Brethren

When theologians get together, nothing happens. Nevertheless, they get together occasionally. Last week 250 of them--representing 40 countries and virtually every Christian church but the Roman Catholic--met in the Swedish university town of Lund. They called their meeting the third World Conference on Faith and Order. The purpose: "To seek for the oneness of truth in Christ," i.e., to see whether there is any way of ironing out obstacles to real church union.

On the first day, most of them went to Lund's 12th century cathedral for a joint Communion service. Then the delegates went into committee sessions to examine the premises of one another's faiths. At week's end, most of them had at least agreed on what they disagreed about. But each faction was as sure as ever that the best way to agree was for the other fellows to stop disagreeing.

The exchange of views was friendly, however, and everybody thought that the conference had been interesting, if inconclusive. Said Episcopal Bishop Angus Dun of Washington, D.C., "We have come not to prove each other wrong, but to establish our differences; not to win victories over each other, but to submit ourselves to the discipline of shared seeking." Said Sweden's Archbishop Yngve Brilioth, the conference's chairman and president: "The mere fact that we are here to clarify attitudes and learn each other's views at first hand will help spread the idea of common faith."

There were two dissenting voices. Said U.S. Evangelist Georgia Harkness, a Methodist and one of the only two women delegates, "I am disappointed. The American delegation is not as vocal as it should be, and too little is said of the dynamic side of Christian experience." Said Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan: "Discussions don't solve problems. History does."

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