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The Charta Oecumenica, which has been almost two years in the making, sets down guidelines for ecumenical work in Europe. The Charta was signed on April 22 in Strasbourg by Orthodox Metropolitan Jeremie of France, Spain and Portugal, president of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and Cardinal Miloslav Vlk of Prague, president of the Council of European (Catholic) Bishops' Conferences (CCEE) during an Ecumenical Encounter here in Strasbourg.

Between them CCEE and CEC, which has more than 120 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches—including the Russian church—as members, represent almost all mainstream churches in Europe.

Deacon Andrei Elisseev, a staff member of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, told ENI that he had informed a meeting of CEC's central committee earlier this week that his church disagreed "both with the form and the content of this document."

Deacon Elisseev said his church was particularly concerned about commitments in the Charta to work towards the "visible unity of the Church of Jesus Christ in the one faith." He said this contradicted a statement on inter-church relations adopted by his church's council of bishops last August which rejected the idea that churches should "make visible" an existing but hidden unity of the world-wide church and also the "theory of branches," according to which the church is separated into equal parts which have to be reunified to become whole again.

According to a statement presented by Deacon Elisseev to CEC's central committee, which met in Strasbourg immediately before the Ecumenical Encounter, "even after a long and sometimes painful process of the Charta redaction [drafting]," the second draft contained "many ideas and practical and theological positions which do not take into account the present state of the ecumenical movement and inter-Christian dialogue."

"Moreover, the basic text of the Charta can produce strong criticism within some churches and therefore can be harmful and counter-productive for the future of the dialogue and co-operation between Christians, and might lead to new divisions among the faithful."

According to the Moscow Patriarchate, the signing of the document by Metropolitan Jeremie and Cardinal Vlk on Sunday, "may only be taken as an act of their own willingness and personal conviction, and not as a position of the churches, the Russian Orthodox Church in particular."

Deacon Elisseev told ENI that his church was not "in principle" against the idea of a charter that would describe ways for churches to co-operate. "We tried to make the Conference of European Churches understand that the Charta should not be signed as itself, but be presented to the churches for study, for reflection and for further work.

"It was not a rejection of the idea of the Charta, but of some ideas, some theological positions expressed in this document," he said, adding that he was concerned that the fact that it would be signed by CEC's president might be understood as meaning that CEC member churches, and particularly the Russian Orthodox Church, agreed with the document.

"We wanted to show that there was disagreement with particular points in the document that we cannot accept, either for theological or for some ethical or practical reasons."

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45