CHAPTER 1: ECUMENICAL PROGRESS AND STAGNATION 23 and the lack of ecclesial reception.”48 Clifford argues that, although consensus ecumenism remains a vital part of the ecumenical process, ecumenists realize that a more complex and differentiated method is needed to ensure actual reception of theological consensus within ecclesial practice. TheWorld Council of Churches agrees, stating in the report of its 10th Assembly in Busan, South Korea: “We will continue theological conversations, giving attention to new voices and different methods of approach. We will seek to live out the consequences of our theological agreements.”49 Several theologians associated with the Societas Oecumenica address the difficulties related to the theme of reception and recognition in ecumenical relations.50 The very terms recognition and reception themselves are subject to controversy. Dagmar Heller proposes a definition of both terms in their interconnectedness, arguing that the growing recognition of each other through dialogue and encounter eventually leads to reception of the other. This reception, then, is the formal adoption of the achieved agreement by church authorities and the mutual official acceptance of one another. 51 Others, however, use the terms recognition and reception exactly the other way around, defining the act of recognition as a final formal and juridical act, while referring to reception as an ongoing process of integrating the results of the dialogues, as well as the dialogue partners themselves, in one’s own tradition. The disagreement over the definition of terms demonstrates the complexity of 48 Catherine E. Clifford, “Dialogue and Method; Linking Theological Consensus and Ecumenism of Life,” in Ökumene des Lebens als Herausforderung der sissenschaftlichen Theologie: Tagungsbericht Der 14. sissenschaftlichen Konsultation der Societas Oecumenica = Ecumenism of Life as a Challenge for Academic Theology: Proceedings of the 14th Academic Consultation, ed. Bernd Jochen Hilberath et al., Beihefte zur ökumenischen Rundschau (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Otto Lembeck, 2008), 209. 49 World Council of Churches, “Unity Statement of the 10th Assembly: God’s Gift and Call to Unity - and Our Commitment,” in Encountering the God of Life: Official Report of the 10th Assembly, ed. Erlinda N. Senturias and Theodore A. Gill (Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2014), sec. 15, https://www.oikoumene.org/sites/default/files/Document/10thAssemblyReport.pdf. 50 See several contributions in Dagmar Heller and Minna Hietamäki, eds., Just Do It?! Recognition and Reception in Ecumenical Relations/Anerkennung und Rezeption im ökumenischen Miteinander, Beihefte zur ökumenischen Rundschau (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2018). 51 Dagmar Heller, “Receive What You Recognize - Recognize What You Receive : Reception and Recognition - Two Key Terms in the Ecumenical Discourse,” in Just Do It?! Recognition and Reception in Ecumenical Relations/Anerkennung und Rezeption im ökumenischenMiteinander, ed. Dagmar Heller and Minna Hietamäki, Beihefte zur ökumenischen Rundschau (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2018).
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