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“In a world marked by division and polarization, by violence and war, and by apathy and complicity in the face of the resulting injustices, Christ’s call to unity (John 17:21) remains as urgent as ever,” said Boss, quoting from the message of the WCC’s Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which took place in Wadi El Natrun in Egypt in October 2025.
Boss was giving a lecture at the Institute of Protestant Theology in Paris on 12 June on “Crisis and renewal in the ecumenical movement,” organized by the Francophone Ecumenical Association for Missiology and the Institute for Advanced Ecumenical Studies.
Representing the United Protestant Church of France, Boss been a member of the WCC’s central committee since 2022 and of its Commission on Faith and Order since 2023.
The lecture was one of the last public events of Boss, who will retire at the end of the semester from his position at the Institute of Protestant Theology as senior lecturer in ethics and philosophy.
During the event, the president of the Francophone Ecumenical Association for Missiology, Rev. Dr Gilles Vidal, presented Boss with a message from the WCC’s director of the Faith and Order commission, Dr Andrej Jeftić, offering Boss gratitude as he approaches retirement, and expressing thanks that Boss will continue with his responsibilities in the work of the WCC and of the commission.
“Through your writings and your teaching, you have contributed substantially to shaping theological reflection and ecumenical dialogue in our time,” wrote Jeftić.
“Your presence in our discussions has consistently combined intellectual depth, theological insight, and a genuine commitment to the search for Christian unity,” Jeftić stated.
In his lecture, Boss pointed to the insights of the Faith and Order commission on “moral discernment” about ethical issues where churches have deep disagreements, set out in the study document from 2021, Churches and Moral Discernment: Facilitating Dialogue to Build Koinonia.
An honest and rigorous dialogue can take place without either side having to abandon their most cherished convictions in advance, said Boss, in acknowledging that the partner seeks to discern the “conscience of the church” and that it is sincere in its convictions.
“The question of moral discernment strikes me as emblematic in more ways than one of what I would be tempted to present as an axiom of ecumenical dialogue,” said Boss. “it is by going to the heart of what threatens to throw it into crisis, by agreeing to tackle with humility and sincerity the most difficult, the most controversial, and the most seemingly daunting issues for the visible unity of the church, that dialogue finds the promise of its renewal.”
WCC's Commission on Faith and Order director's letter of gratitude to Rev. Dr Marc Boss
