Jackie in Sibiu
Six hungry people in the middle of Romania. It's midnight, and only one of them has local currency. The others in the group of UK representatives to the Third European Ecumenical Assembly will have had good reason to be thankful to Jackie Barrett, an elder at our Wooler Church, who was the only one among them new to this kind of international ecumenical experience. But she was the one who ensured that they all had a midnight feast of burger and chips from the local fastfood outlet.
Jackie and the three other URC representatives had travelled together on the morning flight from Heathrow – but somehow the two hour time difference, and the long coach ride from Bucharest to Sibiu, meant that they had all arrived far later than expected and had missed the Assembly opening ceremony - not to mention the evening meal. But the following morning, registration procedures completed, Jackie found herself at the first worship meeting of the week in the Tent which had been erected in the centre of Sibiu. “This was a fantastic experience” said Jackie. “To worship with two and a half thousand people in a huge tent was awe-inspiring. The presence of our Lord was with us all.”
Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox have all come together in each of the European Ecumenical Assemblies. The first, held in Basel in Switzerland in 1989, might have been reckoned to have a Protestant ethos; the second was held in Graz in Catholic Austria in 1997; and now it was the turn of the Orthodox to host the proceedings. Jackie described some of the happenings of that first day:
“There were greetings from the President of Romania, who spoke about Reunification, Reconciliation, Solidarity, Renewal, and Reform of each Church individually. He also said, ‘We have to be honest and recognise Common Values. We call all give our gifts to each other.’
“The message of the day was: We don’t know each other enough , therefore we do not love each other enough. We have to pray for ecumenical relations that the Holy Spirit will make it so.”
For Jackie the felling of fellowship as the week went by was an amazing and unforgettable experience. Most uplifting were the morning worship groups each morning, from 9.00 to 10.30, but she also enthused over the afternoon forums she attended on the themes of Unity, Europe and Justice. And these were themes central to the Assembly, and to her description of each day’s programme:
“On Thursday morning the Minister of Culture for Romania thanked us for our commitment to ecumenism and for being there. He saw the tent as a powerful symbol of hospitality, and reminded us that no one can breathe properly with one lung: if the East and the West work together we can become one breathing organism.
“In the afternoon, Commissioner Jan Fiegel from the European Commission told us that minorities and majorities must learn to live in peace. Diversity in Unity is what we are. All here are pilgrims: the Ten symbolises Europe and Togetherness.
“Friday’s prayer message was ‘was ‘Do not live for ourselves. We have to have mutual relationships between churches. Wars are borne from fear. Jesus saves us from fear.’ In the afternoon we looked at Justice and the message was ‘We don’t share enough with the vulnerable, women, children, poor and disabled’. Ulrich Muller a Protestant from Germany, said ‘We need to go from paper and words to action. Churches should look more to Fairtrade. More people suffer marginalisation, poverty and injustice. Governments need to have a social conscience. Churches need to speak up to change economic security’.
“We also heard from a very articulate young lady, Mariana Buceanu, who works for the Romanian National Agency for Roma. She told us of the plight of Roma peoples in Romania and how they discriminated against. If you want to know more about this wonderful young woman you can look at her website.”
For Jackie, the Assembly ended all to soon on the Saturday. Much of the day was taken up with drafting the Final Message from the Assembly, which can be viewed on the EEA3 website. Then many of the representatives stayed on for the Celebration of Light held in the large square in the centre of Sibiu – recalling the published purpose of the Assembly: To discover in Christ new light which will guide us along the path of reconciliation among Christians in Europe today.
The following day it was back to the UK and normality. Jackie notes in her letter to her friends about the experience, “I arrived home at 11.40 pm and was up for work the next morning.” She doesn’t tell us if she had midnight burger and chips again.