The theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches has reached a point where it seems appropriate to consider expanding the opportunities for the faithful of any of the churches to receive the sacraments from one another when they are not available in their own community, Pope Francis said.

“Based on the theological consensus noted by your commission, would it not be possible to extend and multiply such pastoral arrangements, especially in contexts where our faithful are in minority and diaspora situations?” the pope asked members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

Welcoming the commission members June 23, Francis said that “ecumenism always has a pastoral character” and is not simply about theological ideas.

“Among our churches, which share apostolic succession, the broad consensus revealed by your commission not only about baptism, but also other sacraments, should encourage us to deepen a ‘pastoral ecumenism,'” he said.
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Accepting the document, Pope Francis denounced surging anti-Semitism and stressed the importance of “recalling history so it can be of service to the future.”

A 30-member Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) international delegation met with Pope Francis on Wednesday to present a facsimile of an original report authored and signed by Adolf Hitler in which he openly espouses the destruction of the Jewish people by “a government of national strength.”

The facsimile, whose original is displayed at the SWC’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, was presented to His Holiness by SWC founder and CEO Rabbi Marvin Hier and Dawn Arnall, chairwoman of the leading NGO for Jewish human rights.

In Rabbi Hier’s remarks to Pope Francis, the Jewish leader first enumerated the horrific statistics on both sides of the Atlantic, which confirm surging anti-Semitism, including violent hate crimes.

In Pope Francis’ remarks, he responded by thanking the Simon Wiesenthal Center for protecting the memory of the past. Rabbi Hier then spoke about the human rights organization’s namesake, Holocaust survivor turned Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, and how he would react to current events.
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Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay was elected as the new general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

He is the eighth general secretary in the WCC’s history since the fellowship of churches was founded in 1948.

Pillay is currently dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria. A member of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, he is from South Africa.

Pillay was one of two candidates standing for election to the WCC’s highest administrative post. The other candidate was Dr Elizabeth Joy. Pillay will replace outgoing acting general secretary Rev. Prof Dr Ioan Sauca, who began serving in that position in April 2020, when the previous general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, was appointed as the presiding bishop of the Church of Norway.
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Le pasteur Jerry Pillay a été élu secrétaire général du ConseiConseil œcuménique des Églisesclass=’c2c-text-hover’ title=’Conseil oecuméniques des églises’>COE).

Il est le huitième secrétaire général de l’histoire du COE depuis la création de la communauté fraternelle d’Églises en 1948.

Le pasteur Pillay exerce actuellement les fonctions de doyen de la Faculté de théologie et de religion de l’Université de Pretoria. Originaire d’Afrique du Sud, il est membre de l’Église presbytérienne unifiante d’Afrique australe.

Le pasteur Pillay était l’un des deux finalistes à l’élection aux plus hautes fonctions administratives du COE, pour laquelle il était opposé à Mme Elizabeth Joy. Il remplacera le secrétaire général par intérim sortant, le père Ioan Sauca, qui était entré en fonctions en avril 2020, lorsque le secrétaire général précédent, le pasteur Olav Fykse Tveit, avait été nommé primat de l’Église de Norvège.
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A South Sudanese bishop who was forced with his family into exile before he was one year old, the Right Revd Anthony Poggo, has been named as the next Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. Bishop Anthony Poggo, the former Bishop of Kajo-Keji in the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, is currently the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Adviser on Anglican Communion Affairs.

Bishop Anthony was selected for his new role by a sub-committee of the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee following a competitive recruitment process led by external consultants.

He will take up his new role in September, succeeding the Most Revd Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, who steps down after next month’s Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, which is being held in Canterbury, Kent, from 26 July to 8 August.

The Anglican Communion is the world’s third largest Christian denomination. It comprises 42 independent-yet-interdependent autonomous regional, national and pan-national Churches (provinces), active in more than 165 countries.
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Growing up on Lac Ste. Anne in the 1940s and ’50s, Tony Belcourt remembers a rich and wondrous body of water, teeming with life.

“I go back to the ’40s. We had an abundance of fish, whitefish from the lake. The water was up,” said Belcourt, the former broadcaster and one-time president and CEO of the Metis Nation of Ontario.

When Pope Francis visits the lake this summer, he will be looking at a lake very different from the Lac Ste. Anne of Belcourt’s childhood memories. A 2017 report on the state of Lac Ste. Anne and its sister Isle Lake by the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance raises concerns about blue-green algae blooms, dropping lake levels, agricultural run-off and an environment stressed by power boats and recreation on the lake.

The report names at-risk species for the watershed, including peregrine falcons, western grebe and northern leopard frog, which are classed as “threatened,” and barred owls, black-throated green warbler and trumpeter swans as of “special concern.”
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The Vatican’s press office announced today that because of continuing problems with his knee, the Pope has postponed his planned African trip scheduled for July 2-7.

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Canada July 24-29. Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican Press Office, did not mention whether that trip is still set. Either way, plans are still being made for papal visit to Canada.

“At this time, we continue to move forward with our planning,” said Neil MacCarthy, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops communications lead on the papal trip.

Among the plans is ensuring plenty of rest for the Pope.

“Great care is being taken to provide significant periods of rest for the Holy Father,” he said. “And also to ensure his participation at events is for a limited period of time.”

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The joint publication, “Called to Transformation – Ecumenical Diakonia,” available online from now on, offers resources to strengthen the diaconal capacity of the churches and to advance the cooperation with specialized ministries.

“Writing of this document was a recommendation of the Malawi consultation in September 2014, when churches and specialized ministries’ representatives from all the continents gathered to reflect on the work they are supposed to do together,” said Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC deputy general secretary, presenting the publication.

Besides adding the geographic and confessional contexts of practicing diakonia, the study document also addresses the diaconal response to COVID-19 pandemic, including examples of diaconal ministry from every continent.

“With this publication, we now have a common understanding on diakonia – and that should take churches and their partners toward the next level of ecumenical cooperation in diakonia,” said Phiri, adding that after receiving the document in 2022, the WCC central committee has recommended that churches and specialized ministries all over the world use it.
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Dani Dayan, head of the Holocaust center in Jerusalem, describes Pope Francis as a friend and an ally in the mission to defeat antisemitism. Pope Francis met with the chairman of the Yad Vashem (World Holocaust Remembrance Center) and the two discussed ways to prevent antisemitism and increase cooperation on Holocaust education. Dani Dayan, the head of the center in Jerusalem, described Pope Francis as a friend and an ally in the mission to defeat antisemitism. Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, is universally recognized as the ultimate source for Holocaust education, documentation and research.

The meeting that took place on June 9 was also attended by Rafi Schutz, Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See. Pope Francis and Dayan both share Buenos Aires as their birthplace and were able to converse in their native Spanish. The discussion focused on ongoing collaborative efforts by Yad Vashem and the Catholic Church on “Holocaust remembrance, education and documentation, and to discuss efforts to fight antisemitism and racism worldwide,” Yad Vashem said in a statement.
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As the World Council of Churches’ first substantial digital publication and its largest free collection, the Faith and Order Papers open a new frontier for scholars, ecumenists, and anyone interested in traversing the twists and turns of the path towards Christian unity.

“This is a digital library of more than one century of ecumenical theology,” explained Rev. Dr Odair Pedroso Mateus, WCC interim deputy general secretary and director of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order. “By ‘ecumenical theology,’ I mean theology focused on overcoming divisions among Christian churches.”

In fact, Pedroso Mateus added, it’s a library of ecumenical theology “in the making” because it documents not only the theological results of studies and conferences, but also the processes whereby studies of conferences were conceived, implemented and concluded.
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The Board of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism has named their new Executive Director. Mary Nordick, Board Chairperson writes:

“The Board of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism is pleased to announce Cathryn Wood’s promotion to Executive Director. Cathryn’s leadership skills have been demonstrated internally with her work with the Board on strategic planning and stabilizing the Centre financially. Her effective presence representing the PCE as an ecumenical community partner has helped to steer the Centre through the pandemic challenge. We look forward to her high-level development of approaches and partnerships as together we serve the prairie provinces in ecumenical leadership and support.

Cathryn Wood has been on staff at the Centre since 2015 as the Program Coordinator and is happy to be in this new role! She lives in Saskatoon with her husband, Chris and has four daughters Katie (Jarret), Emma, Laura, and Jessie. She is also the music director at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Saskatoon.
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I can still remember my shock and dismay upon hearing that Jean Vanier, someone whose talks and writings influenced my thinking on Christian community, had been sexuality inappropriate and L’Arche, the organization he founded in 1964 for people with intellectual disabilities, was being transparent in acknowledging the damage this had caused and would continue to cause.
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The visit to Canada by the Archbishop of Canterbury and meetings with Indigenous groups in Saskatchewan (See “‘Apologies are cheap … unless accompanied by action’”) were significant and vital steps on our path to healing. We thank him for his apology and for accompanying us briefly on our journey. But we do hope that he also recognized that Indigenous Anglicans have embarked on our own journey of self-healing. We are exercising our right to self-determination within the Anglican Church of Canada through the building of the Indigenous Anglican church, Sacred Circle. Building a new church in our own image is fueled by the tragic mistakes of the past. This self-governing assembly of Indigenous Anglicans is focused on healing, reconciliation and spiritual and cultural recovery and practice.

Regretfully, Canadian media failed to report on this aspect of our story; it is not even mentioned, for example, in an April 22 Globe and Mail column by Tanya Talaga, a journalist who frequently covers Indigenous affairs.

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At the invitation of the churches in Germany, Alsace–Lorraine, and Switzerland, the World Council of Churches (WCC) will hold its 11th General Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, from August 31 to September 8, 2022. Usually held every eight years, this assembly comes after a year’s delay because of the COVID pandemic which has taken many lives and highlighted the profound inequalities that exist in contemporary society. Bringing together more than 4000 participants from all over the world, a WCC Assembly is a special event in the lives of its 350 member churches, ecumenical partners, and other churches. With a membership including most of the world’s Orthodox churches, scores of Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and Reformed churches as well as many charismatic, independent, united, and uniting churches, a WCC Assembly is the most diverse Christian gathering of its size in the world. It is a unique opportunity for the churches to deepen their commitment to visible unity and common witness.
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The [Anglican] Church in Wales has called on the World Council of Churches (WCC) to distance itself from any members which have shown support for Russia’s “unprovoked war of aggression” in Ukraine, namely the Russian Orthodox Church.

An emergency motion passed unanimously last month at the Church in Wales’ Governing Body in Newport last week urged the WCC to stand with the oppressed and work for peace, and to take “clear and appropriate action” against any member which supported the war.
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Evidence is mounting that assisted suicide’s introduction into the Canadian medical system is not only undermining governments’ oft-stated plans to improve palliative care but is actively damaging the country’s already inadequate palliative care system. Some patients are choosing to die rather than to continue to live without adequate palliative care.

Dr. Neil Hilliard, a palliative care expert from Abbotsford, British Columbia, said health facilities’ introduction of assisted suicide into palliative care wards and hospices, following legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in June 2016, has led to a reduction in true palliative cares services.

“It’s like a cancer growing within the palliative care programs,” said Hilliard who, in 2017, resigned as medical director of the Fraser Health Authority’s palliative care program because of his opposition to the authority’s insistence that he support the performing of assisted suicide in hospices.

“(MAiD) is starting to take over to a certain degree. But still only 5% of people are choosing MAiD; 95% would prefer to live well until they die naturally.”
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With the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly less than four months away, anticipation for the historic gathering of faith and fellowship is growing. The foundation for the assembly—including the business aspects, spiritual life, or open dialogue—is the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” The assembly is also rooted in common faith as a gathering of the fellowship of churches that confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour. All of this will occur amid today’s stark global realities: wars and conflicts, COVID-19, the climate emergency, racism, authoritarian politics, digitization, militarization. As the world cries for hope, the WCC 11th Assembly promises to bring a multi-faith approach.
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Pope Francis said on Friday that members of the Anglican Communion are “valued travelling companions” as Catholics take part in a worldwide synodal process.

Speaking to the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Dialogue Commission (ARCIC) on May 13, the pope said he hoped that Anglicans would contribute to the two-year initiative leading to the Synod on Synodality in Rome in 2023.

He said: “As you know, the Catholic Church has inaugurated a synodal process: for this common journey to be truly such, the contribution of the Anglican Communion cannot be lacking. We look upon you as valued travelling companions.”

The 85-year-old pope noted that in July he is due to travel to South Sudan with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Communion.

The pope, who has been making his public appearances in a wheelchair since May 5 due to a torn ligament in his right knee, said: “As part of this concrete journey, I wish to recommend to your prayers an important step. Archbishop Justin Welby and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, two dear brothers, will be my travelling companions when, in a few weeks’ time, we will at last be able to travel to South Sudan.”
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The Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada (ARC Canada) has been meeting regularly for 50 years, with a mandate to serve the cause of visible Christianity unity and common witness between the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. Having continued the Dialogue online from 2020-2021, members rejoiced to be able to convene in person on May 2-5 at the Manoir D’Youville in Châteauguay, QC.

These days were the source of a renewed beginning in several ways: ARC Canada welcomed a few new members into its ranks, continuing a long tradition of gifted and dedicated ecumenical leaders who have contributed to its work over the decades. A new proposed terms of reference was reviewed that would, among other things, expand the participation of representatives from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) from a role as observers to full membership, as full communion partners within the ACC delegation. There was also a chance to engage with recent discussions of synodality in the Roman Catholic Church, and to review aspects of some of the latest ecumenical study on the subject of Anglican ordinations.
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The governing body of Mennonite Church Canada has decided to end the full-time Indigenous-Settler Relations (ISR) position held by Steve Heinrichs and replace it with a new half-time position.

Heinrichs’s 10-plus notable years with MC Canada are over.

At the same time, MC Canada will add a half-time climate action position and a half-time associate executive minister position. The decisions were made at the April 9 to 10 meeting of the Joint Council.

The MC Canada release states that Heinrichs will not be filling the new half-time ISR position. MC Canada executive minister Doug Klassen says policies prevent him for disclosing whether Heinrichs was offered the half-time position. Heinrichs is similarly limited in what he can say.

That said, his preference would have been to continue in the role he had. Heinrichs was not involved in the April 9-10 decision. The cutback was effective immediately, although Heinrichs has offered to remain for a short time, to assist with transition and to wrap up projects. Klassen hopes to have the half-time position filled in the fall.
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A special service to mark the eighth centenary anniversary of the Synod of Oxford aims to encourage Christians to reject contemporary forms of anti-Judaism and antisemitism. The Church of England has issued an apology to the Jewish community over laws that were passed 800 years ago which paved the way for the expulsion of Jews from England for hundreds of years. A special service held on Sunday at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford for the eighth centenary anniversary of the Synod of Oxford saw the presence of civic dignitaries and religious leaders, including Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis and representatives of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The 1222 Synod of Oxford passed laws that forbade social interactions between Jews and Christians, placed a specific tithe on Jews and required them to wear an identifying badge. The Jews were also banned from some professions and from building new synagogues. Other harsher restrictions against the Jews followed over the years that eventually led to the mass expulsion of approximately 3,000 Jews at the time, by an edict in 1290 by King Edward I. More than 360 years passed before Jews were readmitted to England by Oliver Cromwell in 1656.
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During the month of Ramadan, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) sent an open letter to the Muslim community in the United States. Acknowledging the conjunction of Christian and Muslim holy days in April, the ELCA Church Council unanimously adopted “A Declaration of the ELCA to the Muslim Community” (2022). The Declaration affirms the ELCA’s “friendship and solidarity with Muslims, nurtured over time through meaningful cooperation, dialogue, and common action.”

Kathryn M. Lohre, ELCA Executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations & Theological Discernment, explained that “This latest declaration stands alongside ‘A Declaration of the ELCA to the Jewish Community‘ and as a concrete expression of ‘A Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment.’ More than a corpus of statements, these declarations remind us of who we are in relationship to our neighbours, and who we strive to be. Grounded in real relationships, they are more than aspirational; grounded in reality, they reflect commitments not yet fully realized.”

The ELCA also plans to publish new resources to support these inter-religious efforts, including a preaching guide that affirms the ELCA’s commitments to Jewish relations and a set of pastoral guidelines for ministry in a multi-religious world.
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When Geronimo Henry stood up to speak at a May 3 meeting between Indigenous community leaders, residential school survivors and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in Toronto, he told the story of his 11 years in the Mohawk Institute residential school near Brantford, Ont.

He told those gathered how he and other children had been locked in an empty “playroom” for hours at a time, gazing out the single window and wishing to see his mother drive up the laneway to bring him home.

He told them about when the city of Brantford built a dump out behind the school and he and the other boys would sneak out to rifle through it for food to supplement the school’s paltry fare.

And he told them that when Stephen Harper’s government issued an official apology for the residential school system in 2008, he used to take a printed copy with him to speaking engagements at universities so that when someone asked what he thought of the apology, he could take it out and rip it up.

“Why did it take the churches and the government so long to bring out this apology? Don’t they know the schools closed in 1970?” asked Henry. “That’s when they should have come and gathered us all up and said they were sorry. But they never.”

Canada’s Indian residential schools began to close in earnest after 1969 when the partnership between the federal government and the churches that had run them dissolved. The Mohawk Institute closed in 1970.
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When I first encountered interchurch families in my early ecumenical work, I had no idea that I would eventually marry someone from another church and become an interchurch family. I am now married to the Rev. Amanda Currie, a Presbyterian minister. Yet, at the time, I had little experience with theological or pastoral questions of marriage and family and no clue about how these would be significant in ecumenical relations in Canada.

Various surveys of Canadian dioceses since the 1980s have confirmed that 60% or more of marriages in Catholic parishes are what we used to call “mixed marriages”. This catch-all term includes marriages of a Catholic with anyone who is not Catholic, including other Christians, people of various other religions, and people with nominal or no religion. Most couples come to marriage with differing religious experiences or commitment levels, so most churches have historically cautioned against “inter-marriage” on practical grounds and sometimes with rather peculiar preconceptions about the other.
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News of former National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald’s resignation due to sexual misconduct allegations has shocked many in the church, with Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders describing both emotional and practical challenges in coming to terms with it.

MacDonald resigned as national Indigenous archbishop and formally relinquished his exercise of ordained ministry April 20 following allegations of sexual misconduct.

In a pastoral letter to the church, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said MacDonald had acknowledged the sexual misconduct. His resignation took effect in accordance with Canon XIX on Relinquishment or Abandonment of the Ministry. The primate confirmed to the Anglican Journal that there are no allegations of criminal offences.

“This is devastating news,” Nicholls said in her pastoral letter. “The sense of betrayal is deep and profound when leaders fail to live up to the standards we expect and the boundaries we set. Our hearts hold compassion for human frailty and space for repentance while we also ache with the pain that such betrayal causes first to the complainant; then to so many others and to the life of our Church.”
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The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) have issued a joint press release announcing the online publication of the report of the Fifth Phase of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity. The report is entitled Baptism and Growth in Communion. The new document, which has been in preparation for the past seven years, includes important impulses for ongoing theological and ecclesiological discussion and makes “a significant step in proposing a differentiating consensus on baptism.”

The report seeks to find a language for the ecclesial dimensions of growth in communion. It concludes with six commitments setting out a road map for the ongoing dialogue and for the growing cooperation at all levels between Lutherans and Catholics. It highlights particular events over recent years that have contributed to the journey ‘from conflict to communion’, notably the joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Lund, Sweden, the Declaration of Intent endorsing fuller collaboration between the LWF’s World Service arm and the Caritas Internationalis network, as well as local initiatives such as the visit of Pope Francis to the Lutheran parish in Rome in 2015.
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The Council of General Synod (CoGS) has committed itself to improving the church’s practices in a range of areas including sexual abuse and journalistic governance in the wake of public allegations that senior church management failed to protect the identities of victims of alleged sexual assault by sharing last year an early draft of an article for an Anglican Journal sister publication.
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In more than one of our One Body articles, my fellow bloggers and I have emphasized the importance of deep, prayerful, heartfelt listening as essential to ecumenical ministry and engagement.

Such listening orients us to the voices of sisters and brothers from other churches and ecclesial communities; it invites us to consider the real (not our perceived or imagined) situation of their lives and calls us to be attentive to the ways in which the Lord may be speaking and working through them, for our sake (and theirs), and for the sake of the world.
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The founding documents for Sacred Circle, the self-determining Indigenous church within the Anglican Church of Canada, have been revealed to the world.

On Feb. 27, Transfiguration Sunday, The Covenant and Our Way of Life were publicly released. Both documents had been distributed earlier to participants of the last two Sacred Circle gatherings, as well as to Anglican Indigenous networks and the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops.
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The timeline for a full communion partnership between The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church remains on hold as the latter has postponed its quadrennial General Conference until 2024, when it will consider a vote to split the 12.9 million-member denomination over disagreements on the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ members.
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For the first time in almost 500 years, a Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated in Geneva’s Protestant St. Pierre Cathedral, with people praying in packed pews.

It was a celebration of Christian unity in a world reeling at the war and the growing humanitarian needs in Ukraine.

Some 1,500 people attended the Mass on March 5 at the imposing cathedral in the heart of Geneva’s old town that had been a Catholic church before the 1536 Reformation.
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A recent blog by Nick Jesson identifies “six signs of an ecumenical springtime” as a cause for renewed hope in the search for Christian unity. Not mentioned by Nick but perhaps a seventh sign of an ecumenical springtime is a growing appreciation for Saint John Paul II’s reference to dialogue as an ecumenical gift exchange. Pope Francis offers clear encouragement: “If we really believe in the abundantly free working of Holy Spirit, we can learn so much from one another!” (Evangelii Gaudium 246). With this in mind, the Catholic Ecumenical Officers of Western Canada saw Pope Francis’ invitation to the whole church, Catholic and ecumenical, to reflect together on synodality as an invitation to host an ecumenical panel on the topic.
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When Wiarton Willie or his furry cousins poke their heads out to see if spring has come, there is just one sign that counts. Does he see his shadow? Of course, it’s all just fun; there is no causal relationship between a cloudy sky on February 2nd and an early spring. It is a lot more complicated when it comes to the signs of an ecumenical springtime, but there is much more cause for hope.

Since the mid-1980s, it has become commonplace to forecast an ecumenical winter in contrast to the enthusiasm of the 1960s and 70s. After the early achievements of post-Vatican II ecumenism, with key agreements on the Eucharist, ministry, authority, and various other controverted questions, progress slowed as ecumenists took up questions of ecclesiology, authority, and ethics. Yet after every winter comes spring. This blog post will explore six signs of an ecumenical springtime.
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As in previous years, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity L’Osservatore Romano published a series of articles prepared by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on the ecumenical relations of the Holy See. The texts, which are published in Italian, offer an update on the ecumenical situation and on initiatives undertaken in 2021.
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As Christians come together to mark the annual ecumenical Week of Prayer, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), Bishop Brian Farrell, says Pope Francis’ synodal process could make a “hugely important” contribution to improving relationships between the different churches.
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For Christians following the Byzantine lectionary, these words from the Gospel of Matthew are read on Christmas day. Indeed, for us Eastern Catholics who follow the Julian calendar, we heard those words just last week! While most of our neighbours have already finished their Christmas celebrations and moved past Epiphany, for some of us the party is just getting started. The accounting of the journey of the wise men provides lessons for us Christians: we see how Herod and the religious establishment wanted to harm the newborn King of Kings, while those who worshipped stars were among the first to recognize the coming of the Christ.

This year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25) has taken these same words from the Gospel of Matthew and incorporated them as its theme. It is a reminder for us in the West to look towards the ancestral Churches of the East in solidarity. Many of the faithful of these Churches today experience political, economic, and social turmoil in their everyday lives. Unity is needed more than ever.
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The Canadian Council of Churches, Amnesty International and the Canadian Council for Refugees are headed to the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of refugee families who want a legal way to apply for asylum at Canada’s land borders. After twice winning in Federal Court only to see those decisions reversed in the Federal Court of Appeal, this is the first time the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments about the constitutional validity of Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) with the United States. Under the agreement, persons seeking refugee status must make their claim in the first country in which they arrive. It has been in place since 2004. A definitive ruling is necessary to clarify a system that forces would-be refugees to cross into Canada illegally at unofficial border crossings like Roxham Road south of Montreal at the Quebec-New York border, said Detroit Mercy University law professor Alex Vernon.

“Most refugees’ first experience of Canada is either to be summarily denied protection and excluded if they go to a (legal) port of entry without an exception to the STCA or to be forced to be ‘law breakers’ and arrested and processed upon entry at Roxham Road,” said Vernon, who runs Detroit Mercy’s immigration law clinic and regularly takes students to Roxham Road for real life experience of practising law on the border. “This is not in keeping with Canada’s international obligations, with constitutional rights of people on Canadian soil, nor with the dignity due to human beings — particularly human beings in distress.” The latest court loss for the refugee advocates at the CCC, AI and CCR came in April. The appeal court’s decision was based “not on substantive grounds, but on the basis of how the arguments were framed,” said a press release from the Canadian Council for Refugees.
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A group of Catholic and Anglican theologians has publicly called on the Vatican to review and overturn a papal document from 1896 that declared Anglican ordinations “absolutely null and utterly void.” “Where we once walked apart, we now walk together in friendship and love,” wrote members of the Malines Conversations Group after tracing the history of ecumenical agreements between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion and, especially, reviewing examples of collaboration and gestures of recognition.

The judgment made by Pope Leo XIII in his apostolic letter “Apostolicae Curae” in 1896 “does not accord with the reality into which the Spirit has led us now,” said members of the group, which is an informal Catholic-Anglican dialogue that began in 2013. Members of the group, who are not appointed to represent their churches but keep their respective ecumenical offices informed of their studies and discussions, presented their document Dec. 15 at Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. The 27-page document is titled, “Sorores in Spe — Sisters in Hope of the Resurrection: A Fresh Response to the Condemnation of Anglican Orders.”
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In his homily at the Mass to open the two-year synod on synodality, Pope Francis reflected on the meeting recorded in the Gospel of Mark between Jesus and a rich man who asks him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10.17-22) In this encounter, Pope Francis identifies Jesus as one who listens “with his heart and not just with his ears.”
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The final report on conversations between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the International Lutheran Council (ILC) has now been released.

The five-year informal dialogue began in 2014 when a working group was organized by the PCPCU and the ILC. In this final report, the results of the dialogue are presented to Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the PCPCU and Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt, Chairman of the ILC.
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In a joint letter of 28 October 2021, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Mario Grech, General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, addressed the Bishops responsible for ecumenism in their Episcopal Conferences and Synods of the Oriental Catholic Churches.

In the letter, the two Cardinals offer practical suggestions aimed at implementing the ecumenical dimension of the synodal process in Dioceses, Episcopal Conferences, and Synods.
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Dans une lettre conjointe datée du 28 octobre 2021, le Cardinal Kurt Koch, Président du Conseil pontifical pour la promotion de l’unité des chrétiens, et le Cardinal Mario Grech, Secrétaire général du Synode des évêques, se sont adressés aux évêques responsables de l’œcuménisme des Conférences épiscopales et des Synodes des Églises orientales catholiques.

Par cette lettre, les deux cardinaux entendent offrir quelques suggestions pratiques pour assurer la dimension œcuménique du processus synodal dans les diocèses et les Conférences épiscopales et les Synodes des Églises orientales catholiques.
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On November 16, 2021, the Canadian Anglican–Roman Catholic Dialogue (ARC–Canada) marks its 50th anniversary. In an increasingly divided world where relationships are more often defined by conflict than cooperation, this is indeed an occasion to celebrate! An ongoing dialogue where words are used not to dominate or control but to seek understanding is a critical counter-cultural witness in today’s world. In addition to celebration, a 50th anniversary is an invitation to reflect on the past and to consider what may be learned for the future.
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A church wants to receive a Christian who was baptised in a different church. A woman wants to marry someone from another faith tradition. A child is growing up in an inter-church family.

These real-life situations are evidence that thinking about mutual recognition of baptism shouldn’t be relegated solely to lecture halls in theological institutions. Recognising that mutual recognition of baptism — and the obstacles toward it — is an issue that affects the daily lives of countless Christians across Europe and beyond. The Conference of European Churches (CEC), through its Thematic Group on Ecclesiology and Mission, has initiated a study process to explore this topic.

The study seeks to identify agreements concerning baptism within CEC Member Churches, and explore official guidelines with regard to the reception of Christians moving from one church to another, recognition of and pastoral care for inter-church families, and Christian initiation, religious education, and pastoral care of children raised in inter-church families.
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Global religious leaders and leading scientists issued a joint statement on 4 October calling on the international community to raise their ambition and step up their climate action ahead of COP26.

Almost 40 faith leaders signed the joint appeal, which was presented by Pope Francis.

Signatories included World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, along with representatives from across the Christian denominations, Sunni and Shi’a Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.

The appeal calls for the world to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible, and to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
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Synod comes from the Greek syn and odos (meaning “with” and “path”) and refers to a way of living or working together. My favourite biblical passage for synodality is that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, where Cleopas and his companion are joined by the resurrected Jesus, who walks with them and explains the scriptures to them. The biblical passage ends with a meal in which they finally recognize him in the breaking of the bread. Synodality is about walking together in a shared search for Christ in scripture, prayer, and common life.
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As any long-standing married couple will tell you, living relationships are changing relationships. So after some 55 years of bilateral dialogue, it’s not surprising to see that the Anglican–Roman Catholic international dialogue (ARCIC) has adopted a new approach. Where the first two phases of the dialogue, ARCIC I and II, sought to identify points of agreement, ARCIC III has focused on mutual support and possibilities for learning from one another through use of a methodology called receptive ecumenism. Its first agreed statement, Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be the Church – Local, Regional, Universal (WTW), was published in 2017.
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) met on 25 August in Geneva to explore and discuss possible areas of future cooperation.

The two organizations shared current plans and discussed possibilities for closer collaboration on thematic areas such as advocacy and peace building, the climate emergency, and membership matters.

The WEA is a network of churches in 143 nations that have joined to give a worldwide identity, voice and platform to more than 600 million evangelical Christians.

The WEA has six programmatic departments: Global Advocacy, Global Theology, Global Witness, Alliance Engagement, Church Engagement, and Public Engagement.
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Like many Canadians, I really like to garden. There’s something about mucking around in the dirt, planting seeds and tending plants, that restores the soul after a long winter or even just at the end of a busy work week. And how rewarding it feels to see your own flowers in bloom or to harvest tasty vegetables from your own garden plot. It represents the fruits, literally, of a lot of hard work, from clearing and tilling soil, to watering and weeding, to pruning and fending off critters – all for the joy of tasting your own tomatoes or savouring the blissful fragrance of your own roses in bloom.
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