An address by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, regarding relations between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC). At a press conference held Friday 2nd March in the Vatican, the WCC General Secretary, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit and Cardinal Kurt Koch announced that Pope Francis will be travelling to Geneva on June 21st to mark the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches.

The visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva during the year of the 70th Anniversary of the foundation of the World Council of Churches (WCC), will be a sign of recognition of a unique contribution of the WCC to the modern ecumenical movement. It will be an expression of the personal commitment of the Holy Father to the goal of Christian unity as expressed in many occasions. In visiting the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Pope Francis will follow the steps of his two predecessors Paul VI, who visited the WCC in 1969 (10 June), and John Paul II who did the same in 1984 (l2 June). The visit will be an occasion to give thanks to God for a longstanding and rich collaboration which the Catholic Church maintains with the WCC for more than half a century. Indeed, our relations began during the preparation of the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II committed the Catholic Church to the modern ecumenical movement and opened a new page in the history of our relations with the World Council of Churches generating a spirit of rapprochement and mutual understanding. Although the Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, various dicasteries of the Roman Curia and different Catholic organizations or religious communities collaborate closely with its different programmatic areas. There is a sustained collaboration in the field of justice and peace, human rights, works of charity and humanitarian aid, especially regarding migrants and refugees, protection of creation, the youth, interreligious dialogue, mission and evangelism. The most developed is the collaboration between the WCC and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), which also takes place through various channels.
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The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has welcomed a recent resolution by the German Catholic bishops’ conference to make it possible for Catholic-Lutheran married couples to receive the Eucharist together.

This development follows the Joint Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration of the Reformation in 2016, where the LWF and the Catholic Church expressed it as a joint pastoral responsibility to “respond to the spiritual thirst and hunger” of many of their members “who yearn to receive the Eucharist at one table, as the concrete expression of full unity.”

In the German Bishops Conference earlier this month, the Catholic bishops agreed to provide an orientation that would help local Catholic priests and their bishops to formally decide on a case-by-case basis to open the Eucharist to Protestant spouses, which in Germany would include Lutherans, Reformed and members of united churches.
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A Message from the Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran Bishops of Saskatchewan

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The events surrounding the tragic shooting death of Colten Boushie in August 2016, and the subsequent trial of Gerald Stanley and recent jury decision, have re-surfaced profound pain to families and communities. They have also raised enormously important questions and challenges for our province and our country.

As bishops who serve Christian communities in our province, we join all those who are longing to escape the slavery of prejudice, racism, anger, frustration, violence and bitterness. We wish to join all those who are re-dedicating themselves to work for reconciliation and peace among all people in our communities and in our nation.
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During a visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva on 16 February, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby spoke on an “ecumenism of action” as he also congratulated the WCC on its 70th anniversary.

“Bi- and multi-lateral theological dialogue over the course of the twentieth century bore much fruit but at times it could be appear to be akin to diplomatic renegotiation of borders: the barriers to communion still exist but not where we thought they did,” said Welby. “The underlying problem with these discussions, however, is that they are what I would call negotiation of the frontiers.”

The negotiation of the ways in which frontiers are set down, and in which they are crossed, is one of the most difficult aspects of international relations at times of tension, he continued.

“Frontiers imply difference,” he explained. “They say that on one side of the frontier there is the ‘other’.”
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In what’s believed to be the first formal ecumenical meeting between the Anglican Church of Canada and Mennonite Church Canada, members of each church learned what both might be able to share with one another in Waterloo, Ont., February 2-3.

Among other things, Anglican dialogue members expressed a desire to learn from Mennonites “how to be a prophetic voice from a position where you don’t necessarily have influence or power,” says the Rev. Scott Sharman, who participated in the meeting as the Anglican Church of Canada‘s animator for ecumenical and interfaith relations.

The goal of the dialogue at this point is primarily for each to learn from and be enriched by the other, says Sharman. “I don’t think that anyone would take anything off the table as possibilities of what it might grow into, but also, at the same time, we’ve not gone into it with a stated goal of working towards establishing a full communion relationship such as we have with the ELCIC [Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada],” he says. “I think there’s an openness to seeing where the spirit leads and where the conversations take us, but the path hasn’t necessarily been set out in advance.”
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Meeting at the Taizé Community in France, the Global Christian Forum Committee chose Dr Casely Essamuah to serve in the central role of its Secretary. Dr Essamuah will take up the position on 1 July 2018, following the retirement of the Rev Dr Larry Miller who has led the GCF for the last six years.

Originally ordained in the Methodist Church, Ghana, Dr Essamuah has worked for the last 13 years as Global Missions and Local Outreach Pastor of the Bay Area Community Church, Annapolis, MD. Dr Essamuah describes himself as “evangelical and ecumenical.” Coming originally from Africa and now ministering in North America, he views himself as a “bridge-builder” between the churches in the global north and global south.

“In a time when the majority of the world’s Christians now live in the southern hemisphere, creating new tensions and challenges in the life of world Christianity, Dr Casely Essamuah is uniquely equipped to serve the cause of unity in the global body of Christ in the role of Secretary of the Global Christian Forum,” said Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson, co-chair of the Search Committee.
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Senior Anglican leaders have endorsed Pope Francis’ call for an ecumenical day of prayer and fasting for peace, with a particular focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Pope Francis made his call on Sunday in his traditional Angelus address to crowds in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. It has now been endorsed by the acting primate of the Anglican Church of South Sudan, the secretary general of the Anglican Communion, and the deputy director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.

“Faced with the tragic continuation of conflict in several parts of the world, I invite all faithful to a special day of prayer and fasting for peace on this coming 23 February, Friday of the First Week of Lent,” Pope Francis said. “We will offer this in particular to the populations of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and of South Sudan.

“As on other similar occasions, I also invite non-Catholic and non-Christian brothers and sisters to participate in this initiative in the ways they consider most appropriate, but all together.
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Speaking at the recitation of the Angelus prayer last Sunday, the Pope invited all women and men of goodwill to join him in praying for an end to violence and conflict, especially in South Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Addressing the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said: “Faced with the tragic protracted situations of conflict in different parts of the world, I invite all the faithful to take part in a special Day of Prayer and Fasting for Peace”.

Noting that February 23rd falls on a Friday during the first full week of Lent, the Pope asked people to pray especially for those suffering violence in the DRC and in South Sudan, where political unrest and a protracted civil war continues to claim thousands of lives.
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A dialogue document on Church, Eucharist and Ministry published by Lutherans and Roman Catholics in Finland in 2017 could pave the way for an international declaration between the two Christian churches, church leaders in the Nordic nation say.

Communion in Growth, a report from the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue Commission of Finland, found that despite differences of emphasis between the Roman Catholic Church in Finland and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Eucharist and (ordained) Ministry, they don’t need to be church dividing issues in the light of the achieved consensus on the basic truths of faith regarding these themes.
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