Lecture - The Church - by William Henn

11 Reageer II. The Stages in the Production of The Church: Towards a Common Vision [8] I do not believe that it is possible to grasp the full meaning of our new convergence text without looking at the changes made in the editorial revisions that went into its final composition. It is the third publication produced by the ecclesiological working group of the Faith and Order Commission. A natural question that any reasonable person might ask would be “Why three publications?” I think that there is quite a logical explanation and that this explanation can be of great help toward an understanding of the text we are considering today. What was the process and what changes did this process involve so as to arrive at the The Church: Towards a Common Vision . Because of the activities of the Faith and Order Commission during the 1980’s, especially the publication of BEM and six volumes of official Church responses to it, the commission decided to begin a major study of ecclesiology . The final pages of a report on the responses to BEM include the following lines: The search for Christian unity implies the search for common ecumenical perspectives on ecclesiology. This need is strongly underlined by the analysis of the responses to BEM which reveal many different presuppositions but also convergences regarding the nature of the church. 7 [9] The responses suggested that the time was ripe to search for common fundamental ecclesiological principles. 7 Baptism, Eucharist & Ministry 1982-1990: Report on the Process and Responses (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1990), 147-148.