ECUMENICAL TRAJECTORIES TODAY
Keywords:
Ecumenical Movement, Faith and Order Movement, Indigenous Christianities, PostmodernityAbstract
The ecumenical movement is the common search of the Churches to rediscover their visible unity which they have lost due to several factors doctrinal, theological and socio-cultural. Today the movement faces a crisis and its future cannot be predicted. What are the emerging trajectories of the ecumenical movements? This article, first introduces the ecumenical movement and its historical journey. Secondly, it highlights some of the problems and challenges it faces today. The mutual recognition, intercommunion and a visible fellowship in a ‘conciliar relationship,’ as envisaged in the ecumenical movement seem to be elusive today. Thirdly, the article searches the emerging trajectories on the horizon. The emphasis on the visible and institutional unity is more and more replaced by the prophetic and mystical orientations. The local seems to have precedence over the universal. Instead of worldwide denominational fellowships what emerge today are indigenous and charismatic Christian communities. In today’s postcolonial and postmodern cultural scenario the smaller people and smaller traditions assert their identity, and plurality has become the irreversible law of the future.
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