Ecumenical web site launched

 — Sept. 7, 20037 sept. 2003

Canada has gained a new ecumenical web site, and the start of a centralized, on-line archive of Canadian and international ecumenical dialogue. Want to know what Catholics and Lutherans have really said about their shared understanding of justification, or what the Catholic bishops of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland have said about eucharistic sharing? You will find that and more at ecumenism.net.

The web site is a joint project of Canada’s two ecumenical centres – Saskatoon’s Prairie Centre for Ecumenism and Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. Web master Nicholas Jesson is a former director of the Prairie Centre. In addition to the archive of documents from official interchurch dialogues, Jesson also posts articles in English and French from the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism’s journal Ecumenism / œcuménisme. A parallel French language site has also been launched.

“It shows that we are working together as well, and that’s what ecumenism is about,” said Prairie Centre director Sr. Anne Keffer. In addition to the obvious appeal to scholars, a web site that centralizes the research and joint statements of ecumenical dialogues will be useful to interchurch families, said Keffer. “There are interchurch families across the country who are using the web site to find out what is happening in those dialogues,” she said.

The new web site is already attracting about 500 visitors per month, said Jesson. The visitors are by no means all Canadian, and they’ve found their way to the site without any official launch or promotion by the two centres. The two centres are planning to get the word out about ecumenism.net in the fall.

Archdiocese of Toronto ecumenical officer Fr. Damian MacPherson finds the web site “very useful.” “They’re really putting together a marvelous bouillon cube of resources,” MacPherson said.

Putting the documents from Canadian ecumenical dialogues into a central archive is one of the major goals for the web site, said Jesson. “There is no complete collection of these materials. By offering our facilities to these dialogues, we are hoping to make the material more accessible to the public.”

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© 2003, The Catholic Register
Reprinted by permission

Posted: Sept. 7, 2003 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=70
Categories: Catholic Register, Resources • In this article: Centre Canadien d’œcuménisme, Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, website Transmis : 7 sept. 2003 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=70
Catégorie : Catholic Register, Resources • Dans cet article : Centre Canadien d’œcuménisme, Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, website