Two Students Join Ecumenical Conference in Geneva 

Students Adam Spaugh ‘08 and Christie Melby-Gibbons ‘09 represented Moravian seminarians at a conference held in January in Geneva, Switzerland. The 3-week program, “The Ecumenical Church in a Globalized World,” was sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church and included dozens of future and current clergy from various Christian faith traditions from all over the globe — including Canada, Japan, Costa Rica, Columbia, Tanzania, Namibia, Ghana, Zambia, and Pakistan.

When asked about their experience, Christie and Adam commented that “of the many things we took from the program, perhaps chief among them was the sense that Christianity must be about, and for, the world. An underlying theme throughout our studies was that to be Christian is to be ecumenical, and to be ecumenical is to be justice-seeking. We came away from the experience newly espousing in our cores that the Church (and there is only one) is to manifest, and make for, peace and justice where there is violence and oppression of any kind. After our experience of intense dialogue, we can no longer think of it as our personal faith (though that personal relationship with God is still primarily important); rather, we’ve come to realize that faith requires unity, and unity requires that we act as agents of active, social gospel. Because we believe, we must do. And there is plenty to do.”