ow far should Adventists go in joining other Christians in efforts to alleviate poverty, discrimination, and abuse? This issue came into sharp focus recently during a week of intense but gripping conversations, as representatives appointed by the General Conference met with those from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), April 1-7, in Jongny, Switzerland.

I have never been part of a more cosmopolitan group. The Reformed representatives came from India, Botswana, Costa Rica, England, Ghana, Switzerland, Brazil, and the United States; while the Adventists, in terms of their countries of origin, were drawn from Switzerland, Grenada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, the United States, and Australia. This diverse group quickly coalesced into an effective unit with frank, open airing of views and opinions.

Adventists did not join the World Council of Churches, nor do we intend to do so. Our understanding of the mission entrusted to us by God, as well as our eschatology, leads us to march to a different drummer. But as the General Conference Working Policy has stated for many years, “we recognize those agencies that lift up Christ before men as a part of the divine plan for evangelization of the world” (O 100), and so we welcome any opportunity to dialogue with others.

Seventh-day Adventists have much in common with the Reformed tradition. We regard highly the work of such stalwarts as Calvin, Zwingli, and Knox,  and hold to the foundation truths that they proclaimed—the Bible as the rule of faith and practice, belief in the triune God, and salvation by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone.

This shared platform of convictions meant that from the outset Adventists and Reformed regarded each other with respect and appreciation. We found that we knew the same hymns as we worshiped together each day, and on Sabbath, when we all joined the Adventist congregation in La Ligniere, we could unitedly praise our Lord and King.

The theme of the dialogue in Jongny was “The Church in the Setting of the Reformation Heritage: Its Mission in a World of Widespread Injustice and Ecological Destruction”—an area of strong concern for the WARC, but one that has not been emphasized by Adventists. Most of the time the conference focused on 10 papers, five from each side. The presentations, particularly from the Reformed side, carried a strong existential element, as the representatives shared candidly their struggles and challenges in the situations from which they had just arrived.

Rupert Hambira, a wonderful young leader in Botswana, movingly described the impact of AIDS in his country: with a population of 1.6 million, they soon will have to care for 200,000 orphans. “These days we have more funerals than prayers,” he told us—“funerals every morning and every evening.” Professor Nalina Arles, of United Theological College in Bangalore, India, shocked us with the report of atrocities against Dalit (outcaste) women in her country, and Dr. Arturo Piedra frankly admitted the failure of liberation theology in Costa Rica—it emptied the churches, leaving the poor no better off.

This was a onetime meeting: further conversations will take place only if the sponsoring bodies so decide. Further, the discussions tended to be practical rather than theological. Thus, the dialogue in Jongny differed notably from the extensive conversations with the Lutheran World Federation, 1994-1998, which dealt wholly with theological topics.

Should further discussions eventuate, Adventists will have the opportunity to elaborate on such distinctive areas of their faith as the Sabbath, the remnant, prophecy, and the role of Ellen G. White’s writings. The report at the close of such extended conversations could then, like the one from the dialogue with the Lutherans, be comprehensive and carefully developed. Because of the limited scope of the meeting in Jongny, its report was understandably more preliminary in nature.*

I learned much from this dialogue. I met wonderful Christians who struggle to help the poor and the downtrodden; I applaud their dedication. And they, I think, left with a new appreciation for Adventists—who we are, what we stand for, and what we too are doing.

*This report can be accessed from the office of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference.

_________________________
William G. Johnsson is the editor of the Adventist Review.