When the World Falls Apart, Churches are Getting Together

This half-day symposium is being held in connection with a meeting of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC), whose members will gather for a week of meetings in and around Lund. 

Together with members of the Faith and Order Commission and representatives from the Church of Sweden Doctrinal Commission, the Centre for Theology and Religious studies is organizing three academic sessions, open to the general public.

Programme: 

14.15 Welcome

14.30 "A decade after Lund 2016: How Can the Five Imperatives Transform Ecumenism?" – Antje Jackelén (Archbishop emerita, Senior Advisor, Lund University), Martin Junge (former General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation), and Munib Younan (Bishop emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land).

15.45 Coffee 

16.15 "War and Conflict: The End of Ecumenism?" – Regina Elsner (Professor of Eastern Church Studies and Ecumenics, University of Münster)  and Isak Svensson (Dag Hammarskjöld Professor in Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University).

17.30 Short break

17.45 "Moral Discernment: How to Respond to the Far Right in the AI Era?" – Ulrich Schmiedel (Professor of Global Christianity and Interreligious Relations, Lund University).

Each of the three sessions includes discussion with and participation from the Faith and Order Commission. 

Faith and Order is the principal theological forum within the modern ecumenical movement, addressing questions of faith, ecclesiology, and church order with the aim of promoting visible Christian unity. The movement emerged during the first half of the 20th century and became part of the World Council of Churches following the Second World War. 

The symposium will take place in the main auditorium at LUX on 28 October, from 14:15 to 19:00.

This symposium is made possible thanks to generous contributions from the Royal Society of Letters at Lund, the Lund Mission Society, and the Oscar and Signe Krook Foundation.