EUROPEAN COUNCIL MERGING WITH POLITICAL ACTION BODY

EUROPEAN ECUMENICAL MERGER/ UNITY IN DIVERSITY

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July 14, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The Conference of European Churches (CEC), founded in 1959, represents 123 member denominations in Britain and Europe. At its recent general assembly in Graz, Austria, it announced plans to integrate with the European Ecumenical Commission for Church and Society (EECCS) with the goal that "non-Roman Catholic churches will have a common instrument to deal with European political institutions" (ENI, July 2, 1997). The EECCS was founded in 1973 and has forged a close relationship with the European Union in Brussels and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The EECCS will now become a special Church and Society Commission of the Council of European Churches.

At the same time, the Conference of European Churches is drawing ever closer to the Roman Catholic Church. At the recent conference there were calls to invite the Roman Catholic Church into full membership, and the secretary general-elect, Keith Clements, said that "closer cooperation" with the Roman Catholic Church is "absolutely vital" to ecumenism in Europe. Clements also said that "unless the churches, at the very least, are seen to be determined to overcome concretely the divisions of the past, they can hardly be taken seriously as the people of the future." The CEC and the RCC have organized a number of joint events.

All of this occurs in the context of the pope's call for a united "Christian" Europe. The old harlot of Revelation 17 might be preparing for her final ride.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY

This does not mean there ever will be true unity among ecumenical denominations and organizations. There is no true unity among those who reject the faith once delivered to the saints. True unity can only be found among born again Christians who are committed to the faith and defense of the Word of God. In its fullest sense, the unity demanded by the New Testament epistles can only be found in sound Bible-believing churches which are ruled exclusively by God's Word. The New Testament call for unity is given directly in the context of such churches (Rom. 15:6; 1 Co. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:1-13; Phil. 1:27).

The only unity the ecumenical crowd can have is its unstable "unity in diversity." In reality, the ecumenical movement is absolutely filled with disharmony. This was evident at the recent conference sponsored jointly by the Conference of European Churches and the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference of Europe. The delegates included the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and Catholic Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. More than 10,000 participated in this massive meeting which had the theme of "Reconciliation--Gift of God and Source of New Life." There was anything but true unity, though. A report on the meeting in the Religious News Service was titled "European Christian assembly marked by division." The feminists complained that their voices were being muffled by church hierarchies and fretted over the fact that only 4 percent of the assembly delegates were female. Several hundred women demonstrated outside the main conference hall with banners reading "No justice without women." Orthodox denominations protested against proselytism on the part of Protestant and Catholic churches. Still others complained that their various concerns were not taken seriously by the conference leaders. This disharmony to be expected. While there will continue to be growing ecumenical unity among the denominations as the time of Christ's return draws near, there will also continue to be great disharmony. It is a strange phenomenon, but it is expected.

The Roman Catholic Church represents the ultimate form of ecumenical unity in diversity. There is not now and there never has been true unity within the Roman Catholic Church. It has always represented a bewildering hodge podge of doctrine and practice. You can find practically anything within the ecclesiastical borders of Romanism--religious syncretism and the rejection of syncretism, universalism and the rejection of universalism, theological modernism and the rejection of modernism, open idolatry and the rejection of idolatry, evolution and the rejection of evolution, feminism and anti-feminism. Ultimately, the Roman Catholic Church has never cared deeply about doctrine. What it has cared about is authority and power. If one will accept its authoritative claims, if one will accept its pope, one is welcome to believe and practice almost anything. Ecumenical unity in diversity.