I left for Faverges, a charming alpine village in the north-east of France, on the opening day of the FIFA World Cup. Flying first to London, I saw glimpses of the opening ceremony could be seen at Singapore airport. A friend and I stood in a pub near Soho on a balmy – and, indeed, ‘barmy’ – London Saturday afternoon to witness England sneak home against a valiant Paraguay.
The newly appointed Standing Commission of Faith and Order was to gather in Geneva a few days later at the Ecumenical Centre of the World Council of Churches. Arriving slightly ahead of time in this great centre of the Reformation in continental Europe, my catholic sensibilities tingled at contact with their ‘other’ in the new museum dedicated to the same, and in the church in which Calvin preached for some eight years.
The United Nations precinct, dreamy Lake Geneva with its jet d’eau, and local shrines to Genevan-born Jean-Jacques Rousseau stirred the Romantic humanist within, such that come Monday afternoon, having found a quiet café with a plasma screen wherein to enjoy the fact that I wouldn’t have to sit up until the small hours on a ‘school night’ in order to watch the Socceroos first match, I didn’t really mind which team won – at least not until the 84th, 89th, and 92nd minutes! Tuesday evening afforded a more contextual television viewing experience as Switzerland and France played out an all-French-speaking draw.
The next day we were bussed across the border between these two nations and began the business of our meeting: establishing an agenda for the next seven years of this longstanding multi-lateral ecumenical dialogue (Faith and Order preceded the formation of the World Council by some twenty years, established in nearby Lausanne in 1927) – one that is privileged by the full participation of the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox family of churches. According to its By-laws, 'The aim of Faith and Order is to proclaim the oneness of the Church of Jesus Christ and to call the churches to visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship... in order that the world may believe.' Within that broad objective, the specific task of the Standing Commission is 'to study such questions of faith, order and worship as bear on this aim and to examine such social, cultural, political, racial and other factors as affect the unity of