CHAPTER 1: ECUMENICAL PROGRESS AND STAGNATION 53 topic from the perspective of lived ecumenism in Taizé and Bose. In this section, I would like to broaden the view on the status quaestionis by mentioning briefly several other recent and innovative contributions to the debate from the German, Anglo-Saxon, and Dutch contexts. This overview is not comprehensive and does not seek to analyze the contributions as thoroughly as has been done in the case of Mit Christus gehen in sections 1.3 and 1.4. It simply lists some recent contributions that stand out because of their impact or for taking a more practical theological perspective. German contributions The German context – cradle of the Lutheran Reformation – has made multiple attempts to justify the call for Eucharistic hospitality theologically. Fifteen years before the initiative of the German bishops discussed above, in 2003, the ecumenical institutes of Strasbourg (France), Tübingen, and Bensheim (both in Germany) published Abendmahlsgemeinschaft ist möglich. Thesen zur eucharistischen Gastfreundschaft. They present seven theses in favor of Eucharistic sharing, translated as follows:134 1) admission of baptized Christians to communion does not call for justification – refusing them rather does; 2) lived ecumenism and the lack of Eucharistic communion contradict each other. This weakens the church’s witness and makes it appear incredible while facing societal challenges; 3) in countless exceptional cases, Eucharistic hospitality is already being extended to individuals; 4) Baptism is the doorway to the community of the church, the body of Christ, which is reconstituted in the Eucharist; 5) it is Jesus who invites to the Eucharist, he is both giver and gift. The church merely invites on his behalf. This cannot be done indiscriminately but should spring from the will of Jesus Christ; 6) communion in Baptism exceeds ecclesial communion; and 7) the church lives as a community of proclamation, worship, and service to the world. Ecclesial communion presupposes these acts as well as a common basic consensus, not one defined historical liturgical form. Since Mit Christus gehen in 2018, yet another document concerning Eucharistic sharing has been published in Germany. In their 2019 statement Gemeinsam am Tisch des Herrn, theologians collaborating in the Ökumenische Arbeitskreis evangelischer und katholische Theologen (ÖAK) plead for 134 Centre d’Études Œcumeniques (Strasbourg), Institut für Ökumenische Forschung (Tübingen), and Konfessionskundliches Institut (Bensheim), Abendmahlsgemeinschaft ist möglich: Thesen zur eucharistischen Gastfreundschaft (Frankfurt amMain: Verlag Otto Lembeck, 2003) (translation: FW).
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