Fernando Enns may be “our man in Geneva,” but I had to travel to the old city of Heidelberg in
Germany to interview the first Mennonite ever to become a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.
“I live and work here in the Heidelberg University Ecumenical Institute,” said Fernando. He serves as the dean of the Institute, where some 25 students of different religious and national backgrounds form a community, and where he and his wife Renate have an apartment.This is where Enns works on his thesis (on what historic peace churches can contribute to an ecumenical ecclesiology) and writes articles. When he has some free moments he can look up through his window at the hilltop castle which dominates the city as a solidified reminder of medieval violence.
It is modern violence, however, which Enns is concerned about. At the 50th Anniversary Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare, Zimbabwe (December 1998) he succeeded in getting such huge support for his proposal to have an “Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence” that the decision was made right away.
Since the Harare meeting German TV has discovered Enns. They have been asking him about Mennonite/peace church views on the war around Kosovo. Other circles (ecumenical and academic) are interested in him as well. “In those circles I hear the name of John Howard Yoder,” says Enns.
I asked him what he thinks of the attitude of Mennonites towards the ecumenical movement, especially the World Council of Churches (WCC).
“I was surprised,” he said, “to find so many Mennonites in Harare. There were official representatives; there were the President and the Executive Secretary of MWC (who also met with evangelical groups) there were quite a lot of interested Mennonites from North America. Thomas Finger was there; so were several MCC people. So we can say that in the Mennonite world there are people who are interested. On the other side, we can say that the WCC member churches in Harare were listening to what the peace churches have to say. There is an open door for our Mennonite peace witness. People are willing to listen to us.”What does he see as his specific role, as a member of the WCC Central Committee?
“I will try to represent the Mennonite peace church and to contribute Mennonite thoughts to the spirituality of the family of churches, but I will also try to ask for open minds among Mennonites for ecumenical thinking. It is not very fruitful now to debate whether or not to participate; it is more important to cooperate substantially with other churches and to discover that ecumenical contacts don’t hurt.”As Fernando’s wife, Renate, came home from her work as a schoolteacher in Worms, I thought about the wide world present in this couple. Fernando was born in Latin America: Renate has a Japanese mother and a German father; and here we sit, a Dutchman writing for Courier talking with Enns about the place of Orthodoxy in the World Council of Churches.“Our membership in the WCC (Mennonite churches from Germany, The Netherlands and Congo are members) is a clear signal from us to other churches: ‘We are not afraid of you; we want to talk to you, and offer you our ideas.’ And our experience is that other churches do listen; though of course we should be realistic about it. The fact is that the Conciliar Process made the churches take peace theology more seriously. Confessions are always pluralistic. I hope we can find coalition partners within other confessions. For instance, within the Serbian Orthodox Church there are courageous priests doing peace work, objecting to both the doings of Milosevic and the bombings by NATO.”
Some of the Orthodox churches have big problems with the prevalent (Protestant) theology in the WCC. “I believe we should be patient with the Orthodox,” said Enns. “In the end they’ll find that pluralism is part of their existence, too. By that I do not mean to say, ‘Let’s be patient until they’re as wise as we are.’ We can surely learn from them. But ecumenical relations are all about content. We cannot give up on that. We must go on meeting each other.Is there anything else Enns would like to say to the readers of Courier?“That is what is happening in this house [the Ecumenical Institute of Heidelberg University]. We talk to each other. Of course, patience can have an end. When does that come? Where do we reach the limit, for instance on ethical matters? WCC’s General Secretary plays an important role there – he does not want ethical questions to be put aside to please the Orthodox. For the relationship to the Orthodox it is good that Aram I was chosen President of WCC again – though it would have been time for a woman to become President. As an Orthodox himself, Aram I can be a bridge builder.”
“I think it is wise for Mennonites to be partners in ecumenical discussions. We have nothing to lose. Our congregation is the church, but there also is a worldwide church. We as Mennonites should understand that the ecumenical movement does not want to force all confessions into one church, but rather wants to be a place for meeting and listening to each other.”