This text explores the complex, potentially conflictual but often creative field of hermeneutics, focused specifically on the hermeneutical task entailed in the ecumenical search for visible church unity. This exploration, carried out at the request of the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order (Santiago de Compostela, 1993), is a part of the ongoing work of Faith and Order.

Hermeneutical questions emerged in ecumenical work already in its beginnings. The churches’ responses to the Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry text made it especially clear that Faith and Order needed to reflect on what is involved when authors, readers and interpreters of ecumenical documents come from many different contexts and confessions. The significance of the hermeneutical task for the ecumenical movement has deepened and widened since this initial perception. Indeed, representatives of churches from all parts of the world who participated in the Santiago conference made it clear that the work of Faith and Order could progress fruitfully only with serious exploration of the hermeneutical issues.

This text is the product of three study consultations (Dublin 1994, Lyons 1996 and Bossey 1997), and two small drafting meetings (Boston 1994 and Faverges 1998). Participants in these gatherings included members of the World Council of Churches‘ Commission on Faith and Order, joined by scholars particularly interested in hermeneutical questions. Participants came from all parts of the world and represented many ecclesial traditions (e.g. Anglican, Anabaptist/Pietist, Lutheran, Methodist, Old Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Roman Catholic). Interim versions were reviewed and critiqued at various stages by the Board of Faith and Order and by its Plenary Commission meeting in Moshi, Tanzania, in 1996. They have also been studied and responded to by a number of scholars in the field. Each and every response along the way has received careful attention.
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