The Accra Confession and Ecumenism Today – by Neal D. Presa

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
-Matthew 16:15 (NRSV)

This is the 11^th week after Pentecost in the liturgical calendar. The Gospel reading is Matthew 16:13-20, the famed confession of Peter when the Lord inquired, “But who do you say that I am?” This dialogue occurred in the district of Caesarea Philippi. I had the occasion of traveling on a pilgrimage with several pastors a few years ago and saw this structure at Omrit and met the archaeologist, Ehud Netzer, who excavated this site believed to be Herod’s temple dedicated to Emperor Caesar Augustus:

The size of the columns indicates the height of this temple together with the white-hewn stone with the sun glistening on its surface would have been seen for miles away. In other words, the presence of this temple declared the power and patronage of imperial rule.  Jesus’s inquiry of Peter’s and the other disciples’ heart commitment was at its core a soul-searching question for them with the imposing presence of empire right there in front of them versus the lowly servant rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth looking at their eyes, hearing their voice, piercing their heart.

Ten years ago and the succeeding years since the 24^th General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed churches in Accra, Ghana, the Accra Confession and the Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth movement, in partnership with the World Council of Churches and the WCC’s Poverty, Wealth and Ecology initiative, Oikotree, and other ecumenical partners, have put on the front burner of churches, who do we say that Jesus Christ is?  Who is the Lord of our lives and the Lord of the world?

The Accra Confession, which arose from a process in the 1990s that culminated in a declaration of a status confessionis, heightened the necessity for the Reformed churches to sound the alarm that the Gospel’s witness must be proclaimed as a necessary critique and corrective in which Global North/West economic and geo-political priorities prevail to perpetuate economic injustice and environmental degradation, placing the goal for financial profits over the flourishing of all peoples of the earth.

The commodification and objectification of people and communities as resources rather than as gifts of God to be dignified create 21^st century contexts where spiritualities of Sabbath-keeping are vitiated and where we neglect the Lord’s own exhortation, “humanity does not live by bread alone” (Deut 8:3; Matthew 4:4).

In my own ecclesial context, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), our 218^th General Assembly (2008) approved “The Ecumenical Stance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Statement”[2] and our 221^st General Assembly (2014) approved “The Interreligious Stance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),”[3] both statements which identify the early 21^st century national and global landscape, exegeting our present contexts, and offering avenues in which the PC(USA) through its national and regional instrumentalities can and will engage ecumenically and interreligiously.

In “The Interreligious Stance” statement section titled “Foundations for the Future” there are six “Building Blocks,” two of which are building block # 1 (“In a pluralistic society, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recognizes that it must work with others. . .the Church is a sign and means of God’s intention for the wholeness and healing of humankind and of all creation”) and building block # 4  on peace, justice and ecology (“Experience has taught that the most fruitful interfaith relationships often develop when people of different faiths explore concrete ethical concerns and unite to act on them together.)

In “The Ecumenical Stance” statement, the following were identified as “Contours of a New Ecumenical Reality”:

• reconciliation in Jesus Christ;

• a spirit of generosity toward others:

• unity and diversity in the Holy Spirit

• justice in the economy, and for the earth;

• the call of God to mission and evangelism;

• solidarity with the marginalized;

• common memory of a people on a journey;

• hope for the future of the world;

• a gift of God and a task for all human beings.

Succeeding these nine identified contours are ten priorities, two of which are the following:

• Priority # 5 on Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth: “The unity of the church is not an end in itself, but an element in the reconciliation of the whole created order. The pursuit of God’s justice is a response to the gospel that embraces the whole world, and that seeks God’s abundant life for all people. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is committed to working with other churches, listening to the voices of brothers and sisters who call for human freedom, social justice, and the healing of the planet entrusted to human care.”
• Priority # 7 on Nurturing Interreligious Engagements: “Commitment to peacemaking and to justice in the economy, for the earth and in the social order, is more than a Christian concern. God is at work in the whole world, within and beyond the bounds of the church. God’s household is larger than the church, and all God’s people are integral to each other’s wholeness and the healing of the world.

Both statements see our denominational relationships and engagements ecumenically and interreligiously as intertwined with the realities of globalization which the Accra Confession spoke so prophetically about a decade ago. This is also in line with the core callings of the World Communion of Reformed Churches whereupon at the Uniting General Council in 2010, the merger of WARC with the Reformed Ecumenical Council was keen in insuring that the newly birthed Communion would have as its raison d’ etre “communion” and “justice.”  In other words, as Reformed churches, as followers of Jesus Christ in this part of the body of Christ called the Reformed tradition, we discern our calling to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in relationship with other members of the household of faith and, indeed, the household of the broader human community as one that works to see that all those who are hungry physically and spiritually are fed, that all who are naked are clothed, that all who mourn are comforted, that all who are in despair because of violence are liberated.

The Accra Confession powerfully shapes, informs, and propels ecumenism moving forward in seeing that the prayers for and the arduous labor for visible unity in the body of Christ and reconciliation of relationships in the broader human family are not for unity’s sake, but so that, in Jesus’s words, “so that all may have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  To that daily and lifelong commitment, the Accra Confession prompts us as persons, as churches and as councils, to ask, so who do you say that the Lord is?

Rev. Neal D. Presa, Ph.D (@nealpresa), is Associate Pastor of the Village Community Presbyterian Church in Rancho Santa Fe, CA and Extraordinary Associate Professor of Practical Theology of North-West University in Potschefstroom, South Africa. He most recently served as Moderator of the 220^th General Assembly (2012-2014) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), while having been a solo pastor in New Jersey and on the faculty of New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He has served on the executive committees of both the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches in the capacity as Convenor (2006-11) of the Alliance’s and Communion’s Caribbean and North American Area Council (CANAAC).

[1] Photo accessed at  http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2012/04/17/The-Temple-of-Caesar-Augustus-at-Caesarea-Philippi.aspx

[2] Accessible at http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/ecumenical-stance-of-the-pcusa.pdf

[3] Accessible at http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/interreligious_stance.pdf