Lord, teach us to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to seek for rewards save that of knowing that we do your will. Amen
The representatives of anglican, orthodox and protestant churches from all over Europe are all engaged in European issues related to society. They come together to offer their expertise in shaping the work of the Church and Society Commission.
One of the main items on the business agenda was to prepare a response to the Consultation Document of the CEC Revision Group.
In the frame of the Everlasting value and permanent actuality of the Edict of Milan part II project.
Novi Sad (Serbia) - 2 to 5 May 2012
H. E. Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, President of CEC and Rev Rüdiger Noll, Director of the Church and Society Commission of CEC and Associate General Secretary of CEC will speak at this event.
From 25-27 April 2012, around 50 representatives mainly from European churches but also from other religions and the fields of politics, ethics, and science, met in Brussels to discuss the subject of human enhancement. The conference was organized by the Church and Society Commission (CSC) of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), a platform in which a range of Christian denominations in Europe work together. A common workshop with STOA at the European Parliament, brought together around hundred participants.
For Christians, human enhancement is situated between two poles: on the one hand, freedom in the Christian sense, on the other hand, dependence on God and the gift of life.
In a Christian understanding, freedom is related to love for God and for one’s neighbour. This gives us the responsibility to see that our use of freedom expresses our respect and compassion for ourselves and the neighbour as created in the image of God.
Freedom can be perverted into forms of despair, i.e. people do not accept themselves as they are. However, some forms of enhancement might be seen as expressions of Christian freedom.
The main guiding criterion is whether human enhancement genuinely, on the long term, would promote life as creatures of God, or would entail unacceptable risks for and threats to individuals, humanity as a whole, both in present and future generations, and the environment.
In our discussions we highlighted the following issues amongst many:
The transhumanist agenda seems to us illusory and utopian. Many of so-called enhancements may be unrealistic.
Enhancement technologies should not be considered outside of the social context in which people might feel under pressure to pursue them.
Commercial pressures lead to developments both in medicine and, potentially, to enhancement technologies, without respect of the main principles of bioethics.
Time is needed to understand the long term effects of any interventions, e.g. deep brain stimulation. Many examples from medical history demonstrate the importance of prudence.
We urge the churches of Europe to undertake and extend their work in this field, including neuro-enhancement, the psycho-social context of enhancement, the tendency to reduce the human condition to a medical or technological problem. Enhancement is too vague of a concept and we should focus more on particular cases.
More information may be obtained by contacting the CEC Strasbourg Office
Dialogue Seminar on "Freedom of Religion : A Fundamental Right in a Rapidly Changing World"
Brussels, 30 March 2012
Co-organised by the Church and Society Commission of CEC (CEC), the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) and the Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA), European Commission
This seminar discussed future cooperation between churches and the European institutions in relation to freedom of religion or belief.
European concerted action required now – People´s Needs first
The European Union today is facing its most significant and existential crisis since its existence. If the financial and economic crisis cannot be effectively solved by concerted action of the EU Member States, the Union itself is at stake. On the eve of the European Council, the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches urges European political leaders to finally take effective measures which live up to the magnitude of the issue and to put the needs of the people at the centre of the solution.
The Church and Society Commission (CSC) is one of the commissions of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), which is an ecumenical fellowship of 124 churches and 40 associated organisations from all over Europe. CSC provides a platform for the CEC membership to reflect on socio-ethical issues ecumenically and to involve them in common action and advocacy in relation to the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations (in European matters). CSC operates as a forum for action, dialogue and ecumenical training in European affairs.
In the Charta Oecumenica of 2001, European churches committed themselves to support the integration of the European continent: “On the basis of our Christian faith, we work towards a humane, socially conscious Europe, in which human rights and the basic values of peace, justice, freedom, tolerance, participation and solidarity prevail”.
The Annual Report of the Church and Society Commission can be found here.
The construction work at the Ecumenical Centre in Brussels, home to the Church and Society Commission of CEC, the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe and other ecumenical organisations is now under full swing. Find out more by clicking on the picture above.
50 Years of CSC
1959-2009 : 50 years of dialogue with the European Institutions
With these NRPs the Member States define how they implement and try to reach the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy. For churches the targets in employment, ecology and fight against poverty are of high importance.
Therefore CSC and Eurodiaconia are following this policy since the beginning in 2010.
The NRPs are now analysed by the Commission which will elaborate Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs). These have to be adopted by the European Council in July and have to be taken into account by the national budgets. CSC and Eurodiaconia have observed that the poverty target, to get 20 million people out of poverty until 2020, is not seriously pursued and assessed in this time of economic and financial crisis and austerity programmes. For more information please use the links.
The Executive Committe of the Church and Society Commission of CEC adopted aDiscussion Document on Europe and Family Policy and invites CEC member churches and those responsible for family policy to send their reactions and amendments.
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Education for democratic citizenship - A role for the churches?
Problems of poverty and inequality, ecological destruction and violence have worsened against the backdrop of intensified economic globalisation, characterised by rapid trade and financial integration, in the last three decades...
