During the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and held in Egypt from October 24 to 28, Rev. Dr Sotiris Boukis, co-chair of the Ecclesiology Study Group of the Faith and Order Commission, which was founded in 1948 to undertake theological studies for the ecumenical movement within WCC, shared with China Christian Daily the work of his study group, insights from the conference, his perspectives on unity, and the situation of Evangelical churches in Greece. He is also the senior pastor of the Greek Evangelical Church of Thessaloniki and teaches systematic and ecumenical theology at the Greek Bible College, has been involved in research on Orthodox–Evangelical relationships, and on global Christianity.
China Christian Daily: Could you please introduce yourself and your work with WCC?
Sotiris Boukis: My name is Rev. Dr. Sotiris Boukis. I'm an ordained minister of the Evangelical Church of Greece, a church within the Reformed tradition. I have worked for the last 10 years in the ecclesiology study group of the WCC's Faith and Order Commission. During the last years, I have been the co-chair of this group.
We want to see more unity about our churches, but what constitutes a church affects how we can talk about our churches coming together. One comes through the other. So our work in this study group is to explore how our different theology of the church affects how we talk about unity, and how we can work towards bigger peace and unity.
China Christian Daily: Could you explain the main themes that the ecclesiology study group is focusing on?
Sotiris Boukis: In 2013, the Faith and Order Commission published one of the most important documents in its 100-year history, "The Church: Towards a Common Vision." It is called a convergence document, which is not just a document that explains various ideas but shows how the churches have come closer to each other. For the past decade, we have been hearing feedback and responses from the churches on this document and how this informs future work on ecclesiology. This is only the second such document in the history of Faith and Order. The first was "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry" (BEM).
At the same time, the commission worked intentionally to bring more voices around the table, voices from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and voices from church traditions that were not strongly part of the conversation. Our study group, having taken all this input, continues to broaden the table and work on issues of visible unity and baptismal ecclesiology.
Baptismal ecclesiology talks about how the fact that we are all baptized in the name of the Trinity affects how we think about the church. We also discuss things like synodality, how all the people of God, clergy and laity, participate in the life of the church in decision-making, and various other things that have come as implications of baptism.
China Christian Daily: What is the main focus of your study group at this conference?
Sotiris Boukis: In this conference, we present the two main directions of our study group, visible unity and baptismal ecclesiology.
Visible unity touches issues like mutual recognition or legitimate diversity. Mutual recognition is what it means for my church to recognize your church. Legitimate diversity means understanding that we are diverse people, and unity does not mean uniformity; it includes diversity. But how much diversity is okay, and how much is too much diversity? In some cases, it's not just diversity in terms of ways of worship or spirituality, it's diversity in important topics of theology, so where to draw the red line?
Baptismal ecclesiology includes things like synodality, the role of the laity in the church, the role of baptism in decision-making, and the ministry of all believers. It's not just the clergy who are ministers, but each believer is also called to be a missionary, to live missionally in daily life.
China Christian Daily: What are your thoughts on the workshop discussing the date of Easter?
Sotiris Boukis: The date of Easter is the tip of the iceberg; what is below is a decision of the first ecumenical council on when Easter must be celebrated. If we change it, it is as if we're disobeying the council. Then, even though they all say we follow the first ecumenical council of Nicaea, they practically interpret it differently. It's both about what we do with councils and how we can interpret it in any sort of pastoral task.
Even though it seems, and should be, a simple issue, it has become a source of division. We are hopeful that the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Vatican have consistently expressed their willingness to find a solution for this in the future. We hope that they will have the determination and wisdom to do this in the best way. I think that for the Protestant world, it will be easy to go along with whatever they decide.
China Christian Daily: What are your takeaways from this conference so far?
Sotiris Boukis: First of all, the conference is itself a historic landmark, something that happens once in a generation. The previous conference was more than 30 years ago, so it is historic to be here listening to very engaging conversations every day, and some are thought-provoking. It provides a unique space for interaction. The fact that we share the fellowship is one aspect of physical unity that we take for granted, but many years ago, it was not taken for granted.
The title of the conference is a question: Where now for visible unity? It's a question of humility that we humbly recognize that we may have different visions of visible unity, and yet here we are discussing this and coming closer to each other.
Such conferences are not just the plenaries and the workshops. Sometimes things that happen in the coffee breaks are just as important. I have spoken with many Orthodox theologians during the workshops. We have already exchanged ideas about things that we can do in our local context. It's not just what happens here in Egypt, but also when everybody goes back home, and how this can give more work also on the local level.
China Christian Daily: From your perspective, what does genuine unity among churches look like in today's diverse global Christian landscape?
Sotiris Boukis: Genuine unity means being willing to listen to each other and walk with each other, even though we understand that on some things we disagree. I have a big Greek family. We are very different people in age, political opinions, characters, and churches, but still, we are together because we are family. It is the sense that we are family that keeps us at one table.
Moving this analogy to the church. If we realize that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what keeps us together, and this can lead to genuine unity. In a world where there is a lot of polarization and conflict, to have Christians working together even though the people understand that they disagree with each other politically, religiously, and socially, yet they are together, is one way in which the church can be a blessing to the world. The world needs to see people with different opinions working together instead of fighting each other.
China Christian Daily: Could you please introduce the Greek Evangelical Church?
Sotiris Boukis: The Greek Evangelical Church started in the middle of the 19th century. Our local church in Thessaloniki started exactly 150 years ago, in 1875. It's a Presbyterian church and belongs to the Reformed tradition. In Greece, 95% of the population is Greek Orthodox. Greek evangelicals are less than 1one percent of the population. Initially, there was conflict. Many Greek Orthodox people attacked evangelicals in Greece. Over the years, there has been some level of trust so that now we can not just coexist peacefully but also cooperate. For example, the Greek Bible Society started as an evangelical organization, but today it's an ecumenical organization. It's the official cooperation of Orthodox, Catholics, and Evangelicals in Greece, working together.
China Christian Daily: How do you see the Church's mission evolving in an increasingly secularized world?
Sotiris Boukis: Secularization has brought a lot of deconstruction, and many people have turned away from the church. This is certainly sad, but at the same time, it provides an opportunity for the church to reach out to the world and express its message that answers the questions people seek elsewhere. For example, people think science explains everything, and we don't need religion. Yet they realize more and more that there's so much sadness in the world and so much conflict and problems, something science can not explain. It is faith that can cover this. So interestingly, even in the West, the percentage of people who self-identify as atheists or non-religious has stopped climbing.
It's an opportunity for the church to show that faith covers the gap and also for the different churches to work together. For example, when the young people are disengaged from the church, this is not just an Orthodox problem or a Protestant problem. All churches have some kind of struggle with young people not being very engaged. So this also provides an opportunity for the churches to cooperate and see how we can all work together to approach our young people.
China Christian Daily: What messages could you offer to young theologians and pastors who wish to engage in ecumenical work today?
Sotiris Boukis: I would encourage them to engage because the ecumenical world does need young people and younger voices. It is really this inclusion of more of all ages that makes the dialogue really holistic. Many times, young people feel that it is all the older people who dominate the dialogue, and many times this is indeed the case. But there are many opportunities today for young people to engage, and WCC is a good example.
Ten years ago, I started at the Faith and Order Commission as a younger theologian because there is a policy in the WCC that at least 10% of all commissions must be young people. When I got an invitation to be a commissioner in faith in order when I was 30, I couldn't believe it. It was incredible. At the same time, all the commissioners treated us as fully equal commissioners. 10 years later, I am co-chair of the ecclesiology study group. This is just one example that Faith and Order and WCC really want to give voice and space to younger people.
China Christian Daily: Do you have any words for Christians in China?
Sotiris Boukis: Keep working for unity because it's important for Christians to work for unity and engage all Christians--even Christians who disagree with us and are different from us. I'm praying for God's blessing in all the churches in China and through what God is working there.
I am also grateful for the hospitality we received in China in one of our recent meetings of Faith and Order in 2019 in Nanjing. I am co-chair of the ecclesiology study group with a Chinese theologian, the Rev. Dr Wen Ge, with whom we have excellent cooperation.
