Reformed Confessions and Confessing Church – An Outlook Interview with Milan Opocensky

This is The Outlook’s second interview in this series. The first, with Eberhard Busch, appeared in the May 14 issue.

What is meant by processus confessionis and to what extent does it differ from a status confessionis?

The 23rd WARC General Council in Debrecen has stated as follows: We are challenged by the cry of the people who suffer and by the groaning of creation. We Christians of Reformed churches are aware of our complicity in an economic order that is unfair and oppressive, leading to the misery and death of many people. We participate in attitudes and practices which erode the foundations of the Earth’s livelihood. We want to affirm the gift of life. We consider this affirmation of life, commitment to resistance, and struggle for transformation to be an integral part of Reformed faith and confession today. In the past we have called for status confessionis in cases of blatant racial and cultural discrimination and genocide. We now call for a committed progressive recognition, education and confession (processus confessionis) within all WARC member churches at all levels regarding economic injustice and ecological destruction.

Before Debrecen the question was raised whether or not it was possible and necessary to declare status confessionis (stance of confessing) regarding global economic injustice and especially the exclusion of many African countries from the market mechanism. The present situation is indeed alarming. It challenges the integrity and credibility of our Christian existence. In this generation we are called to respond to the suffering of hungry, excluded and oppressed people around the world.

Status confessionis refers to a radical challenge. Status confessionis is a clear decision for the truth of the gospel against false teaching and its practical consequences. A confession is an outcry in a unclear situation. It is like a railing over an abyss. In this respect we stand in the tradition of the Barmen Declaration of 1934 and the Confession of Belhar of 1986 which made their confessions in the situation of discrimination and social injustice.

The declaration of Debrecen speaks about processus confessionis because it envisages a longer process of recognition, education and a possible confession in a particular situation. The problems of economy and ecology, which have habitually been discussed within the framework of a noncommittal moral discourse, are now elevated to the level of faith and confession. The term processus confessionis indicates a new quality of the question under discussion.

What do you envision the churches doing as they enter into this process of engaging matters of economic and ecological justice?

The report of Debrecen calls upon WARC member churches to introduce the necessary programs, resources and practical steps to initiate a processus confessionis as a matter of priority. The churches should pay special attention to the analysis and understanding of economic processes. They should educate church members on economic life and how to develop a lifestyle that rejects the materialism and consumerism of our time. The churches should work towards the formulation of a confession of their beliefs about economic life that would express justice in the entire household of God. The churches should act with the victims of injustice.

In what way is the truth of the gospel at stake in economic and ecological matters?

Living in this world can be compared to life in the household of God (oikos). Economy (oikonomia) is supposed to serve human beings and to order life in the household of God. With distress we view the current distortions that make the household the servant of the economy. Care for the household is driven out by greed and the competition for individual survival. The abundance of God’s creation is limited by the demands of the market. Injustice is related to the worship of idols and false gods. In the Old Testament injustice and inequity have religious roots and religious dimensions. The foreign cult of baalism was characterized by exploitation, exclusion and oppression. When injustice reigns, the god Baal and false gods dominate. People suffer and starve while a small elite lives in luxury. However, God is just and urges us to restore justice and renew our relationships. The biblical term zedekah (justice) is behavior-attitude which fosters and sustains community. The prophets address injustice and social evils as an expression of a false religion and worship. The kingdom of God about which Jesus so centrally speaks is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The poor wait for God and his kingdom with their entire existence. The first Christian congregations lived in solidarity with the poor. They represented a new type of community in the violent situation of the Roman Empire. To some extent our present situation resembles the contamination of faith by baalism and the oppression of the Roman Empire. The survival of life is at stake. Because of exclusion caused by the unjust social system, millions of people suffer, starve and die. In many parts of the world the global system requires human and environmental sacrifices. As in the time of the Holocaust, our faith is challenged and we have to ask ourselves: Can we still be in Christ if millions of adults and children perish? This is why we Christians in the northern hemisphere especially find ourselves in the processus confessionis. There is a danger that the truth of the gospel will be distorted if we do not act. Now is the acceptable time — now is the kairos (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Often American readers think of “confession” as a strictly doctrinal matter. How is it that ethical matters can serve to prompt one’s confession? The gospel is both the promise and the claim (Zuspruch and Anspruch) to our entire life. Ethical concerns cannot be fully divorced from a strictly doctrinal matter. There is a precedent. In 1982 the WARC General Council in Ottawa declared a status confessionis regarding the racial separation — apartheid — in South Africa. The gospel confronted racism as a form of idolatry. The white Afrikaans churches worked out both the policy itself and the theological and moral justification of the system. They contradicted in doctrine and action the promise that they professed to believe. The General Council declared that such a situation constituted a status confessionis for the WARC member churches. By analogy, other issues such as global economic injustice and environmental devastation may require our full attention and the confessional stance.

Also, for example, the production, deployment and use of nuclear weapons is of a similar nature. We need to see a new frontier for our faith and confession. Afresh we need to determine the middle ground (middle axioms) between God’s absolute commandment of love and our human fragility and falleness. We continue to struggle to find out what is today’s claim of God’s Word to our particular situation. This strenuous effort, which is always fresh and new, is our Protestant birthright. Recently Albania’s Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios declared at an ecumenical assembly in Strasbourg: “If we European churches become closed within ourselves, caring only for our faithful, and leave the initiatives and responsibilities of ongoing globalization to some secular, financial and political entities, then we endanger ourselves by betraying the gospel in the end.” This message is addressed to American churches as well and to the Church Universal.

In the year you have spent teaching at Princeton Seminary, what is your impression of the challenges facing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and what, if any, message would you wish to leave with us?

I have been in touch with the PC(USA) and its predecessor (United Presbyterian Church) for many years. I feel at home in this church and care deeply for its future. During my time in the WARC I have learned to greatly appreciate the support and the multifaceted contribution of the PC(USA). It is one of the largest churches in the fellowship of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Other members in the Reformed family have been inspired by the strength and vigor of the PC(USA).

However, the ongoing debate and struggle in the PC(USA) is somewhat confusing for many of us. I know hardly any other church in which one single issue would occupy such a central place for so prolonged a period of time. I ask myself whether the reason for this situation is driven by a theological or rather by a non-theological factor. Whatever may be the ultimate motivations, I hope that various groups will soon find a common ground and will use their strength and passion in a constructive way.

Today’s Protestantism in the United States and beyond badly needs the invigorated, renewed and strong PC(USA) which so often played a crucial role in the ecumenical movement in times past. I expect the PC(USA) ministers and many lay leaders to have a global and local perspective. It is necessary to act both globally and locally. This is the meaning of the processus confessionis mentioned above. Ministers and lay people continue to have a prophetic role in the local community and in society at large. “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29)

Interview with Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth’s last assistant at the University of Basel