The retired president of Finland, Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, addressed the assembled Council members and guests on developments in the “House of Europe.” The address was part of the environmental scan that the Council conducts in each of the regions in which it meets. This evening the host Church of Sweden will add its chapter to the environmental portrait.
Mr. Ahtisaari is an experienced senior statesman, the Chairperson of the Crisis Management Institute, serving as a special UN Envoy in Kosovo. As he recounted the development of the European Union, he spoke of the importance of each region’s history. I found the following quote particularly poignant as I reflected on some of the stresses that we feel in our church at this time:
We need an honest and open view of history as a workshop for intercultural understanding…Some countries haven’t even started to take a critical look at their own past. We must ensure that history is not abused as an ideological weapon. The church could play an important role in this endeavour.
The he went on to tell the heartbreaking results of his work in Kosovo:
I regret to say that at the end of the day, there was no will from the parties to move away from their previously stated positions….it has left me no doubt that the parties’ respective positions on Kosovo’s status do not contain any common ground to achieve…agreement. No amount of additional negotiation will change that.
President Ahtisaari’s conclusion was that history had been manipulated and used to fuel violence and hatred.
He warned also that the church should not allow itself to be used for political means as did occur in the Balkans. I hope that the parties who are working to “balkanize” the ELCIC will take note of Mr. Ahtisaari’s wisdom and desist from their efforts. He quoted Paddy Ashdown who said, “the European perspective is the only glue that holds the Western Balkans together. If you take this glue away, you go back to instability, corruption, conflict.” I could not help but think that the same is true for the ELCIC. In order to be an effective Christian witness in Canadian society, we need a “glue” that can hold differing opinions and points of view in tension, without losing the ability to move ahead with our mission goals. As Mr. Ahtisaari said, “Like in every family that is growing, the challenge is to adapt the house to make it fit for the enlarged family.”
He challenged the churches to find their role in building the “House of Europe.” In the ELCIC that translates into being In Mission for Others.
- National Bishop Raymond Schultz
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