Lyon (CEC/ENI) – 19.07.09 The European ecumenical movement marked 50 years of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in a special celebration on July 19 during the 13th Assembly of CEC meeting from 15-21 July in Lyon (France). This has gathered 300 delegates from CEC member churches and 500 other participants. The first Assembly was held in January 1959 in Nyborg, Denmark.

President of CEC, the Rev. Jean Arnold de Clermont said that 50 years represents a jubilee when debts are forgiven. He said: “We look to the future, with our experience and our wisdom.” Dr Alison Elliot, who is the Moderator of the 13th Assembly said that she believed CEC had a role for hope and reconciliation. She added: “In these days of potential and uncertainty, happy birthday CEC.” The pioneers, founder members and leaders of the organisation over five decades, including the first General Secretary Rev. Glen Garfield Williams were remembered in the 2½ hour event. The celebration included music, drama, and stories from people involved with CEC through the years.
A keynote address by the Ecumenical Patriarch His All Holiness Bartholomeos I, a spiritual leader who represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity,  has called for the creation of a churches' umbrella body in Europe to include Roman Catholics alongside Anglicans, Orthodox and Protestants. "It is only by engaging in dialogue and by closely cooperating that the churches will prove capable of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to the world in a convincing and effective way," the Orthodox leader said in his address to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Conference of European Churches. CEC now has about 120 member churches, principally Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant, but Bartholomeos said that Europe needs a grouping that includes the Catholic Church. This would help to promote unity between churches and enable them to act jointly on issues in Europe such as secularisation, human rights violations, racism, the economic crisis, and threats to the environment.

"I am convinced that a conference of all the European churches, and I underline, all the European churches, working in harmony will be able to respond better to the sacred command to re-establish communion between the churches and to serve our contemporaries confronted as they are with so many complex problems," said Bartholomeos to applause."It will then be possible to promote more effectively the dialogue of the churches of Europe with the European institutions and the European Union," said the Patriarch, who is based in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople and one-time capital of the Byzantine Empire.

The Patriarch noted efforts made in recent decades to overcome divisions. These include the Charta Oecumenica, a document signed in Strasbourg in 2001 by CEC and the Council of European (Catholic) Bishops' Conferences, and intended to boost inter-church cooperation. However, many of its proposals have not been implemented by churches, and many Christian faithful are unaware of its recommendations, said Bartholomeos.

The history of CEC goes back to January 1959, when representatives from 45 Protestant and Orthodox churches in 20 countries in Eastern and Western Europe gathered in Nyborg, Denmark. During the Cold War, CEC helped bridge the divide between East and West. In recent years, the church grouping has played an active role in representing churches to institutions such as the European Union, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. CEC is also supportive of INTERFILM as a corporate member.

For more information see: www.cec-kek.org and www.eni.ch