At the beginning of April, surrounded by the majestic mountains of Vevey, Switzerland, representatives of the Alliance and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church met together to discuss the mission of the church in the world. The Reformed representatives came from Botswana, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, the United States and Wales. In response to the Debrecen call "for a committed process of progressive recognition, education and confession... regarding economic injustice and ecological destruction" and to traditional Adventist emphases, the dialogue was characterized by reflection on our complicity in and response to the sufferings of the world.

Our lavish surroundings were at first sight an odd setting for a dialogue on the church's response to suffering. But they reminded those from western contexts (like myself) that we discuss these crucial matters always from the vantage-point of relative privilege. As for participants from less-privileged contexts: one of my new friends remarked pertinently that it was good to be talking about injustice in a place where some could readily pay for a taxi ride into town and others could not.

In the first half of the week, participants made presentations that provoked fruitful discussion of our respective understandings of the church's mission in the world. Special attention was given to drawing lines of theological similarity and difference between our religious traditions. In the second half, we drafted a report of our discussion that calls our churches to involvement and response.

Participants met in a spirit of amicable curiosity. We treated one another with respect and openness, striving to understand the other and to dispense with caricatures that impede our uniting in Christ's mission in the world. The Adventists were eager to clear up possible misunderstandings about their theological emphasis on the second coming of Christ. WARC participants were asked to explain how they reconcile the doctrine of predestination with the Christian confession that God is love. These theological discussions - while far from complete - served as a foundation on which we could engage with economic injustice and ecological destruction. "We believe that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God reconciles the whole created order to himself," we said. "Christ calls us to work to bring hope, healing, and deliverance from spiritual and economic poverty."

Standing on common theological ground, we addressed crucial matters of global concern, including socio-economic injustice (poverty, HIV/Aids, violence), ecological destruction, and prejudice (religious freedom, gender biases). "We invite our constituencies to redouble their efforts to work for justice, the eradication of poverty, and the preservation and right stewardship of the created order," we concluded.

  This report tries to do something different. It encourages people to decide what we should do in the world today. It's a matter of practice.
  I hope this can be seen as a useful alternative model for other dialogues. In the classical model of dialogue, the assumption is that if we overcome doctrinal differences, we will be able to work together. But maybe if we do mission together first, we will come to trust each other and develop an ecumenical spirituality, a way of living out our faith together beyond divisions.
  We're looking for ways to cooperate without compromising our different ways of approaching problems. Our goal is to broaden the horizons of people reading this document.

Odair Pedroso Mateus

Such a challenge, some may note, is nothing new. Throughout its existence, the church has recognized and constantly rearticulated its charge to do justice, help the poor, and exercise faithful stewardship. The dialogue and document of Vevey are just one in a long list of efforts.

The challenge also cries out for further specificity. It provokes questions that are not answered in the document, such as: "what, exactly, are the efforts we are to "redouble'?" "How are we to work for the "eradication of poverty', given that some of us are among the privileged?" and "What is "right stewardship'?"

The intention of our meeting and the report we prepared was not to answer all these questions, but to commit ourselves again to the tasks we share with the global community and with the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before. Joining hands with brothers and sisters in the Adventist church, Reformed believers invite others to participate in the age-old discussion of what it looks like, concretely, to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we engage in recognizing, educating, and confessing how we are complicit in structures that perpetuate injustices and environmental destruction, the "old news" and challenge of the gospel once again becomes new.

There is a great old American hymn that says: "I love to tell the story, of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story... of Jesus and his love." In Vevey we were reminded of the importance of telling the old story and raising the old challenge, convinced that Jesus' love is made manifest only where we speak prophetically against injustice, stand in solidarity with the poor, and recognize our communion with the rest of the created order. God grant us the strength to continue to tell and live this old story of new life.

Cynthia L Rigby, Co-chair