Ecumenical bookstore Suggestions for your ecumenical & interreligious libraryLibrairie oecuménique Suggestions pour votre bibliothèque oecuménique et interreligieux
In Winnipeg, a Catholic parish and an Anglican parish share a large building on a busy city street. In Shell Lake Saskatchewan, Anglican, Lutheran and United Church Christians have joined buildings and hearts together to form one worshipping community with joint staff and programming. In Montreal, downtown clergy of two denominations start talks about sharing a worship space: one has a big church with a small congregation, while the other has a congregation with no suitable place to meet. In Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, three existing congregations are about to break ground for a new church facility which will serve them as one congregation and help them serve the needs of their town. In Biggar, Saskatchewan, the Anglican and Lutheran pastors run a ‘Monday School’ kids club for the children of the whole town. What are all these Christians doing? They are exploring ecumenical shared ministry.
An Ecumenical Shared Ministry (ESM) exists where Christians of more than one denomination worship and serve God in a united way while still maintaining their denominational identities and connections. ESMs take many forms, from sharing a building, to sharing programs, staff and worship. There are an estimated 80-150 ESMs in Canada. Some are found in tiny rural communities. Some are in major cities. Most ESMs are located in Western Canada and the Maritimes, and new ones are forming all the time.
Ecumenical Shared Ministries are showing themselves to be part of the solution to the problem our churches face in the rural areas, and in new urban areas. In places where numbers are diminishing due to rural depopulation, ESMs offer a way for rural Christians of several denominations to work together in ministry to their communities without losing their denominational allegiances. In the new city suburbs in Western Canada, denominations are stretched to finance the planting of new churches, and some are creating new urban ESMs, like the Living Spirit Centre in Regina. These ESMs not only maximize limited financial resources, but also give ‘flesh’ to Christians’ spiritual commitment to seek Christian unity and reconciliation.
ESMs are not just a Canadian phenomenon. The United Kingdom has a well-developed network of ESMs, called Local Ecumenical Partnerships (LEPs) In the English setting, with greater population densities, greater church wealth and relatively small travelling distances, LEPs operate within a coherent and relatively well-funded national structure overseen by Churches Together in England. In Canada, with its smaller population, vast travelling distances and less wealth in the churches, there is no corresponding umbrella organization: ESMs develop and dissolve here on a more local and ad hoc basis. The lack of structured support and accessible expertise often leaves an ESM very much on its own.
The lack of coordination for Canadian ESMs has been felt by many. In 2005 the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism merged its annual Summer Ecumenical Institute with a network of people involved in ESMs to produce a well-attended Collaborative Ministry Conference, held in Saskatoon. At that gathering, church leaders asked the PCE to become a repository for documents and information concerning shared ministries in Canada. Grant funding for the initial phase of the work was obtained from the Churches Council for Theological Education, and in 2007 the Shared Ministries Bureau was born.
At about the same time, the Anglican, United, Presbyterian and Evangelical Lutheran Churches at national level began seeking to provide a more coherent framework for Canadian ESMs, so that local judicatories who wish to explore establishing an ESM do not need to ‘reinvent the wheel.’ The National Ecumenical Shared Ministries Taskforce has been meeting since 2006 to develop common policies, and to publish a Shared Ministries Handbook. A draft version of the Handbook is available on our website, and the final version is expected in June, 2009. In February of 2008 the Taskforce endorsed the PCE’s Shared Ministries Bureau and invited it to become a permanent Taskforce member. It has asked the PCE to continue its database development and document gathering, but also to undertake practical training work for clergy and others involved in ESMs.
The Shared Ministries Bureau is pleased to make its existing database of ESMs available on the PCE website. Further histories and access to sample constitutions, and ESM covenants will follow.
Forthcoming ESM training events
At the Summer Ecumenical Institute (2-5 June, 2009) Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall will offer a workshop on Ecumenical Shared Ministries, Thursday 4 June at 3.30 pm. Sandra is the United Church professor of Church History and Ecumenics at St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon and consultant to the Shared Ministries Bureau. She has pastored an ecumenical shared ministry, and now shares with theological students her vision for their potential.
In January 2010 Sandra, assisted by the staff of the Shared Ministries Bureau, will offer a week-long intensive Ecumenical Shared Ministries Course at St. Andrews College, Saskatoon. Prof. Beardsall writes:
"This course will explore the dynamics particular to developing and sustaining ecumenical ministry initiatives in congregational settings. It will introduce participants to the structures, theologies, and ethos of the major denominations involved, and consider issues that are unique to ecumenical congregational relationships. It will involve engagement with documents of the ecumenical movement, with practical issues like the production of covenants and constitutions, and with the pastoral challenges that affect all congregations, such as conflict and change, but with attention to the nuances for ecumenical ministries. Finally, the course will involve engagement with questions of our personal struggles and delights in confronting Christian identity and otherness. Participants will identify and strengthen their gifts for ecumenical ministries, in the context of these many aspects of faith, theology, and leadership."
The course may be audited or taken for credit in the Saskatoon Theological Union, and will form part of the requirements for certification as an Ecumenical Shared Ministries Trainer.
Summer Ecumenical Institute 2009: Telling our story, shaping our future: Christian unity and reconciliation in Canada
June 2-5, 2009 in Saskatoon, SK
The Summer Ecumenical Institute will function as a stock-taking and a vision-building exercise for the grassroots ecumenical community in Canada. 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. It is also the 50th anniversary of the announcement by Pope John XXIII of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose main aims was the advancement of Christian unity. It is 50 years since our founder, Fr. Bernard de Margerie, received his call to the path of ecumenism. There is much to celebrate!
This conference will be the climax of a year of themed events giving thanks for the past achievements of the ecumenical movement and committing ourselves to Christian unity and reconciliation for the future. The SEI will be built around worship and singing, keynote addresses, a variety of optional workshops, and a banquet at the Western Development Museum. It begins on Tuesday evening and finishes Friday with lunch.
We are honoured to have Fr. Tom Ryan CSP to lead us in this task. Tom is the director of the North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations of the Paulist Community, and is based in Washington, DC. Fr. Tom was ordained in 1975, and served in campus ministry at the Ohio State University (Columbus) and at McGill University (Montreal), prior to directing the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism for 14 years. He spearheaded the 1995 founding of the Unitas Ecumenical Centre for Christian Meditation in Montreal and served 5 years as its director before answering the call of his community to take up his current work. He is a gifted speaker, author, mission and retreat leader.
We are excited to have Cheryl and Bruce Harding to get us singing, and drumming. Cheryl and Bruce Harding are gifted United Church recording artists and worship leaders, whose eclectic musical style melds a theology of healing and understanding with a spirit-filled passion for congregational singing. When they are not on tour, Cheryl and Bruce lead singing at Royal Heights United Church in Delta, BC. Bruce is also past co-chair of UCCAM, the United Church of Canada Association of Musicians, and was the Managing Editor for More Voices, the supplement to the current United Church of Canada hymn book, Voices United (1996).
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.
Last November, attention turned once again to comments made by Pope Benedict XVI, this time on dialogue with Islam. Precisely as the Vatican was intensifying efforts to open dialogues with Islam on ethical and other practical issues, a book was published in Italy by Marcello Pera that contained a forward written by the pope. In this text, the pope commended Pera's argument that interreligious dialogue is not strictly possible. The book, entitled "Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian" was an argument for the indispensably Christian character of Europe. Prior to his election as pope, Cardinal Ratzinger had co-authored another book with Pera about Europe's identity, and so it is not a great surprise that he would write a forward for another book on the same subject by his academic colleague.
The incident provides further illustration of Benedict's continuing engagement in intellectual and academic disputes. In one sense, this is highly desirable in any pope. Having a pope who comprehends the subtle nuances of theological, philosophical, and historical debates is especially important in the context of increasing religious pluralism. However, as one blogger put it, the chair of Peter is not a faculty chair. When every word of a pope is sifted for meaning, it is no longer possible to engage in speculation.
On Thursday, while another of the pope's public spectacles was being put to rest by his letter admitting mistakes in the lifting of the excommunication of the Lefebvrite bishops, the pope met with representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to express his encouragement for their dialogue with the Vatican. As a prelude to Benedict's visit to Israel in May, the audience with the Chief Rabbinate was an opportunity for the pope to affirm his commitment to Catholic-Jewish dialogue. This audience with the chief rabbis should be understood as part of the damage control by the Vatican in the wake of the controversy that arose after it became known that one of the Lefebvrite bishops, Richard Williamson, was a Holocaust-denier. In the past six weeks, the Vatican has been at pains to assert its commitment to Catholic-Jewish dialogue and to disassociate from Williamson's odious views.
There is an interesting connection between the pope's comments to the chief rabbis and the comments expressed in his forward to Pera's book. In his comments to Pera he could affirm that interreligious dialogue is not, in the strict sense of the word, possible. Whatever we might think about that startling claim, on Thursday we observe Benedict affirming the dialogue between Judaism and Christianity as both necessary and possible. He returns to the Vatican II declaration on relations with non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate (1965). There the Council teaches that the church's acknowledgement of the rich spiritual patrimony with Judaism makes dialogue both necessary and possible. As well, the pope explains, "if the church acknowledges that God's intervention in the history of the Jewish people is at the foundation of Christian faith then this conveys to all humanity the importance of faith in one God."
The pope's comments on Thursday should not be understood as conflicting with his comments in Pera's book. As Fr. Federico Lombardi the Vatican spokesman explained in November, the pope's forward was intended to draw interest to Pera's book. The comments in the book were imprecise and the pope has not elaborated on them. One can presume that he notes a philosophical problem at the root of dialogue between two differing religious systems, such as Christianity and Islam. He is careful to root his affirmation of Christian-Jewish dialogue in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. The Council's teaching is not just convenient to repeat at a meeting with the rabbis, it actually constrains Benedict to affirm the dialogue, and provides the foundation for that dialogue which distinguishes it from all other dialogues: the rich spiritual patrimony shared with Judaism. Thus, his affirmation of dialogue with Judaism confirms two essential details in Benedict's theological commitments. First, his commitment to the conciliar teachings, even those that the traditionalists do not like. And even more importantly, his recognizes that at its roots, Christianity is grafted to the tree of Israel. When Christians affirm that the church is Israel, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (I Peter 2:9) this is not to the exclusion of the Jewish people, but rather "the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord." (Eph 2:21, cf. 2:11-22)
Bishops call for Critical Reflection on Uranium Mining and a Proposed Nuclear Power Plant in Saskatchewan
The Bishops of the Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic churches in Saskatchewan call on their members and all Saskatchewan citizens to consider with care the issues surrounding the proposed expansion of the uranium industry in Saskatchewan and make their views known to the Government of Saskatchewan.
The Government of Saskatchewan is exploring "value-added" initiatives to expand the uranium industry in our province, including the possibility of a nuclear power plant being built in Saskatchewan. Bruce Power, the country's only private nuclear generating company, has deemed an area of Saskatchewan (roughly from Lloydminster to Prince Albert) to be a potentially suitable site for such a development. In March 2009 a government-appointed panel is expected to make recommendations regarding such initiatives. It is critical that any recommendations be made only after full and open consultation with the people of this province.
Christian churches affirm that God created the earth and that God continues to establish and preserve a just and ordered life for all creation. Human beings are part of the vast ecosystem of the planet. Choices made by human beings must respect God's creation in its careful interrelationship of earth, water, air and all living things. Exploiting the earth's resources without regard for the consequences is sinful against God and God's creation, according to Christian belief. Technology and economic development, including mining and power generation, must be subject to critical reflection in light of the impact that such actions have on people and the environment in the present and into the future.
The Bishops recognize the global need for urgent action on climate change and the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-burning power plants in Saskatchewan. They appreciate the intention of the Government in proposing nuclear power to reduce emissions. At the same time, they see the necessity for careful examination of the costs and benefits of a range of energy options and encourage the Government to invite public participation in developing a new energy strategy for Saskatchewan.
The Bishops call on Premier Brad Wall, Crown Corporations Minister Ken Cheveldayoff, Environment Minister Nancy Heppner, Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd, First Nations Minister June Draude, Enterprise Saskatchewan Minister Lyle Stewart, and the Government of Saskatchewan to provide adequate opportunities for Saskatchewan citizens to engage in open, informed discussion based on unbiased and complete information before the Government acts on recommendations from the nuclear industry or the government-appointed panel.
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God's Reconciling Grace: Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, 25 Years of Ecumenical Leadership, 1984-2009
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