The changing face
of the world that has been happening since World War II brings a major challenge for
Christianity, especially in the searching for peace and solidarity. In this
context, we found many different expressions in Christianity, like rediscovering
of monastic life with all its elements, enthusiasm in Pentecostal experience,
or even the struggling for liberation that in turn brought Liberation theology
came into history in 1960. At this point, Christianity is facing the world
threatened by constant change and upheavals. Even in the ecumenical movement,
participation of churches from the global south has brought this movement in a
long-struggling to find a balance between doctrinal issues and justice issues.
There are many interesting things in
this changing face of Christianity, one of them is the community of
Sant'Egidio. This community has three important elements in spiritual life,
that are (1) scripture or word of God, (2) common prayer, and (3) applying the word
of God in daily life. These three elements basically can be found in other
movements or communities that are trying to articulate monastic life in the
current situation. We also can find all these elements in the theology of
liberation that has a strong conviction in God's incarnation; this conviction
makes the term solidarity becomes more important in liberation
theology. In other words, we can say that the community of Sant'Egidio has
been functioning as "a bridge" where various current theological
thoughts meet. Moreover, this community even reflects The WCC's struggling for
holistic spirituality, as articulated by K.M. George: “The true spirituality we
seek is rooted in the scripture and nourished by prayer. This spirituality
calls us to suffer for others' sake, to take risk in the cause of
justice."
The idea of
solidarity can be found in how this community uses the term "poor".
The term has been expanded by this community and reaching many different
experiences that people face in their life. The poor is related to the problem
of economy, loneliness (because of secularization), alienation, African prison,
AIDS victims, homeless, and this community even involved in the peace-making
process in Mozambique. That's why this community has been living out not only the
action-reflection process as what we found in Liberation theology but also
spiritual experience that is found in monastic life and then the searching for
holistic spirituality in WCC. Furthermore, this community has also been
struggling hard to go beyond the dichotomy way of thinking; there is no
distinction between doctrinal formulation and agenda for justice.
In the
context of the ecumenical movement, there is one thing that again makes this
community connected to the ecumenical spirit, that is the searching for the
habitable world based on the scripture, preserved in the community of faith and
direct contact with the changing world. As we all know, the habitable world
reflects the transition in ecumenical movement from vertical
orientation (participating in divine reality through Jesus Christ)
to horizontal orientation (sharing in solidarity). In my
understanding, most Christian tradition can easily find their spiritual
elements in the life of the community
of Sant'Egidio. Thereby, the community of Sant'Egidio can
be seen as "a bride" that will bring many Christian traditions in
direct contact with WCC, so that WCC can be a center for the ecumenical table
where decisions will be made and authoritative teaching will be based.
