August 5, 2010
by Juan Michel

Her call to work in the World Council of Churches (WCC) as Catholic consultant for mission and evangelism came, she says, as "one of those surprises given us by God." During the last five years her day-to-day encounter with people of other Christian confessions has been the occasion, she says, for "spiritual renewal" in her life. Alongside that, her appointment has been one of the various ways in which the Roman Catholic Church and the WCC permanently strengthen their ties of mutual cooperation. A few weeks before leaving her position María Arantzazu Aguado is convinced that "the WCC is good news for the world."

She was born in the Basque Country in Spain, daughter of a Catholic family, and from an early age felt called to teaching as part of her church commitment as a laywoman. Thus, on the one hand, she trained as a teacher and educationalist, and, on the other, joined, and later became head of, the Teresian Institute, one of the various forms taken by the lay movement in Roman Catholicism that arose at the beginning of the last century. Her commitment as a laywoman also led to her ten-year participation in the Pontifical Council for the Laity as a consultant and staff member.

The call to work as a Catholic consultant in the WCC came in 2005 when she was working in adult education with the immigrant population in Chicago, USA.

How did you come to be appointed to this position?

It all began with a communication from Rome. I received a telephone call from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, asking if I would be willing to consider serving in this way. It involved promoting cooperation between the Catholic Church and the WCC.

And so you became a sort of "Vatican spy" in the Ecumenical Centre?

No, not at all (she laughs). Rather, I have been a bridge, facilitating cooperation between the Pontifical Council and the WCC in the field of mission and evangelism. In fact, I am not the only Catholic "envoy" on the WCC staff. There is always also a Catholic professor at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey.

And what actually has your work been?

In this position you become a member of the WCC permanent staff. So I was involved, as one colleague among others from other denominations, in carrying out a series of studies, encounters and other activities. My specific area in recent years has been above all mission and spirituality. I have felt very happy at being able to make a contribution in that area, given the emphasis put by Catholics on ecumenical spirituality, and to have contact not only with my colleagues here but also with a network of experts from churches throughout the world.

Among other things, we have carried out a series of dialogue forums, which have focussed on the spirituality of mission for change, i.e. mission that is committed to the world for peace and justice. Other aspects we have dealt with have been healing, women's concerns, interfaith relations, post-modernity and also care for the created world.

The results of our work have been in part reflected in thematic issues of The International Review of Mission. I have also been personally involved with the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the preparatory work for the conference "Edinburgh 2010," which marked the centenary of the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910.

A guiding thread through all this work has been the production of a new Ecumenical Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism. That is already receiving close attention from the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the WCC mission team, and may result in a contribution to the WCC's Tenth Assembly in Busan, South Korea, in 2013. The affirmation will aim to be an update on the ecumenical understanding of Christian mission.

What do you take away with you from your experience over these last five years?

I am glad that I have been able to contribute to cooperation between the Catholic Church and the WCC. Moreover, working in the WCC has changed me, touched me inwardly. I regard these years as a privileged opportunity to live out my faith and journey with Christians of other traditions. My identity as a Catholic has been affirmed, but at the same time I have been discovering other Christian traditions and have come to love them. For me, Jesus' dream that all his disciples should be one has taken bodily form in an ecumenism of daily life, with familiar faces, and has changed my experience of the faith, which I shall now not be able to experience in any other way.

But relationships between different Christian confessions are not always so easy ...

When I was invited to take this position I was told that they were looking for a person with wide church experience. My role has been, not to "defend" a position, so to speak, but rather to be ready to undertake a journey with others and to understand different situations. For example, I have not been involved in doctrinal discussions, but in conversations with the aim of making progress together in mission. We have so much in common!

Have you experienced any frustrations?

I would not say that I have experienced frustrations, but rather, at some times, an exercise in waiting and being patient. In the course of these last five years there have been frequent changes in the WCC. So we have had to keep going and adapt to the restructuring process. That, certainly, has meant that I have had to have the ability to adapt, but at the same time it has been an excellent learning opportunity.

You are now leaving. What comes next?

My successor has already been appointed. Her name is Annemarie Mayer, a professor in ecumenism at the University of Tübingen in Germany. She is also a laywoman. As for me, to begin with, I shall go to Rome, where I shall work with the Teresian Institute both in the field of spirituality and also in the preparations for our centenary in 2011. It is our hope that that will provide an opportunity to relaunch the mission of Catholic laypeople in the world.

Including your successor, there will have been five women occupying this position since it was set up in the 1980s. Why is it always a woman? Do women have a specific contribution to make?

I do not believe that it has been done deliberately, but it has been good in practice. My three predecessors were members of religious orders with much experience in the field of mission. I was the first lay person. I believe that what is decisive in the choice made by the Pontifical Council is experience in mission. Without falling into stereotypes, perhaps we women bring to the task a sensitivity, a particular way of looking at what the church is, a certain ability to build bridges – which, obviously, men also have. Men and women have complementary approaches.

How do you sum up your time in the WCC over the last five years?

I consider myself very fortunate and am grateful to God and to those who have made it possible. It has been one of those surprises given us by God, and, as Cardinal Walter Kasper, the then president of the Pontifical Council, predicted when I was appointed, it has proved to be an opportunity for spiritual renewal. Working in the WCC has given my faith a fresh communal dimension and has made my heart larger.

Now that you know the WCC from the inside, what do you think of it?

I believe that the WCC carries within it a seed of life that is called to yield fruit in the world, the fruit of unity. The WCC is good news for the world.

Commission on World Mission and Evangelism: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2267&rid=f_13684&mid=2439&aC=63bab3c8&jumpurl=1.

Cooperation between the Catholic Church and the WCC: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2267&rid=f_13684&mid=2439&aC=63bab3c8&jumpurl=2.

World Council of Churches
Juan Michel is WCC Media Relations officer.