating one another enough for a greater good, or is it, can it be, more? What does it mean to be rooted in diversity, contradiction, and ambiguity? To me, that sounds a lot like faith right there.