IDENTIFY CHRISTIAN IDENTITY AND LOCAL PERSPECTIVES ON ECUMENISM

After four years as CEC general secretary, Dr. Jørgen Skov Sørensen's exciting ecumenical journey continues.  Photo: Kare Ga de

By Klaus Grue. / Klaus Grue is a communication consultant for the World Council of Churches., / 23 January 2024 , / Conference of European Churches (CEC

Dr. J. SkRgen Skov SøRensen has returned home to Denmark after four years as secretary general of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). He is confident in the future of the CEC and its growing influence on European issues. Now he is on an extraordinary ecumenical journey—a journey in which the search for his own Christian identity has played an important role—with a clear mandate to sharpen the profile and objectives of the CEC fulfilled and a strategic direction for the future affirmed at last year's General Assembly in Estonia.

In his new role as a global business developer at ChurchDesk, a private company focused on church software solutions, Sø

He said, "a challenging task, but not much different. I will continue to focus on how to help the church, as in the CEC, but from a different point of view."

After more than thirty years of working at all levels of ecumenism in different countries, Sø has learned that the ecumenical movement remains centered at the local level.

Sharing local issues with local communities forms the basis of something bigger—something we all share as Christians, regardless of how we express our faith.

China distributes seeds.

In the mid-1980s, he first became aware of the diversity of Christianity while backpacking for six months on the east coast of China. Young J's mindset about attending conventions in China had a profound impact on him and sparked a lifelong ecumenical engagement. He also faced significant church life after the Cultural Revolution.

She recalls, "One day, an old woman in the local congregation came up to me and said Shangdi hao, which means" God is good," which in short is what we share wherever we come from."

These unforgettable experiences and his first encounter with interreligious dialogue at the well-known Tao Fong Shan Christian Center in Hong Kong in the future influenced his commitment to the ecumenical movement. He earned a master of philosophy degree in ecumenical theology at Aarhus University after returning to Denmark. Later, he earned a PhD in missiology, ecumenism, and systematic theology from the University of Birmingham, England. His CV also includes Mandarin courses inspired by expressions of faith in China. Quite by accident, it was a visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva in 1993, organized by the National Council of Churches in Denmark. This visit resulted in sø applying to the Danish Missionary Society (now Danmission) for the position of Secretary for missions in Asia and the Middle East. Since then, he has occupied high-level positions and council posts in faith-based and academic organizations where ecumenism has become part of his name. In the end, he was appointed Secretary General of Danmission in 2016.

The legacy of the working class as wealth

Educated in a working-class environment in rural Jutland, where, according to him, "no one impresses anyone,"

I became the first person to successfully enter high school, and pursuing higher education was not uncommon in my family. In addition, there was no family custom of respecting clerics, even though I grew up in an environment that had traditional Christian norms. According to him, "but hymns are often sung and reinforcement classes impress me, so somehow, the Holy Spirit must have called me."

It is not always easy to deviate from the norm, both in terms of education and in the choice of profession. However, although his parents sometimes found it difficult to understand him, they always supported him wholeheartedly.

He says, "Right now, I see my legacy as a profit, an asset that I can enter and exit."

Over the years, he has used that ability to see things from different points of view. This ability is also useful in his new work, where seeing and understanding the needs of the church in different contexts is essential.

Rensen's interest in cultural differences in Christian expression is still relevant. His encounters with various Christian expressions, especially in China, India, and other Asian countries, opened up new questions and made him know himself better as a Christian.

Paradoxically, in order to find my own European Christian identity, I had to go to the wider world. He asked, "But what then became the expression of modern European Christianity?"

Due to the changes taking place in Europe, the question is constantly being debated, raising new questions and challenges.

Increase the ecumenical perspective.

During SøRensen's tenure as CEC, his goal was to maintain the church's position in a society where he was taken seriously and to give her the opportunity to speak to the highest institutions in Europe.

The Pathways to Peace initiative is a vivid example of such discussions. This was a coordinated action of the European communion of churches in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Through various events and projects, Pathways to Peace aims to enhance the ecumenical understanding of just peace, facilitate exchanges among European churches, and support the voice of Ukrainian churches in ecumenical debate.

Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty, which governs the European Union (EU), explicitly mentions an open, transparent, and orderly legal dialogue between EU institutions and churches. According to SøRensen, the main task of the CEC is to ensure that Article 17 will be confirmed and developed in the future.

Another important step in strengthening the CEC, which had an impact on the influence of member churches during his tenure, was to raise the profile of his organization towards a Christian Fellowship more focused on advocacy, which cooperates and speaks with a common voice.

After four very busy and eventful years at the CEC headquarters in  Brussels, Sø is now embarking on another ecumenical journey. "Just as Paul encourages us to do in 1 Corinthians 12, where he uses the human body as a metaphor to show how Christians, each with their individual spiritual gifts, are meant by God to work together."

He continued to search for a European Christian identity and look for new ways to support the church in its daily missions in Copenhagen, its base, and its local congregations.

Nevertheless, although Rensen's professional life was characterized by many cultural and geographical changes, one thing remained in the course of his life: a small wooden cross that his grandmother passed on to him as a child.

"It keeps me on track," he said.

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