Beyond Dialogue National Consultation

South Asia Ecumenical Partnership Programme (SAEPP)
National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and India Peace Centre (IPC)
20 – 22 July 2005, NCCI Campus Nagpur

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Introduction

Dialogue is a way of encountering and understanding oneself and the world at the deepest levels, opening up possibilities of grasping the fundamental meanings of life, individually and corporately. This in turn transforms the way we deal with ourselves, others and the world. Thus Dialogue on a broad scale is a way of thinking and of understanding the world. It is understood and practiced in various ways but we are here for few days to think in a different perspective to reach communal consciousness. At the heart of every culture lies a religion or formative set of beliefs. Our beliefs shape our values, relationships, and actions. Beliefs or religion can inspire and unite as well as they also have the power to divide and destroy. Through the ages, religious, cultural and ethnic differences have led to misunderstanding, hostility, and conflict. Today war, cultural, ethnic and religious prejudice, and violence not only thrive, but threaten entire areas with individual and communal annihilation.

Ecumenism of Action

The movement of ecumenism of action has a long history. It started in 1925, based on the idea that life is action. The motto of the movement was: "doctrine separates, action unites". It has left a great mark in the structure of the World Council of Churches. For instance, the programme on racism, women, human rights, ecology, etc. that the World Council of Churches has been carrying out since 1966 is the movement's contribution to the Council. Around the '60's Basic Ecclesial Communities were born in Latin America, which introduced a new form of ecumenism: ecumenism not for the poor, but for their justice and liberation, ecumenism carried out by them, by the poor themselves, who joined forces in order to engage in social struggles. Catholics and Pentecostals campaigned together against the agrarian reform, to regain civil rights under dictatorships. This was possible because hunger is ecumenical , the most ecumenical reality there is; it is neither Catholic nor Protestant nor Pentecostal. Liberation theology was born with the basic communities. Rubem Alves, a Methodist minister who in 1969 published a book entitled "Liberation theology" (which the publisher changed to "Theology of Hope") and shortly thereafter, in 1970, Gustavo Gutierrez, a Catholic Father, wrote the book entitled "Liberation theology". Still today, both Catholics and Protestants continue to develop liberation theology. Since the 80's ecumenism of action has been faced with new challenges.

However the possibility and reality of mutual service may become important instruments in the growth of trust, the display of mutual love and better service to the world.  Common witness through proclamation and service reflects the unity that already exists and nourishes the unity the churches seek.  At the same time, the churches must be prepared to find themselves in situations where the type of services they feel called to offer creates controversy and even division among them.  If the unity of the church is strong enough to generate service to humanity, it must also be strong enough to stand up to disagreements on the type of service to be given and to engender a degree of trust which will allow them to have confidence that the aims they are pursuing are the same.  In a world in which the reconciling vocation of the church is more necessary than ever, the church cannot offer pious counsel to warring factions in humanity without showing that the church can overcome its own historical divisions and provide a parable of the potential reconciliation of every human conflict. 

Creating Space: A Possibility

There have been different shapes of time and space in history. In the early historical time human community lived in the natural time and local space. Time and space were not arbitrarily defined and managed. The Agrarian production, based upon the land, had been dependent upon the local space and natural time. Community was formed in this context, where cooperation and dependency upon the nature are essential relations. Tribal communities are examples. Politically feudalism is dependent upon the natural time, local space and agrarian economy. Cultural developments were also very much dependent upon the natural space and time, the agrarian economy, feudal politics. Locality is the center of spatial organization of the life.

In the modern times the industrial civilization had emerged. This has shifted the shape of time and space. The concept of the absolute space and absolute time has been dominant in the industrial society. Basically the world has been viewed as a machine. Here the time and space has been managed according to the needs and dictates of the industrial society. The industrial economy has been dependent upon the absolute time and space. This is the core of the modernity. The thrust of the civilization has been regarded as modernization. The Western Enlightenment has dominated the philosophy of the world, and it has evolved the infrastructure of the industrial society, that is, science and technology. The center of the life organization has been shifted to the nation state, suppressing and overcoming the local. In the industrial and modern, the ideas of the free market and modern nation state have emerged. In this context the individual has the absolute identity; and social relations are determined according to contracts among the individuals. The freedom and private property are the highest values to preserve the life. Relation of human community to the nature is one of the domination and conquering.

Due to the development of advanced sciences and high technology, the time and space is now managed in an unlimited extent. This made possible the globalization of the capital and the market. The previous limits and boundaries are being overthrown in the process of globalization. Key players in the modern had been nation states; but in the new cyber age, the key agents of power and influence have been the giant transnational corporate entities such as global corporations and transnational financial institutions.

In the Report of the Consultation, Convened by the World Council of Churches at Chavannes-de-Bogis , Switzerland , 30 November to 3 December 2004 , Dr Musimbi Kanyoro talks about the Dreams and Visions: Living the Deepening Contradictions of Ecumenism in the 21st Century. Kanyoro's dream is for an ecumenical space where people encounter each other and where God meets each one in their journey of faith. An ecumenical space can have many round tables so that people need not fight for space but rather they can seek to discover which table God is inviting them to join. Churches may come together motivated by burning issues of the day. Kanyoro dreams of an ecumenical space where voices, opinions and contradictions can hear one another without fear and censorship; a space which is conscious of the changing times in communication and embraces communication as a method to tell its story to those who can join the space and those who will not or need not join; a space where variety and diversity are assets rather than liabilities; and a table where faith and scriptures are taught.

Dialogical Perspectives

It is time to take the power and promise of Dialogue beyond the boundaries which we impose to a level to make structural difference in confronting issues. At the heart this premise is the conviction that dialogue channels energies into solving common human problems. Thus, in looking beyond is to look at our own faith, the faith of our neighbors, cultural, ethical traditions to thrust humankind toward a deeper understanding and creative cooperation process. If the world is to benefit from the tremendous creative power of the different cultures, faith affirmations in diminishing the potentially destructive forces, we must join together to confront the threats to the world: injustice, violence, poverty, and the destruction of the global ecosystem. It could be by engaging in dialogue: intra-faith, inter-faith and inter-worldviews, one possibility is to promote better understanding of and creative cooperation acknowledging and accepting differences. 

In envisioning this process we may look at three dimensions: Ethics, Spirituality and Globalization. It is an encounter with those whose view of the world is significantly different from our own. The primary purpose of this opening out is for each to gain a new insight into reality. Such a dialogical encounter enables each of us to view ourselves, others, and the world, as well as our understanding of it, from a new perspective, more "objectively" enriched through the eyes of others. This whole new way of understanding reality, provides each of us the opportunity to probe the inner depth of the meaning of life as it faces us in the different dimensions of our experience: individually, with others, at work, in the family, on the several levels of community up to the global level, and amidst the world around us. 

Ethics is the set of principles which each of us develops by which we decide how to act both in general and in particular situations. Because of the fluidity of modern society it is especially vital both for individuals and for communities to develop integrated, holistic ways of ethical behavior. At the same time it is essential that we enter respectfully into Dialogue with those whose ethical principles appear to be grounded differently from ours. That is to experience Inter-World Encounters, both to seek out what is held in common and to discern true differences. In the end it is necessary for human survival that such individual and group commitments to integrated ethical living in a dialogical context expand to the fullest, aiming at the joint discovery. 

Spirituality refers to the way each individual and groups inwardly understand the meaning of life and then outwardly give it expression. Thus, spirituality underlies all aspects of every-day life-- including every specific religion or ideology, each of which are particular crystallizations of that perception of the meaning of life and how to manifest it. As persons mature they enter into a kind of Dialogue within themselves, thereby giving shape to their personal understanding of the meaning of life -- their spirituality. Though this has often been done within the context of a religious tradition, today many are discovering spiritual meaning in alternative ways. Hence, spirituality provides the basis from which ethics, the principles of behavior, springs. So too, because of the shifting quality of contemporary society, it is vital that each of us develop integrated, holistic ways of fusing our spirituality and everyday life: in the family, at work, in our communities, up to the global level, and in relation to the world around us. At the same time it is essential that we enter into Dialogue with those whose spirituality is different from ours, both to seek out what is held in common and to discern true differences. 

Globalization may be interpreted as a term to describe "a process” which embodies a transformation. It can be assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, and impact- generating transcontinental, interregional and networks of activity.  From an economic perspective, globalization involves an explosion of global trade, investment and financial flows across the boundaries.  With the intensification of international trade, investment and finance, more countries and regions entered the competition for market and capital and gains. From a socio-cultural perspective, globalization involves the massive movement of people across borders and the fusion of cultures on a global scale.  From a political perspective, the impact of globalization refers to the tendency for political decisions and actions in one part of the world to generate widespread reactions and consequences elsewhere.  The global movement of people and news with the global flow of goods and capital has turned many a local event into international concerns. Globalization on the physical level is accelerating at such a rapid rate that intellectually and emotionally we humans need to focus our full attention on this reality if we are to survive on all three levels, intellectual, emotional and even physical. However, globalization is likewise an incredible opportunity to overcome that "Divisive Dualisms" that have plagued humankind from the beginning: Body-spirit, men-women, black-white, rich-poor, labor-management, religious-secular, nation-nation, etc. A humane globalization cannot succeed by way of dominance. Rather, it can be accomplished only by Dialogue within persons, among individuals, between groups. 

Conclusion:

Genuine dialogue can thus be either spoken or silent. Its essence lies in the fact that ‘each of the participants really has in mind the other or others in their present and particular being and turns to them with the intention of establishing a living mutual relation between oneself and them. The essential element of genuine dialogue, therefore, is ‘seeing the other' or ‘experiencing the other side.' There is no human situation which is so God-forsaken that the meeting with otherness cannot take place within it. It is also possible for a leader of business to fill his business with dialogue by meeting the human with whom he works as persons. Even when one cannot meet them directly, one can be aware, with a latent of the multitude of these persons, so that when one of them does step before him as an individual, he can meet the person not as a number with a human mask but as a person. Experiencing the other side means to feel an event from the side of the person one meets as well as from one's own side. It is an inclusiveness which realizes the other person in the actuality, but not to be identified with ‘empathy,' which means transposing oneself into the dynamic structure of an object, hence ‘the exclusion of one's own concreteness and the extinguishing of the actual situation of life. Inclusion is the opposite of this. It is the extension of one's own concreteness, the fulfillment of the actual situation of life, the complete presence of the reality in which one participates. It is a relation between two persons and an event experienced by them in common, in which at least one of them actively participates, and, the fact that this one person, without forfeiting anything of the felt reality of one's activity, at the same time lives through the common event from the standpoint of the other.

Bishop D.K. Sahu
General Secretary, NCCI