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• After you say hello: going deeper in inter-church dialogue
• Evangelicals & Catholics Together in a culture of life
• Forum de l'ARC sur Marie - 28 septembre
• ARC forum on Mary - Sept 28
• Anglican-Muslim dialogue affirms religious freedom
• World's Religions after September 11: A Global Congress
• Canterbury and Chief Rabbis sign historic agreement
• Adventistes et évangéliques se rencontrent lors d'un dialogue
• Adventists and Evangelicals Meet in Dialogue
Technorati tags: Mots clés : saskatoon, ecumenism, events, education, christian unity, theological education,
Posted: September 21, 2006 Transmis : 21 septembre 2006
Signed articles do not necessarily represent the opinions of "Ecumenism in Canada" or the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
Les articles signés ne représentent pas nécessairement les avis de "Oecuménisme au Canada" ou le Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
A new statement has been published by Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an ad-hoc group of theologians and church leaders headed by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus. This text, entitled "That They May Have Life," is the sixth statement issued by ECT since 1994. In their most recent offering, ECT returns its focus to public policy, morality, and the so-called "culture wars." Seeking to promote dialogue within the US on the "culture of life," the group affirms that they share common interests and concerns with those who oppose them. These include a common interest in the American experiment and a common humanity with its God-given capacity for reason. The text, which has the tone of a pastoral letter, appears to be interested in a dialogue between secular culture and Christians.
The first ECT statement entitled "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" was published in 1994. It immediately attracted sharp criticism within the evangelical community, leading some of the signatories to request that their names be removed from the list of affirming participants. Others, such as J. I. Packer defended their decision to sign the document. The general tone and content of the document was also criticised, particularly in the Roman Catholic community where the document was described as narrowly focused on a conservative social agenda, with emphasis on personal morality. Its call for co-operation in mission did not appear to encompass the breadth of Catholic social teaching, involvement in justice, service, and development, and other issues of public morality. The document also appeared to present the church's mission in particularly American terms. Despite these criticisms, the document was widely circulated in the evangelical community. Aside from subscribers to Neuhaus' journal First Things and specialists in ecumenical theology, few Roman Catholics have heard of the document.
The criticisms of their first statement do not seem to have deterred the ECT group from further dialogue. They have since produced a 1997 statement on justification by faith entitled "The Gift of Salvation;" a 2002 statement on scriptural authority entitled "Your Word is Truth;" a 2003 statement entitled "The Communion of Saints;" a 2005 statement on Christian life entitled "The Call to Holiness;" and this most recent offering entitled "That They May Have Life."
This sixth ECT statement seems to jump back to the co-belligerence encouraged by the first ECT statement. Unlike the intervening statements, this recent text appears to be addressed to US society rather than to the churches. The primary focus of the text is on what is sometimes called a "culture of life." Pope John Paul II coined the phrase "culture of death" to describe his perception of western society overcome by materialism, militarism, devaluation of human life and dignity, and a "contraceptive mentality." In contrast, a "culture of life" expresses concern for those who are poor, marginalized, weak, or ill. It expresses special concern for children, disabled, and elderly who are unable to speak for themselves. The participants affirm:
We are morally responsible, however, for the protection and care of life created in the image and likeness of God. The commandment "You shall not kill" is the negatively stated minimum of what we owe to our fellow human beings.
A larger portion of the new ECT text is devoted to the American debate over abortion, however the document also addresses capital punishment and other concerns. Unfortunately, the ECT participants are unable to make a breakthorugh or show any leadership towards resolving the differing views of Christians on capital punishment. The participants appear satisfied with the observation that there is a "widespread perception that capital punishment is in tension, if not conflict, with a consistent ethic of life."
Aside from passing references to concerns about poverty, the document offers no reflections on the issue. It also fails to address the militarism of American society that has rejected dialogue and development as a means of reducing the causes of terrorism. Although addressed to American society, there is no reflection about the place of the US in the world, or how Christian responsibility for others might lead to an American foreign policy that supports development in the global South. Most strikingly, despite the document's clear dependence on John Paul II's concern about a "culture of death," the participants make no comment on the materialism of western society.
While this latest document is to be welcomed for its clear articulation of certain aspects of the "culture of life," and for the continuing efforts of Evangelicals and Roman Catholics to speak together on issues of shared concern, it is disappointing for many of the same reasons that the first ECT statement was criticized. There is very little contribution made here to the ecumenical rapprochement between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics. Many of the issues that the participants agreed upon in this statement will divide them from others within their own churches. This statement will likely be received as just another contribution to the abortion debate by the Religious Right. To me, it seems like like they weren't reaching high enough.
The ECT document can be found online at First Things or in print at First Things 166 (October 2006): 18-27.
Technorati tags: Mots clés : ect, dialogue, documents, ecumenism, christian unity, catholic, evangelicals,
Posted: September 20, 2006 Transmis : 20 septembre 2006
More entries by Nicholas Jesson
Technorati tags: Mots clés : dialogue, unité chrétien, oecuménisme, anglican, catholique, arcic, canada,
Posted: September 15, 2006 Transmis : 15 septembre 2006
Technorati tags: Mots clés : dialogue, ecumenism, christian unity, anglican, catholic, mary, arcic, canada,
Posted: September 14, 2006 Transmis : 14 septembre 2006
Signed articles do not necessarily represent the opinions of "Ecumenism in Canada" or the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
Les articles signés ne représentent pas nécessairement les avis de "Oecuménisme au Canada" ou le Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
The recent controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed has exposed a disagreement between Western secular democracies and the Muslim community over appropriate limits on public expression. Agreement on when or whether there should be limits on free speech remains elusive. Such an agreement appears to be developing between Anglicans and Muslims, at least if a report released today is accurate. In a dialogue meeting last week between delegates of the Anglican Communion and the Al-Azhar Al-Sharif Permanent Committee for Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions, the participants reportedly found consensus on the right to comprehensive religious freedom and on the related problem of limiting public expression.
Dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Muslim community occurs in a variety of places, much of it at the local level. At an international level, dialogue between the two communities is more difficult because there is no Muslim leader or authority that can speak on behalf of all Muslims. In the hope of building a basis for future dialogue, in 2002 the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar agreed to establish a dialogue. Al-Azhar is the premier Egyptian university and centre of Islamic scholarship. It is attached to the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo. The mosque and the university were established in the 10th century CE. Al-Azhar is recognized in the Sunni Muslim community as an authority in Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Azhar has also formed a joint committee for dialogue with the Vatican.
During the recent dialogue meeting held September 2-3, 2006 at Al-Azhar, the delegates explored the theme of "Freedom of Religion and Respect for Sacred Religious Values." The controversy caused by the Danish publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed highlighted the importance of respect for religious communities and their convictions. The dialogue agreed that both Islam and Christianity affirm that freedom of expression must be limited by respect for others. A communiqué issued by the dialogue participants indicates that they "explored together the circumstances in which it might be right for limitations on the freedom of expression to apply, and all accepted that there are issues which affect people where sensitivity is clearly needed, which negatively affect people's feelings and beliefs."
The dialogue also noted that the European Convention on Human Rights recognizes limitations on the freedom of expression for the good of the wider community. They called upon the United Nations to draw up a convention, modelled upon the European Convention, that would set out conditions under which Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights might be limited in respect for religious sensitivities.
The communiqué from the dialogue has been published by the Anglican Communion News Service. The dialogue committee plans to meet again in London in autumn 2007.
Technorati tags: Mots clés : interreligious, dialogue, cartoon controversy, christian, islam, anglican,
Posted: September 13, 2006 Transmis : 13 septembre 2006
More entries by Nicholas Jesson
Technorati tags: Mots clés : interreligious, dialogue, council for a parliament of the world's religions,
Posted: September 11, 2006 Transmis : 11 septembre 2006
Technorati tags: Mots clés : interreligious, anglican, jewish, dialogue, statements, church of england, israel, palestine,
Posted: September 5, 2006 Transmis : 5 septembre 2006
Technorati tags: Mots clés : dialogue, oecuménisme, wea, evangéliques, adventistes,
Posted: September 4, 2006 Transmis : 4 septembre 2006
Technorati tags: Mots clés : dialogue, ecumenism, world evangelical alliance, wea, adventists, evangelicals,
Posted: September 1, 2006 Transmis : 1 septembre 2006
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