Another Report from the Conference of European Churches in Velletri

Yet we are proud to present another piece of Moira Sleight’s report she made for the Methodist Recorder. This time she writes about the situation in Italy, which is very important to us. She was interviewing our President, Rev Massimo Aquilante.

Italy

Italy is going through a deep cultural, moral and spiritual crisis, according to the President of the Methodist Church in Italy, the Rev Massimo Aquilante.
The Italian people were forgetting that they were a people of emigrants and were becoming harsh towards immigrants. They had never previously been racist but now episodes of racism were occurring, especially in the North, he said.
The President said that in such a situation Italian Protestantism perceived its vocation as a call to have a prophetic role,

“that is not to give our fellow citizens any social doctrine or predetermined ethical instructions, but to proclaim to them the Kingdom of God and its appeal to ‘metanoia’, to accept in their lives the liberating grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.

“Out of this specific understanding of what our vocation is about today comes the task for reform of the Church that builds up an ‘integrated Church’ or a ‘being Church together’ with the immigrants’, he said. The Methodist congregations were very ready to be open to immigrants. “If it is possible to live together within the Church, the same thing must be possible within society”, he said.

Filipino and Korean Methodists wanted bilateral congregations but, while accepted, these were different from the general Church policy of integration. Nearly every northern congregation has been touched by the presence of immigrants in its community. Recently new congregations had been established through the mission That Africans are doing among their own people. In these cases integration has had to be done at circuit not congregational level.

Projects
As well as the local efforts of congregations, there are a number of ongoing projects, including Project Mezzano working with the help of the Church in Ghana among African immigrants in the north of the country and a school in Bologna for Italian as a second language where more then 400 enrolled last year.
In Rome the Federation of Italian Protestant Churches assists migrants in obtaining documents, finding housing and teaching the Italian language.
A minister from the Methodist, Ghana, is due to come to Rome at the beginning of next year with the mandate to gather the immigrants from Africa into local churches. At the moment there are Africans within the English-speaking congregation at Ponte Sant’Angelo and within French –speaking congregation, which is made up entirely of migrants but none Italian-speaking congregations.
In Palermo there is a programme for prostitutes and one for women and children. The church council there has decided to start a new project to help those Africans who do not speak Italian, English or French to take part fully in the Sunday service and in the life of the congregation.
The Methodist Synod has decided it needs to train Italian Methodists in intercultural mediation.

“We have not started this yet but we know it is very important for us,” said the President.

The Conference of European Churches

In September Ecumene had a group of special guests – the Conference of European Churches. Thanks to the Methodist Recorder we can present a piece of the report written by Moira Sleight.


Spotlight on migration
Migration was a key topic for discussion when members of the European Methodist Council (EMC) met together in Velletri, Italy. As part of their agenda, Church representatives from across the continent shared in small groups their experiences in seeking to be Churches ministering to immigrants and in welcoming immigrants into their worshipping life. These discussions were fed back into the council as a whole in plenary session.
The annual meeting of the council was held this year in the Italian Methodist Church’s Ecumene Centre in the hills outside Rome, chaired by Bishop Hans Växby of the United Methodist Church in Eurasia and Colin Ride of the British Methodist Church’s World Church Relationships.
For the first time guests from the Europe District of the Korean Methodist Church were present and it was agreed that an application should be made for them to have observer status at the future council meetings A report was given of last year’s European Methodist Festival held in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic. There had been good feedback from the event and stories were shared of the positive effect it had on many participants.

Attendance
Because prices had been set low for Eastern European participants in order to encourage their attendance, many more had come compared to the previous festival. This meant that the Bratislava event had made a loss as two-thirds of the participants had come from Eastern Europe and were paying the lower fees, as opposed to one-third at the previous Potsdam festival.
Various donations had been received from European Churches to help mitigate the deficit. Concern was expressed at the loss but the council agreed that it was a result of the conscious decision to try to make the festival a truly European event and therefore acceptable. The loss had not been the result of carelessness but generosity.
It was agreed to affirm the decisions that had been made in organising the festival, express gratitude to the planning group and programme committee and in future see what budgeting lessons could be learnt from the Bratislava's experience.
It was decided that proposals regarding a suitable date and location for future European Methodist Festival would be brought to next year’s council. Some offers had already been made to host such an event.
The council approved a draft document for best practise in establishing congregational partnerships across Europe drawn up by the Fund for Mission in Europe and encouraged feedback from all council members so that the document would be fully European and not with an emphasis from a western Europe context.
It was hoped that, when finalised, the document would be used by all Methodist Churches in Europe.
Superintendent Lothar Pöll from Austria reported on the work of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) – the former Leuenberg Church Fellowship. Colin Ride briefed the council on the restructuring process being carried out by the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the suggestion that the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe should become a third CEC commission and plans for the CEC assembly next year in Lyon.

Developments
Council members shared news of developments in their countries regarding Charta Oecumenica. A new paper on “Confessing Christ in a World of Many Faiths: Key Theological Issues” by the council’s Theological Commission was introduced by the Rev Dr Johnston McMaster from Ireland, who drew attention to the section on encountering secular humanism and the new atheism. The council split into small groups to discuss the paper and on returning to plenary session shared their views on it.
The Rev Ole Birch from Denmark reported on behalf of the Church and Society Commission and highlighted in particular three issues – Islam and the letter issued by Muslim scholars; climate change; and religious rights.
Greetje van der Veer from Italy gave a report from the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women (WFMUCW). There are two WFMUCW areas in Europe – the Britain and Ireland area and the Europe Continental area. Next May there is to be a joint seminar to be held in Scotland and it is felt that the event will be a good opportunity to strenghten the bond between the two areas and encourage each other serving Christ.

Constitution
News from EMYC was shared by Marija Kiveryte from Lithuania. She explained that last year members had been working on their constitution. One result of this was that the name EMYC now stood for European Methodist Youth and Children rather than, as formerly, European Methodist Youth Council, as this better matched what they encompassed. Numbers had been reduced and instead of five commissions there were now project groups.
It was agreed that a representative of EMC would attend the meeting of EMYC later in the month in Interlaken.
Executive secretary for Europe and North Africa for the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries the Rev Üllas Tankler drew attention to some of the developments in that organisation and explained that their ministry was now being prioritised around four programme foci – Leadership Development; Congregational Development; Ministries with the Poor and Global Health.
Tove Odland from Norway gave a report from the European Commission on Mission (ECOM), whose new chair will be Mike King from World Church Relationships of the British Methodist Church. Papers were circulated regarding World Methodist Council Matters.
Alterations to the council’s constitution were considered and a revised constitution adopted, subject to minor amendments being approved at the later date.
One outcome of the revisions is that there is now only one standing committee – the Fund for Mission in Europe. The previous Theological Commission and Church and Society Commission will now be ad hoc committees of the council and the European Commission on Mission (ECOM) will be a related organisation.

Approved
The council’s budget for 2009, with amendments, was approved, as were the accounts for 2007. Bishop Wäxby was elected to continue to serve as a co-chair of the council until 2010, while Chris Elliott from the British Methodist Church was elected as co-chair from 2009.
The Rev Guenter Winkmann war reappointed as council treasurer and the Rev Armin Besserer as secretary. The other members of the executive committee were also appointed – Eva Csernak from Hungary, Bishop Sifredo Teixeira from Portugal and Cherry Sleeman from Ireland. The next European Methodist Council will be held in England from September 12-16, 2009.