A Cloud of Witnesses: a message to the churches

2. Who are the Witnesses?

2.1 Once again we began our conversation with our chosen biblical image of the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:2) going more deeply into our understanding of the meaning of witness (martys) and the composition of the cloud. Over the centuries the word “martyr” has been understood in different ways. The most common understanding of the term came to be that a martyr was a person who suffered violent death for their faith–a death freely accepted for Christ’s sake but not sought out as an end in itself. In the course of the twentieth century, the term came to include those who died confronting injustice for the sake of the gospel. We re-affirmed that the original and wider meaning of “martyr” was simply one who, Christ-like, witnesses to the truth of the gospel to the end. Those who may be termed “heroes of the faith,” who witnessed to Christ throughout their lives but did not meet violent death, are certainly numbered among “the great cloud,” the communion of saints – whether named or unnamed. In our reflections we take these definitions into account.

2.2 We listened to and claimed again the stories of the prophets, holy men and women of the Hebrew Scriptures and the saints and martyrs of the New Testament.

2.3 Together we revisited the past as a healing of memories. We began to see that what and who we remember can keep us apart, but our common remembering draws us together. This act of remembering can serve as an act of confession that opens before us a way of reclaiming together past witnesses. Repentance and forgiveness for past acts of inter-confessional violence are more likely to occur when we reflect together on those who in dying forgave their persecutors.

2.4 We listened to stories of witnesses unto death from the twentieth century. These included the stories of those whose voices were silenced under totalitarian regimes (e.g., men and women in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Romania, and Russia); those who died resisting imperialism, colonialism, and racial injustice (e.g., in Korea and South Africa); and the Armenians who were victims of the genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century. Martyrdom continues in our own century. We heard the story of the Melanesian Brothers whose witness to the faith ended in death in 2003. These local stories transcend all boundaries by the truth and power of their witness in fidelity to Christ. We both wept and celebrated together. Within the context of grave persecution, the power of witness transcends all earthly divisions. It places us once again within the communion of saints.

2.5 There was a growing conviction among us that these witnesses to the faith do not belong only to individual confessional groups but, as in the first centuries of the Christian era, can be the joy and delight of all the churches. Similarly, significant heroes of the faith from the past no longer belong exclusively to the confessional group in which they were formed but can be claimed the common heritage of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.