Witnessing Together – Who, What and to Whom? The Concept of Witness in Together Towards Life and The Church: Towards a Common Vision (original) (raw)

Introduction 'Witness' has from the very beginning belonged to the vocabulary of the ecumenical movement. The first ecumenical documents issued by the WCC in the mid-twentieth century do not introduce or analyse the concept but consider it a natural part of the ecumenical discourse. 1 Through the twentieth century and moving into the twenty-first, 'witness' has grown in ecumenical importance and also in range of meaning; in contemporary ecumenism it is associated with several theological loci such as the Great Commission to evangelize the world, church fellowship, biblical hermeneutics as well as revelation theology. A crucial factor behind the establishment of 'witness' in the ecumenical discourse is the long theological history of the concept, a history that stretches back to the scriptural term 'μαρτυρία' (martyría). Despite its obvious ecumenical significance 'witness' has not been systematically defined in academical research or in ecumenical dialogues and declarations. 2 The un-dogmatized character and multidimensionality of the concept have enabled it to act as a common starting point for different dialogue parties, but as the meaning of the concept has not been clarified in the ecumenical process, the ostensibly common language has come to conceal many different, even mutually contradictory theological views. As a result of this obscurity, the collocation 'common witness' that has become a slogan in contemporary ecumenism has lost a great deal of its relevance. The unclarity regarding the meaning of 'witness' applies also to the newest multilateral dialogue documents issued by the World Council of Churches (WCC), Together Towards Life. Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (hereafter CWME), 2012) and The Church: Towards a Common Vision (Commission on Faith and Order (hereafter F&O), 2013). Ever since the predecessor of CWME, the International Missionary Council, and F&O were born at the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910, the relationship between these two movements has been characterised by struggle and competition. 3 John Gibaut, director of F&O during the formation of Together towards Life (hereafter TTL) and The Church (hereafter TCTCV), sees in TTL and TCTCV a significant convergence of the 1 For example, The Church in the Purpose of God (1950) uses 'witness 16 times and The Church, the Churches and the World Council of Churches (1950) 9 times. Oliver S. Tomkins (Secretary to the Commission), The Church in the Purpose of God: An Introduction to the Work of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, in Preparation for the Third