he Bishop and Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire met today in response to the London meeting of the Primates from the 38 autonomous Provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion for prayer, bible study and discussion. We acknowledge and affirm the wisdom of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in their statement. We echo their affirmation that “what we hold in common is much greater than that which divides us in proclaiming Good News to the world.”

We commend their resolve to follow the 1998 Lambeth resolution calling for the Church to “listen to the experience of homosexual persons, and … to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.”
… Read more » … lire la suite »

At the final press conference at the end of the Primates’ Meeting yesterday, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA, gave the following statement:

“I’d certainly like to underscore the Archbishop’s point about it being a difficult but truthful meeting. I think one thing that became very clear early on is that we seek to embody and proclaim the Gospel in very different contexts and what may, in fact, be good news to a majority in one province may, in fact, be bad news somewhere else in the world. And here I think particularly of my own province, the United States in which a majority, though not the whole province, has wrestled with the whole question of homosexuality for at least the last 30 years and come to a sense that men and women whose affections are ordered to members of the same sex are faithful members of the church; are people with whom we share ministry; are people we in many instances ordain, which of course has led to the confirmation of the election of the Bishop Elect of New Hampshire, which has caused such a division and certainly been one of the major focuses of our meeting here. But I do think what binds us together is deeper than some of the things that divide us and certainly the whole question of human sexuality; more particularly homosexuality; is far from settled and as we continue to struggle together I think it’s also important, as the Archbishop said, that we keep our focus on the mission we share because there is so much in the world that cries out for our attention beyond issues of human sexuality.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

It is with great gratitude to God and appreciation to the people of the Anglican Communion and other churches that we greet you in the name of Jesus Christ.

As we met this week at Lambeth we experienced the power of the Holy Spirit moving among us. We are so grateful to God for hearing the prayers and cries of his praying people to preserve both the truth and the unity of the Anglican Communion. We urge continued prayer that the whole Anglican Communion may continue by God’s power to witness to the transforming love of Jesus for all people.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

As you will know, the Primates of the Anglican Communion met together at Lambeth Palace on 15 and 16 October in response to recent developments within the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. These developments included the election of a priest in a committed same sex relationship as a bishop, and the authorisation by one diocese in Canada of a public Rite of Blessing for Same Sex Unions. In their Statement at the end of the meeting, the Primates said four main things – (a) they committed themselves to working together in the Communion as far as possible, (b) they reaffirmed the teaching of the Anglican Communion on sexual ethics, (c) they acknowledged that recent developments will damage the Communion, and (d) they established a commission to take matters further.

… Read more » … lire la suite »

Good evening everyone. Thank you very much for joining us. I hope you’ve had a chance, at least, to glance at the statement which has been produced by our meeting which has, in fact, been unanimously agreed by the meeting of the primates. And I’d like to offer a few words of introduction to this before we turn to questions.

It has been a very remarkable couple of days in the life of the Anglican Communion and it has certainly been anything but easy. It has not been without pain. But it has been honest and open and I hope that we have grown in some real shared understanding as a result. And I do want to take this opportunity of paying tribute to my colleagues in the Communion for all the dedication and the energy and steadfastness in Christian service that they show generally and that they have shown in these two demanding days.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

The Primates of the Anglican Communion and the Moderators of the United Churches, meeting together at Lambeth Palace on the 15th and 16th October, 2003, wish to express our gratitude to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for calling us together in response to recent events in the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada, and the Episcopal Church (USA), and welcoming us into his home so that we might take counsel together, and to seek to discern, in an atmosphere of common prayer and worship, the will and guidance of the Holy Spirit for the common life of the thirty-eight provinces which constitute our Communion.

At a time of tension, we have struggled at great cost with the issues before us, but have also been renewed and strengthened in our Communion with one another through our worship and study of the Bible. This has led us into a deeper commitment to work together, and we affirm our pride in the Anglican inheritance of faith and order and our firm desire to remain part of a Communion, where what we hold in common is much greater than that which divides us in proclaiming Good News to the world.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Semaine de la justice réparatrice, novembre 16 à 23, 2003, Sentiers vers une Communauté renouvelée

Lorsque nous vaquons à nos activités quotidiennes, nous cherchons à emprunter des sentiers qui nous aideront à vivre en harmonie, parce que nous sommes convaincus que cela améliorera nos collectivités. Les relations sont au coeur de la justice réparatrice, et lorsque nous appliquons activement une approche réparatrice où les personnes en font partie et sont écoutées, nous permettons la compréhension, la guérison, la responsabilisation ainsi que le renouvellement de la communauté.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Restorative Justice Week, November 16-23, 2003, Pathways to a Strengthened Community

As we go about our daily lives, looking for the pathways that will help us live in harmony, we do so with the belief that our communities will be better places because of it. Relationships are at the heart of restorative justice, and when we actively use a restorative approach in which people are included and heard, there can be understanding, healing, accountability and a strengthened community.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Notre cheminement vers une communion plus visible entre chrétien(ne)s commence par l’intérêt que nous portons les uns pour les autres. Tout comme dans un bon voisinage, des liens se tissent par les moments d’écoute et d’échange; les petits signes d’intérêt au vécu de l’autre, les mots d’encouragement dans les moments difficiles ou la célébration commune des moments de joie sont à l’origine du sens de la communauté. Se rendre visite les uns aux autres est un geste significatif et symbolique, c’est une façon de montrer que l’autre nous est important et c’est aussi un premier pas vers la réconciliation des chrétien(ne)s.
Ainsi, une dizaine de paroisses dans l’ouest de l’île de Montréal ont développé un modèle pastoral intéressant, et en même temps très simple, pour honorer la Semaine de prière pour l’unité chrétienne. À un des deux dimanches qui encadrent la Semaine de prière, des petits groupes de visiteur(euse)s se rendent à la célébration d’une paroisse voisine, d’une autre dénomination que la leur. Un groupe de visiteur(euse)s d’une paroisse est constitué de deux à quatre personnes de tout âge, de préférence. Ces personnes sont des laïques, de simples paroissien(ne)s, qui acceptent volontiers d’aller rencontrer une autre communauté de foi et de célébrer avec elle. Ces personnes participent à la célébration dominicale de leurs hôtes et présentent, au cours de cette célébration, un mot de salutation de leur propre paroisse ainsi qu’une brève description de celle-ci. Elles font aussi référence à la Semaine de prière pour l’unité chrétienne et au thème qui a été choisi pour l’année en cours.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Our journey toward a more visible communion among Christians begins by our being genuinely interested in each other. As in any good neighbourhood, we grow closer together through listening and exchanging points of view; being interested in the experiences of others, offering words of encouragement in difficult times and rejoicing together in happy times are the starting points of a sense of community. Paying a visit to one another is a meaningful and symbolic gesture; it shows that the other is important to us and is also a first step toward Christian reconciliation.

With this in mind, ten churches in Montreal’s West Island developed an interesting and simple pastoral model for observing the Week of Prayer for Christianity Unity. On one of the Sundays during the Week of Prayer, small groups of visitors attend the prayer service in a neighbouring church of another denomination. A visiting group of any one church numbers from two to four persons, preferably of all ages. They are laypeople, members of the congregation who willingly accept to go and meet another Christian community and worship with them. They participate in the Sunday service of the host church and, during the service, offer a word of greeting from their own congregation and a brief description of their church. They also refer to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the theme chosen for the current year.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

In August 1974, the General Council of the United Church of Canada passed a resolution which invited the Roman Catholic Church in Canada to enter into conversations concerning Christian unity. The following month, the Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Catholic Conference responded to the invitation in a positive manner. In November 1975 the first dialogue meeting took place, which means that the dialogue has now been meeting for twenty-eight years!
… Read more » … lire la suite »

By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register 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
… Read more » … lire la suite »

«Je suis la vigne, vous êtes les sarments: celui qui demeure en moi et en qui je demeure, celui-là portera du fruit en abondance… Ce que je vous demande c’est de vous aimer les uns les autres.» (Jean 15, 5 et 17)

Bienvenue à notre nouveau site web intitulé «œcuménisme au Canada».

Ce site est développé conjointement par les deux centres au Canada qui s’occupent des relations interchrétiennes et interreligieuses, le Centre canadien d’œcuménisme et le Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. Il vise à montrer les fruits nombreux que portent les différentes Églises au Canada.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit… I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” (John 15:5 and 17)

Welcome to our new website entitled “Ecumenism in Canada.”

This site was developed jointly by the only two Canadian centres working in the area of interchurch and interfaith relations: the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, Saskatoon, and the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, Montreal. It aims to show the many fruits produced by the Christian Church in Canada.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Raiser outlines need for new configuration of ecumenical movement Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser re-affirmed the need for a new configuration of the ecumenical movement in his last report to the Central Committee as World Council of Churches‘ (WCC) general secretary. Emphasizing the need to move the whole Christian community to a renewed common witness in
… Read more » … lire la suite »

[ENI] The biggest-ever official gathering in Germany uniting Protestants and Roman Catholics ended June 1, in Berlin, with an ecumenical service attended by tens of thousands of people. But the sharing of the Eucharist or Holy Communion did not carry the approval of Pope John Paul II. “The Ecumenical Kirchentag [church congress] was a great
… Read more » … lire la suite »

SAVANNAH, Ga. (ELCA) — Members of the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network (LERN) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) held their annual meeting here May 12-15, during the National Workshop on Christian Unity. A leading topic of the meeting was how agreements the ELCA has reached with other church bodies can be “lived out”
… Read more » … lire la suite »

SAVANNAH, Ga. (ELCA) — The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), addressed the closing luncheon of the National Workshop on Christian Unity, which met here May 12-15. He expressed gratitude to those who work for Christian unity and named a series of “factors, forces and questions which
… Read more » … lire la suite »

I. When Jesus uttered the words ‘may they all be one’, they by no means represented a vision or a dream. Jesus said these words on the eve of his death. This was not the time for triumphal utopias. The Galilean spring, when the enthusiastic crowds overwhelmed him, was over. They no longer cried ‘Hosanna!’ but ‘Crucify him!’. Jesus was well aware of this, and predicted also that his disciples would not be one, and that they would be dispersed. What else could he do in this situation than to leave the future of his work in the hands of his Father? Thus, the words ‘may they all be one’ are a prayer, a prayer in a humanly perceived hopeless situation.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

VATICAN CITY, APR 2, 2003 (VIS) – Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke yesterday at the 2003 Substantive Session of the Disarmament Commission. That speech in English was made public today. Archbishop Migliore noted that “months ago, the Holy See Delegation stated before the
… Read more » … lire la suite »

LONDON, England (ELCA) — The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), expressed hope that the ELCA may one day enter into full communion with Anglican churches with whom other Lutheran churches are in full communion. Hanson made the comment to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, archbishop of
… Read more » … lire la suite »

VATICAN CITY (ELCA) — Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations must engage in a “reception” process for the agreement reached in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), and the document should be presented in terms that members can understand, said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian
… Read more » … lire la suite »

VATICAN CITY (ELCA) — The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), called for the possibility of “limited interim Eucharistic sharing” between Lutherans and Roman Catholics in a brief meeting here March 24 with Pope John Paul II. Currently, it is not possible for Lutherans to commune in
… Read more » … lire la suite »

A photo of Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, a devout Anglican, standing before a Roman Catholic archbishop to receive communion has prompted a renewed discussion in the two denominations over the issue of who may take communion in a Catholic church.

After the photo was published in January in the Ottawa Citizen, there was a flurry of letters to the newspaper over the issue. The story was widely covered across the country and the letters and coverage prompted a published response in the newspaper from Archbishop Marcel Gervais, Catholic archbishop of Ottawa.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

VATICAN CITY, MAR 4, 2003 (VIS) – After a preliminary meeting in Jerusalem on June 5, 2002, high ranking delegations of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel met in Grottaferrata near Rome, February 23-27, 2003, according to a joint communiqué made public yesterday afternoon
… Read more » … lire la suite »

[Toronto – February 18, 2003] The Anglican Church of Canada and The United Church of Canada have begun an ongoing dialogue. These are the first formal conversations between the two denominations since the end of the Plan of Union talks in the 1970s. The meeting took place February 13-16, 2003 at the Vancouver School of
… Read more » … lire la suite »

DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) — The Department for Ecumenical Affairs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was advised to continue current bilateral church dialogues, build on positive signs from recent meetings with officials of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and maintain funding for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The department’s advisory committee discussed those
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Jesus Christ, Bearer of Living Water: A Christian Reflection on the ‘New Age’, prepared by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue VATICAN CITY, FEB 3, 2003 (VIS) – Today in the Holy See Press Office there was a conference to present the document “Jesus Christ, Bearer of Living Water.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

A vision for the most inclusive Christian organization ever in the United States advanced dramatically when a diverse group of 46 national church leaders agreed Jan. 29, 2003, on a concrete proposal to take back to their church bodies for consideration.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

[SCOTLAND | ACNS 3257] The Scottish Church Initiative for Union (SCIFU) began its work in 1996 in the closing years of “the ecumenical century of the Christian Church” when Christians from different traditions – “often bitterly and even violently divided” – began to talk, work and witness together and even re-unite after long separation. SCIFU
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Les foyers interconfessionnels peuvent représenter un espoir et un modèle pour l’éventuelle unité visible de l’Église: c’est ce que déclare le Dialogue catholique-réformé aux États-Unis. Tout en croyant que c’est le cas, nous, les foyers interconfessionnels, tenons à souligner que nous n’avons pas choisi cette voie consciemment. Nous avons tout simplement rencontré quelqu’un d’une autre tradition chrétienne, l’amour est né et, en dépit des différences, nous avons décidé de conserver cet amour l’un pour l’autre, exclusivement, pour le reste de nos jours. Tout le reste découle de cette décision et de cet engagement permanents.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

“Interchurch families may present and model the hope for the eventual visible unity of the Church.” So says the Catholic / Reformed Dialogue in the United States. While we believe that to be the case, we interchurch couples insist we didn’t consciously choose this path. We simply met someone from another Christian tradition, fell in love and, despite the differences, decided to continue that love for each other, exclusively, for the rest of our lives. Everything else flowed from that ongoing decision and commitment.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

It’s almost always front-page news when a bishop says something obviously true. Dr George Carey has spent most of his time in office pretending he is the spiritual leader of 70 million people in the worldwide Anglican Communion (a figure that assumes about 24 million followers in England alone).

Now, in a final gesture towards his liberal successor, he has cited the obvious, that the Communion is deeply divided over homosexuality. It has, he says, reached “crisis point”.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

To virtually all the 70 million Anglicans spread in an arc from London to Kuala Lumpur, the name Capilano College has no significance. But, if the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury is to be believed, the college on the Pacific shores of Canada could soon be a name as infamous for religious schism as the Diet of Worms, the Edict of Nantes or the Council of Trent.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

A public feud has broken out between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the British Columbia bishop he accused of creating a worldwide schism in the Anglican Church by deciding to bless homosexual relationships.

Dr. George Carey, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, warned this week of a possible split in two over divisions caused by liberal-minded North American bishops. He specifically mentioned Michael Ingham, Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster, B.C., which includes Vancouver.

Bishop Ingham shot back, questioning the Archbishop’s ethics and accusing him of using his office to meddle in local affairs.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

The growing split between factions of the worldwide Anglican Communion has reached “crisis proportions” and the issue of homosexuality is tearing the church apart, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has said.

In his swansong address as president of the Anglican Consultative Council, Dr Carey also took a swipe at the Sydney Diocese for its drive to allow lay people to give Holy Communion.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

The issue of homosexuality could push the Anglican Church to the brink, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

Dr George Carey said divisions in the Church had reached “crisis” point.

In a farewell address as president of the Anglican Consultative Council, a senior church body, he warned of the danger of breakaway groups emerging.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

The retiring archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, yesterday warned of the risk of fragmentation in the 70 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion, of which he is the nominal leader, on the issue of homosexuality in the church.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

A flurry of new acronyms is appearing on the ecumenical stage: ACR (The Association for Church Renewal); CCT (Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A.); FCFONA (Foundation for a Conference on Faith and Order in North America); GCF (Global Christian Forum). All affect evangelicals.

These acronyms represent attempts to transcend and to some extent replace, redefine, or reconfigure the older acronyms of the NCC (National Council of Churches) and the WCC (World Council of Churches), the carriers of ecumenical vitalities and viruses during their last 50 years.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

If believers are to follow Jesus, they must work and pray for Christian unity. But unity means vastly different things, and some efforts toward unity are more faithful to the biblical vision than others.

In May of 2001, I went to Malaysia to attend the General Assembly of the World Evangelical Fellowship (since renamed the World Evangelical Alliance, or WEA). In December 1998 I attended the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Zimbabwe. What I saw in these very different meetings helps us think about cohesion and cooperation between Christians—about our participation in global, national, and even local efforts at “being one.”
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Last weekend, taking a brief respite between bouts of ‘Bread of Heaven’ and the national anthem in our exhaustive school end-of-term ceremonies, I dived into a paper and turned on the radio. Bad mistake. I was assaulted from two directions.

First, in a seemingly authoritative survey, a quarter of Church of England clergy and nearly one in five of the laity say that even now, eight years after the first women priests were ordained, there ‘should not be any women bishops, anywhere’. So the old horror of an oestrogenated ministry still lurks strongly within that Church, despite the shake-out when herds of outraged clergy and miffed laity defected to Rome over the issue (their worries about transubstantiation and papal infallibility strangely vanishing overnight in their greater worry about women in cassocks).
… Read more » … lire la suite »

VATICAN CITY, JUN 18, 2002 (VIS) – Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, is participating in a meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations dedicated to Information and Communication Technologies for Development which is taking place in New York from June 17 to 18. In his speech
… Read more » … lire la suite »

We are gathered here today in the spirit of peace for the good of all human beings and for the care of creation. At this moment in history, at the beginning of the third millennium, we are saddened to see the daily suffering of a great number of people from violence, starvation, poverty and disease. We are also concerned about the negative consequences for humanity and for all creation resulting from the degradation of some basic natural resources such as water, air and land, brought about by an economic and technological progress which does not recognize and take into account its limits.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

The celebrations of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee reached a high point this past week. The stunning success of the festivities shows that the British monarchy has climbed back into the affection of the people. What does it need to do to stay there? A Church of Scotland minister looks particularly at the monarch’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Amsterdam – May 23, 2002: Delegates of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches met with representatives and leaders of some classical Pentecostal churches in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 16-23, 2002. This meeting started what is expected to be the second cycle of dialogue to which both groups have committed themselves in order to build upon areas of common faith and witness while seeking to overcome tensions in other aspects of church life. The report of the first round was published under the title “Word and Spirit, Church and World”, the theme of this cycle is “Experience in Christian Faith and Life”.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

“Hope, Good Will” Mark Exploration of Broader Christian Unity, Lead to Formation of Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. “A good deal of hope and common good will” mark explorations by church leaders of a broader expression of Christian unity in the United States, reported National Council of Churches President Elenie Huszagh to the NCC’s
… Read more » … lire la suite »

The first meeting of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC), held in Lausanne on 3 August 1927, had very high hopes. Participants believed that the goal of visible unity of the churches was really attainable.

The preacher at the time, Bishop Charles Brent of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the US, reminded the representatives of the churches of Christ’s hope “that they might all be one”.
… Read more » … lire la suite »

“Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind….” (Acts 2:2; NRSV) Holy Scripture depicts in simple language the event of the first Pentecost in the life of Christ’s Church: “After his suffering Jesus presented himself alive to the apostles by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days
… Read more » … lire la suite »

Too many Young Theologians in Iceland REYKJAVIK, Iceland/GENEVA (LWI) – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (ELCI) may be ready to serve Anglicans in Britain and Ireland as needed, because of an oversupply of young theologians. Rev. Dr. Sigurdur Ami Thordarson of Reykjavik, who heads ELCI’s Division for Theologv and Society and serves as a
… Read more » … lire la suite »

ROSEMONT, Ill. (ELCA) — The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop and chief ecumenical officer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), gathered staff of the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs and 15 advisors here Feb. 8-9 to discuss the church’s ecumenical priorities for the next 10 years. Hanson began a six-year term as
… Read more » … lire la suite »