Ecumeny and Law. Migration – Ecumenism – Integration (I) 

Tom 9 (2021)

Ecumeny and Law. Migration – Ecumenism – Integration (I)
Tom 9 (2021)

The three concepts of migration — ecumenism — integration are rich in meaning. What is important is their order, the hierarchy of their occurrence. Migration is more or less any movement of people, individuals or whole groups. Ecumenism is in turn an appeal and an action. Its mission/task is to recognize in a certain group of people a religious difference and to make an effort to place it in an integral whole with other people who believe a little differently, but in the same God. Integration has the task of restoring or building an integral whole from people living in a particular territory.

Full integration is called individual or collective identity. Since migration violates — to a greater or lesser extent — the individual or collective identity of both the country that receives immigrants and the immigrants themselves, integration aims to rebuild it, but no longer within the same mental structures, but rather ones enriched with new impulses that are the contribution of immigrants. The foundation — in our context, it is about faith in the God of Jesus Christ — remains unchanged, yet the superstructure undergoes some changes.

The life of the primitive church, to this day, reflects the authenticity of the Church’s practices and its inner arrangement. As such, this article discusses the possibilities of the inner life and order of ecclesiastical communities in the most ancient times of the Church. It does not, however, question the significance of the role of the leading figures within the Church, as it corresponds with concrete pleas to the faithful for obedience, as already mentioned within New Testament writings, likewise does so the institution of the monarchical bishop, as propagated by the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch. However, Luke’s Acts of the Apostles do, for example, contain testimonials of the participation of the entire ecclesiastical community on the appointing of Apostle Matthias and the first seven deacons. Didache, the early Christian treatise, does too, on one note, stress the importance of the carriers of the prophetic charism, nonetheless it does offer ecclesiastical communities with certain criteria regarding their participation on the service of said charismatics, and their assessments thereof. The Gospel of Matthew, along with Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians, point towards participation of all the members of the ecclesiastical communities on the execution of essential penal measures against convicted Christians.

Through the concrete steps taken by its members (clergy, believers, and monks), from 1998 until now, the Romanian Orthodox Church has carried out extensive actions to monitor and solve the migration crisis.

Thanks to this approach, initiated and improved by its current Primate, His Beatitude, Patriarch Daniel, both in the country and in the diaspora of our Church, the phenomenon of migration was not only be monitored, but also solved both in accordance with Church rules and with State laws, as well as those of the Law of the European Union, that is, of the EU Member States.

From our article, the informed reader will be also able to see that, in its actions for monitoring and solving the migration problem, our Church has taken into account both the guidelines issued by the bodies of the Ecumenical Council of Churches and the guiding principles stated by the leaders of the two Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, namely, His Holiness, Pope Francis, and His Beatitude, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, in their joint Declarations on the issue of migration, hence the ecumenical nature of the approach to the issue of migration.

The article presents Lutheran engagement for migrants, using the examples of activities undertaken by the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland, as well as by the Lutheran World Federation, which is the biggest global organisation of Lutheran Churches all over the world. In case of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession the text provides an overview of the initiatives undertaken since 2015 in service to the migrants on the parish and Church levels, as well as in cooperation with ecumenical partners (including the activities within the Polish Ecumenical Council and in cooperation with the Catholic Church). In case of the Lutheran World Federation, the first step was to present the theological justification for the Federation’s engagement in the work for migrants, and the next one — to outline the characteristics of the work of the Department for World Service (Federation’s humanitarian agency) in 2018.

Europe has been experiencing crisis caused by migrations, especially from Africa and the Middle East. This is not only an economic problem, but a cultural, social, and religious issue as well. Therefore, a proper approach to migration cannot overlook the broadly understood religiousness and spirituality. Rooted in the Christian experience, Europe cannot ignore the significant message of the Word of God and the teaching of the Church on migration and its various dimensions.

Thus, Catholics and other Christians are required to care for their own spirituality, create the culture of coming together that leads to peace, and stay open to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue which fosters exchange of spiritual gifts. Protection of family and support to integral development of human life are special areas where people can join forces and work together. This requires proper formation and being open to
God’s help.

The high level of fear of Islam in Poland arose in spite of the fact that Poland has very few Muslims, just 0.1% of the population. This phenomenon began to surface in 2004, after Poland’s accession to the EU but grew considerably in 2015, during the so-called migration crisis in Europe. Public opinion polls indicate that it can be described by the term “Islamophobia”, which is often used in the literature of social and political sciences. The aim of the article is to explain the reasons for such a high level of fear of Muslims in Poland and the negative attitude towards Islam, given that it is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, with which Polish society mostly identifies. The article consists of three parts. Part one presents the reaction of the EU Member States to the migration crisis in Europe. The second part analyzes the position of the United Right (Pol. Zjednoczona Prawica) political coalition in Poland, towards immigrants and refugees from Muslim countries. Part three confronts the stands of the United Right in Poland and the position of the Catholic Church towards Islam.

The presented publication refers a document entitled From Conflict to Communion. Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. The Report of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity.

Sven Ove Hansson: The Ethics of Risk. Ethical Analysis in an Uncertain World. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 172 pp.

Łukasz Pondel: Chrystologia proegzystencji arcybiskupa Alfonsa Nossola [Archbishop Alfons Nossol’s Christology of the Pro-existence]. Opole: Redakcja Wydawnictw Wydziału Teologicznego Uniwersytetu Opolskiego, 2019, 246 pp.

Ecumeny and Law. Migration – Ecumenism – Integration (I)
Tom 9 (2021)