Bishop Jonas Jonson: Speak peace and hope to people

Bishop Jonson, you have just been part of the CCIA Athens consultation, marking the centenary of the Life and Work conference in Stockholm. What do you think are the main takeaways from the Life and Work conference 100 years ago, that are still relevant for churches today?

Bishop Jonson: The conference 100 years ago was organized mainly to bring people together who had been sundered by the war. And the Europeans, particularly those who had been involved in the war, could not even see each other face-to-face in those days.

There was so much enmity, hostility, and non-communication among them, that the most important dimension of the conference was that they succeeded in bringing people together. It was remarkable that the Orthodox, the Protestants, and Evangelical Christians around the world got together for the first time ever. The Roman Catholic church had turned the invitation down.

It  had taken them years of diplomatic work to convince them to get together. That was all the work of Nathan Söderblom. The very fact that they got together in a situation where communications were broken, where few people related to each other actively—that was a great achievement in itself.

The city of Stockholm, and Sweden, were extremely welcoming, providing them with big banquets, cultural experiences, excursions, and meetings with the royal family and whatnot, to sort of put them in the right mood to really get to know each other.

So in the conference, they developed a personal kind of relationship between people, a friendship that could be extended into a fellowship between churches, because all these people came to Stockholm, about 650. They were appointed delegates by their churches. 

It was the first time that they came as officially selected delegates from their churches, which made also the churches involved with and responsible for the ecumenical movement.

How do you see the unity of churches today? What you just described happened 100 years ago. How in your eyes has the unity of churches developed since this key event in the ecumenical movement?

Bishop Jonson: One hundred years is a long time. In 1925, the conference tended to be very much European and American. Today, of course, the ecumenical movement is a global movement. You find it in every church in every part of the world. So already that is a difference.

Today, we take ecumenism for granted. In those days, the word itself, “ecumenical," was so controversial that they did not dare to put it into the title of the conference. They called it the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work. The word “ecumenical” was used occasionally but mainly for talking about the overlapping various para-church organizations.

But it was originally so much connected with the old ecumenical councils and with the Roman Catholic Church and with the Orthodox churches also, that it was hardly used before Stockholm.

One must say that the ecumenical movement, if you take Stockholm as one of these departure points, it has been a success story in the sense that the whole idea of cooperating with churches, being friendly with churches, seeking the unity with other churches - all that is now a commonsense matter in most churches.

Where would one find a church leader daring to say that he is not ecumenical?

At that time, in 1925, there was a strong sort of almost enmity between the Roman Catholic Church and all the other churches, particularly the Protestant churches.

And after Stockholm, there was an encyclical published by the Pope, distancing himself in the church from anything ecumenical, and banning all Catholics who would participate in the ecumenical work.

And that is, of course, completely changed today. The Roman Catholic Church is one the major actors in the ecumenical world.

How do you see the newly elected Pope Leo XIV and his vision on the Christian unity?

Bishop Jonson: The involvement of the Catholic Church really was confirmed by the Second Vatican Council back in the early 60s.

Since then there has been a continuous cooperation and dialogue with other churches. Interestingly enough, it has been much easier to establish cooperation with the Catholic Church when it comes to Faith and Order, than to Life and Work.

The Roman Catholic Church is full member of the WCC’s Faith and Order commission. On the whole relations have been maintained and fostered all through and I have no reason whatsoever to believe that the new pope would change that. 

When churches first time came together as you described in the Life and Work conference in 1925, the context was the aftermath of the World War I. Unfortunately, the context is similar today, 100 years later, when there is a war happening in Europe, and military conflicts taking place around the world. How do you see unity of churches in this context - are churches taking a strong enough stand against injustice today?

Bishop Jonson: I can certainly say that the task of the church is to provide a space for dialogue, space for exploring any possibility of peace. The Stockholm meeting was very much to prepare ground and to provide that space.

Churches are probably never expected to find peace on earth. There will always be conflicts as long as there are people. The churches are not idealistic in that sense, thinking that you can sort of wipe out evil — but you have to provide this space to open the opportunities, the possibilities of peace.

The other thing is that the churches must see to it, that they never, under any circumstances, get so identified with the interests of their nation, that they deny their catholicity or their universality.

The challenge for the ecumenical movement is to maintain that the churches are transnational, that the churches belong together as one universal church. That should be the overriding theme, not the sort of regional or local or national interests of the church.

Therefore church leaders, as well as religion in any form, are easily drawn into various interests in conflicts. And that's always a very sensitive matter, because as soon as the church identifies with one part in a conflict, the church has given up some of its identity as part of the real catholicity and apostolicity.

In the 1930s, the World Council of Churches had not been formed yet, but was on its way. The churches took a clear stand against the Deutsche Christen, the church that had adapted to the Nazi regime in Germany, and supported the Confessing Church movement instead.

Churches can always be sort of co-opted for the wrong cause. Look at the United States, look at Russia, look at any country — because this happens all the time. The church must always keep a critical distance to the worldly powers wherever they are.

At the conference in Athens you also mentioned the role of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the history and further development of Life and Work movement. How do you see the relevance of the Bonhoeffer's legacy today?

Bishop Jonson: The Life and Work continuation committee, which was then called, I think, the Commission on Life and Work met at Fanø, on the Danish West Coast, in 1934. That was an important meeting because that really led up to the Oxford Conference in 1937 and all the rest.

But at the same time, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was leading a youth camp. He was at that time hired by the World Alliance For Promoting Friendship Among the Peoples Through the Churches. It's a long name. But this world alliance was the sort of organization from which life and work developed.

And at that conference, the Life and Work people decided to take a clear position against the German attempts to control the churches, when the majority of German Christians and their churches had already sort of, joined hands with the Nazi regime, by adapting itself to the new situation.

But there was also the Confessing Church, in which Bonhoeffer was one of the leading members. This conference in Fanø decided to side with the Confessing Church and made it clear. They didn't write off the others, but in a rather diplomatic language they said they find it unacceptable that the church follows this kind of authoritarian regime, which itself denies Christianity and fundamental Christian values.

And that was kind of a positioning of the Life and Work, that has been sort of typical of Life and Work since then. You can read, for instance, the World Council of Churches position vis-à-vis apartheid of the same kind. And there are many other examples.

So that was a very decisive choice of road in that particular situation, when Hitler had been in power for a year since March 1933, with his power already established.

Bonhoeffer of course is exemplary in the way that he was consistent; he was faithful to the Gospel, and he took the risk, and he actually at the end sacrificed his life for that truth.

What happened next?

Bishop Jonson: At that time, the Life and Work had already established a small office in Geneva - or rather, a small institute for scholarly research on social ethical matters. But, because of the events in Germany, they became completely preoccupied with questions related to the church and state, and how the churches could handle a situation where the state claimed absolute power.

In 1937, Life and Work had a conference in Oxford. By that time, the ball had sort of moved from Scandinavia to England. William Temple was the chairperson of this conference and there were people like Bishop Bell and others, who played key roles then.

And in that conference, they had assembled not only church delegates, but a number of scholars, political scientists, and people like that, who were analyzing the situation; there were volumes of preparatory material for the conference.

And so came the war. Faith and Order had a conference at the same time in Edinburgh, and they decided — each of them, that they should merge into a World Council of Churches.

So there is a clear connection between the Stockholm conference and establishing of the World Council of Churches…

Bishop Jonson: That was the fundamental idea of Nathan Söderblom, when he gathered the Stockholm meeting. They started the World Council of Churches in a provisional state with Visser 't Hooft as the general secretary.

He was the only young person at the Stockholm conference — he was 25 then. Now he was general secretary-elect of the World Council Churches. He served in that capacity and then he was elected, of course, in 1948, when the council was constituted in Amsterdam after the war. There is a clear line here from Stockholm, and then lots of smaller conferences in between — Fanø, Oxford, and Utrecht, where the World Council of Churches was sort of provisionally constituted — and then Amsterdam in 1948.

But the CCIA was constituted in 1946 already in Cambridge, under the leadership of John Foster Dulles, who later become the secretary of state in the USA.

Being here in Athens at the 60th meeting of the current CCIA, what are your observations of the main challenges for churches in international affairs today?

Bishop Jonson: Well, let me they first say that some of the commissioners haven't been able to come to this meeting - for various reasons, but partly because Europe closes its borders. Remember that makes peace work much more difficult when you close borders to official delegates to a meeting like this.

But I find there is a lot of energy in this meeting. There are people who are very experienced and very knowledgeable and very committed. The problem is, or the challenge is that now we live in a situation which is like the one we had in the 1930s, where the multinational institutions are attacked and questioned and disobeyed, and people do not adhere to agreements anymore.

And the whole international law, the whole international system of justice is rather shaken by all this. If a country wants to go its own way, it can do that.

Because what could small countries put up against big nations, doing whatever they like to do? So we live in a very dangerous situation in that sense.

Still, I would say that the churches around the world are many, and they are influential, they should just believe a bit more in themselves — should put every effort in maintaining strengthening, and developing binding international law. Because there is no other means by which you could prevent people from straying away from decency.

Many are questioning the role of United Nations amidst the numerous conflicts today.

Bishop Jonson: Even if the UN machinery is moving slowly – it is moving. And there are new agreements coming year after year, and people define international law, and the process goes on. Even if it seems to be very weak and frail and with all the problems that you can name — I think there are still so many things that you must defend as churches and support wholeheartedly.

It may be provisional, it may be problematic, but we have no better alternative. And then we have to make the best out of it. So I would be a strong supporter of CCIA, making all that it can out of the relationship that is established with the UN agencies of various kinds.

And we must not forget that United Nations is so much more than just the Security Council.

I mean, just imagine, just imagine that the Yalta agreement would break down, that you could not fly an airplane, because there were no rules and regulations. That's a UN agency. Or take another example, that all the telephone communications didn't work. It's another UN agency. Or a World Health Organization, which is now a questioned by Trump – imagine if that stopped working? We are so dependent on all these structures that have been established in the last century — we cannot live without them.

And therefore the whole building must be saved — because if it starts cracking in one corner, then the whole house may fall.

You mentioned how relevant it is for churches today to have their prophetic and critical voice. Are churches always ready to be critical and prophetic, no matter what it costs?

Bishop Jonson: It happens more often than you think that the churches play important roles in their own societies and their own regions, on various matters, and also globally. And the churches are sometimes underestimating their role, I think.

I grew up in the national established Church of Sweden, where the church still was sort of penetrating every dimension of society when it comes to moral values and the education and all.

Now we aren't in that situation anymore. In Greece they are, but we are not. And therefore it's a new situation.

That was what Stockholm conference was all about, that the established churches realized that their time had passed - and how to find a way into a different kind of a society. That was really the fundamental question in Stockholm. And we are there always, and we are there again.

Where do you see the hope and inspiration for churches to take on their prophetic voice in the world?

Bishop Jonson: First of all, I think we should trust in God a little more than we do. I mean, if you don't preserve your hope, then you will give in. So that's one thing - trust and confidence.

Secondly, I think we have to trust in people. Most people are fairly common-sense people. They may vote in the wrong way occasionally, but on the whole, people are protecting their environment, and they do not actively act to destroy things.

Here in this meeting, there's a number of well-educated, good, willing people, and there are millions of groups like that around the world. You are part of a system that is a network all around the globe relating in various ways, and most of them are not ill-willed people. They work for the betterment of life. And they have a hope for the future.

Therefore, I think we must keep hope alive. If we give up hope and think that no change is possible, then we leave it with the autocrats to dictate our lives.

This is almost banal to say, but there are so few people around me and around in the world today, who speak peace. They talk war, they don't talk peace.

But the message of the Gospel is peace. Speak peace and hope to people.

Read the Message of the CCIA Life and Work Centenary Consultation in Athens

Keynote speech by bishop Jonas Jonson: The Stockholm Conference: context, outcome and relevance

A dip into church history: from Nicaea, to Stockholm, to today’s challenging world (WCC news release, 21 May 2025)

WCC international affairs conference: “The time for God’s peace is now” (WCC news release, 20 May 2025)

Photo gallery: CCIA Life and Work Centenary Consultation

Video recordings of the CCIA Life and Work conference in Athens