Hong Kong – As the 4 to 10 May meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) drew to a close, participants emphasized the importance of social witness and openness in ecumenical dialogue.

“There seem to be many obstacles from a human point of view, and it does not seem likely to have fully visible unity in the near future,” New Zealand Anglican Archbishop David Moxon, the co-chairperson of the meeting, said on May 8. “We can, however, do a lot of things together during this slow process,” he added.

“As we discussed in the meeting, there can be more collaborations between us, such as (humanitarian agencies) Caritas International and the Global Anglican Relief and Development Alliance,” he said.

The Hong Kong ecumenical gathering is the second meeting for the third phase of ARCIC, which is focused on the examining the question of moral decision-making within the local and universal church.
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The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission has completed the second meeting of its new phase (ARCIC III), at the Mission to Seafarers in Kowloon, Hong Kong (3-10 May 2012).

The Commission, chaired by the Most Revd David Moxon (Anglican Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses) and the Most Revd Bernard Longley (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham) comprises nineteen theologians from a wide range of backgrounds across the world. According to the mandate given to it by the two Communions, the Commission is addressing interrelated issues: the Church as Communion, local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal Church come to discern right ethical teaching. The Commission has also been mandated to present the documents of ARCIC II for reception by the relevant authorities of both communions. Accordingly, the Commission is reviewing responses already received in order to prepare some elucidations, together with commentaries, which will enable the material of ARCIC II to be studied at all levels of the churches’ life.

Read more on “Ecumenism in Canada”
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The Board and staff of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism are excited to have a new Director in place. We welcome Dr. Darren Dahl, who began his duties on May 1st. He will be working half-time at the Centre. He is also a sessional lecturer in the department of Religion and Culture at St. Thomas More College and a Fellow in the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies programme at the University of Saskatchewan. A former Lutheran pastor, Darren was recently received into the Roman Catholic church. He is interested in the relation of ecumenical dialogue to its secular cultural context as well as ecumenical dialogue between Roman Catholics and the Orthodox churches.
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The Archbishop of Birmingham has said he understands those frustrated with ecumenical dialogue but stressed the long term aim is “full visible unity”. Archbishop Bernard Longley was speaking to The Tablet days before members of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) gathered for their latest round of meetings in Hong Kong, which was due to start on Friday.
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After several hundred years of separation, members of six Pan-Methodist denominations have committed to ministry together. The United Methodist Church (UMC) is the last of the denominations to adopt the full communion agreement, which was celebrated May 1 during the 2012 UMC General Conference.
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As religious leaders from Ukraine sat in the gallery, the House of Commons passed unanimously on April 24 a motion honouring Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky for his courageous efforts to save Jews during the Second World War.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s motion said Sheptytsky, who headed the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1900 until his death in 1944, courageously spoke out against violence against Jews and sheltered and saved the lives of more than 160 Ukrainian Jews, many of them children.

“This House is united in expressing Canada’s recognition of Andrey Sheptytsky’s courageous actions, compassion for his oppressed Jewish Ukrainian countrymen and enduring example of commitment to fundamental human rights as humankind’s highest obligation,” the motion said.
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The international resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2014 are being prepared by a Canadian writing team. Church musicians and composers from across Canada are invited to submit original hymns, praise choruses, or shorter songs for worship for possible inclusion with the resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity worldwide in 2014.

The theme that we have chosen for the week is “Has Christ Been Divided?” based on the biblical text of 1 Corinthians 1:1-17. Submissions should be suitable for congregational singing in a variety of ecumenical contexts around the world. They should include words in either French or English, and preferably in both languages. Other languages may also be included, provided that translation into English or French is included as well.

Successful submissions will be focused on prayer for the unity of the Christian Church and may relate directly to the biblical text from 1 Corinthians 1:1-17. They will be distributed freely with the international resources, so the copyright will need to allow for free use of the music and words for worship and prayer gatherings related to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2014.

Please make all submissions by Thursday, May 31, 2012 to the Rev. Amanda Currie by email to music [at] ecumenism [dot] net or by mail to 436 Spadina Crescent East, Saskatoon, SK, S7K 3G6.
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The United Church of Christ‘s five-member Collegium of Officers is making a road trip this week to engage the United Church of Canada in a historic moment of the [US church].

“This is the first time we’re taking a delegation of sorts to Canada,” said the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, [United Church of Christ] minister for ecumenical and interfaith relations. “I was in Canada last year and had some conversations with their [General Council] and ecumenical officers to talk about what we can do to be more intentional about working with each other.”

Thompson is making the trip April 3-4 to Toronto along with the United Church of Christ’s Collegium: the Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, general minister and president; W. Mark Clark, associate general minister; the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, executive minister for Local Church Ministries; the Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo, executive minister for Justice and Witness Ministries; and the Rev. James Moos, executive minister for Wider Church Ministries.
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While the Tim Hortons Brier is going on at the Credit Union Centre, a concurrent national curling event will take place at the Nutana Curling Club. That event is the Friars’ Briar, a bonspiel for clergy from all denominations and regions of Canada. The Friars’ Briar is national in theory, says Augustana Lutheran Pastor David
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There’s nothing more Catholic than ecumenism, nothing more Christian than unity, nothing more urgent than the need to heal divisions in the body of Christ, but none of it will happen based on resentments, fears and identity politics, the head of the World Council of Churches told a couple hundred people in Toronto March 14.

On his first official visit to Canada, Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit laid out challenges to ecumenism which he said oppose the Christian mandate to fulfill the Lord’s Prayer — “Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”

“We are forced to ask whether we are seeking a consensus for the sake of our own institution, for our tradition, for our own group,” said Tveit. “Or if we are seeking a consensus that is giving space for the other, for the wholeness of God’s Church and God’s creation.”
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[WCC News] “Christians are to acknowledge that changing one’s religion is a decisive step that must be accompanied by sufficient time for reflection and preparation, through a process ensuring full personal freedom.” This assertion is one of the guiding principles for Christian mission in India suggested in early March by a consultation convened under the
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The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has today revealed that he is to step down from his role at the end of the year. His decision comes after 10 years in the post and after accepting the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
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On Friday, March 16th, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a communiqué regarding the current status of relations with the traditionalist Catholic organization Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), founded by the late Archbishop Lefebvre. For some years now the CDF has been engaged in a consultation with the SSPX regarding a number of matters of dispute. The letter states that the position [the SSPX] expressed is not sufficient to overcome the doctrinal problems which lie at the foundation of the rift between the Holy See and the SSPX.
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“Unity” belongs to the concepts that should be constantly discussed. Life is changing, also the life of the churches and their life together. So are their understanding of unity, their challenges to unity and their contributions to it.

Images can stimulate our reflections, without saying everything or being exclusive, they can nurture our imagination and our ability to be creative. Images from nature can give us a sense of reality, and a deeper sense of how we are a part of a living reality. I have been reflecting on an image, actually a photo, that give me some new insights, deepening my reflections on this topic that I have been discussing and striving for during the last 20 years of study and work. The photo is of some lichen, growing in a circle, across the deep crevice in the rock on which they grow. It seems to be challenged by the split in the rock, but nevertheless grows across it. This striking image has encouraged me to look at unity as something of a double reality. It is growing life, yet still making a structure. It belongs to the essential nature of this lichen to grow in circles, to become part of a unity. I am told by my dear colleague from Tanzania that the same is true for banana trees, they also grow like families in circles. The photo taken just outside our small summer house at the coast of Norway last summer, is from a bare rock next to the sea on a small island, out in the big sea that unites Norway with the continent of Europe and further more with the whole globe. I wonder what images in Canadian nature might inspire you to these kinds of reflections.

Thus, I believe that «Unity» is a concept that requires complementary perspectives. I have brought my reflections together in 10 pairs of perspectives, describing unity, to offer you here for your consideration today.
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Remembering the common roots of the Christianity they share, Roman Catholics and Anglicans should renew their commitments to praying and working for Christian unity, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The Pope and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, held an evening prayer service March 10 at Rome’s Church of St. Gregory on the Caelian Hill, the church from which Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow monks to evangelize England in 597.

The service was part of celebrations marking the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the Camaldolese branch of the Benedictine order. Camaldoli monks and nuns live and pray at the Church of St. Gregory and have an active program of ecumenical contacts.
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CHICAGO (ELCA) – In gratitude for the “unity in Christ” between the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson shared with Pope Benedict XVI a sense of urgency between Lutherans and Catholics in responding to the “great needs of poverty and human care” in the world.
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The Board of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives is pleased to announce that Jennifer Henry has been appointed to be the new Executive Director of KAIROS, effective March 12, 2012.
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The fourth meeting of the Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission (AMICUM) took place near Baltimore, Maryland, 10-16 February 2012, hosted by the World Methodist Council, at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center. Members of the Commission worshipped together morning and evening, and the Eucharist was celebrated according to both traditions.

The Commission spent time considering the ministry of oversight in a way that honours the traditions of both world families. It paid careful attention to how Anglicans and Methodists have expressed the form and understanding of mission, episcopal ministry, and apostolicity.
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POSITION AVAILABLE: The Board of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism in Saskatoon invites applications for the half-time position of Director for the Centre. The Director is to innovate and implement programs, services and other undertakings in accordance with the vision and priorities of the Centre as outlined in the Constitution of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. The Director will address such priorities as developing resources, implementing programs, promoting ecumenism, being an ecumenical facilitator for the sponsoring and other churches and engaging in ecumenical dialogues.

The Director will have a theological formation in the Christian Faith with experience in and first-hand knowledge of ecumenism. The Director will have a combination of University Education and experience in related topics. The Director’s skill set will include interpersonal skills; written, oral and computer/electronic abilities; the ability to work with the Board on programs and operations and the ability to supervise staff.

For more information contact the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism at 306 653-1633 or at pce [at] ecumenism [dot] net. Resumes may also be sent to 600 – 45th Street West, Saskatoon, SK S7L 5W9.

Closing date for applications is Feb. 29, 2012
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Lutheran Bishop Johannes Friedrich has said that the Pope’s visit to the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt on his visit to Germany last year “cannot be rated highly enough”. The former Bishop of Bavaria was writing in the German Protestant monthly Chrismon about the papal visit to Germany’s Protestant heartland last year. The visit came amid
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Representatives of a broad range of Christian churches and organizations met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 14 to 19 January to complete a report and make recommendations for significant advances toward Christian unity and inter-religious cooperation.
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Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave Wednesday evening at Vespers on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. The celebration closed the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
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Jewish and Catholic leaders agree that much work lies ahead in accurately presenting the religious identity and practices of each other’s communities in their respective religious education textbooks.
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