ACSC will “resource the whole Anglican Communion for courageous and confident spiritual leadership in issues involving science.” A new Anglican Communion Science Commission (ACSC) is being formed to “resource the whole Anglican Communion for courageous and confident spiritual leadership in issues involving science.” The ACSC will be co-chaired by the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba; and the Bishop of Oxford, Stephen Croft. The ACSC will formally launch at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, in July and August next year; and will hold its first conference shortly afterwards.

Scientists, theologians, and bishops from around the globe are being invited by the Anglican Communion’s Secretary General, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, to serve as Commissioners. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has asked Anglican Communion Primates to nominate a Bishop from their Church to serve as provincial representatives at conferences of the Commission. Science will be a significant feature at the 2022 Lambeth Conference. Today, organisers have posted a series of videos, exploring the relationship between science and faith, on the Lambeth Conference website.
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A webinar on how churches make moral decisions—and what causes divisions—brought a lively discussion attended online by more than 100 people on 29 April.

Basing their remarks on a World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission publication, “Churches and Moral Discernment. Volume 1: Learning from Traditions,” the speakers shared insights from very different church perspectives.

As the foreword of the publication says, “The hope is that necessary prerequisites are fulfilled, allowing for constructive conversations within traditions. This will prevent divisions over moral issues and provide solid ground to engage in fruitful ecumenical dialogues that appreciate and attribute appropriate relevance to moral issues.”
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We’re all familiar with Gospel accounts of the apostles’ very human seeking for positions of power and greatness and also of Jesus’ clear response: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you” (Matthew 20: 25-26). In fact, Jesus so reverses concepts of power and greatness that “whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10: 44-45; cf. Luke 22: 26-27). A similar view of this reversal of secular models of power is found in Paul’s image of the Christian community as the body of Christ, where those that seem to be the weaker are recognized as indispensable and the inferior member is given greater honour (1 Corinthians 12: 12-27). Over time, this new way of being together in the church would find expression in an understanding of authority exercised through structures of synodality.
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The recent (June 2020) ecumenical handbook for Catholic bishops, entitled The Bishop & Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Vademecum, (hereafter Vademecum), presents a brief but important section (paragraphs 11-14) on “ecumenical formation”, i.e., the kind of formation that is needed by anyone who wishes to contribute to the healing ministry of ecumenism in the church.
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At the end of its biannual meeting, the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order, in February, reported from its three study groups, which continue to look to future activities and dialogue with a sense of hope.

The first study group is working on a plan for a World Conference on Faith and Order in 2025. The last such conference organized by Faith and Order was in Compostela, Spain in 1993. In the proposal, the study group reflected on purpose, theme, format, partners, promotion and finances of a conference.

The study group on ecclesiology announced the publication of 78 responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision. To address the divisive topics coming from the responses, a volume of 16 key theme papers written by the commissioners will be published ahead of the WCC 11th Assembly in 2022.

The Faith and Order Commission also mapped a path toward enlarging its work in order to better reflect the challenges raised by independent, evangelical and pentecostal traditions to the search for visible unity.
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A 9 March webinar – the third in a series of seven on bilateral dialogues – will focus on “Anglican-Orthodox Dialogue: History, Results, Reception” as well as the Canterbury Statement “Stewards of Creation: A Hope-Filled Ecology,” a statement on ecology jointly published by the Anglican Communion and the Orthodox Churches in October 2020.

Presentations will be offered by the two co-chairman of the International Commission for Anglican–Orthodox Theological Dialogue.
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Sometimes people ask me, “How did you become an ecumenist?” I try to answer their curiosity with some honesty, but like most people, my own vocational path was only apparent looking back. Once in a while, someone asks, “How can I become an ecumenist?” The simple answer is that all Christians are called to work for the unity of Christ’s church, so becoming an ecumenist is as simple as saying “Amen” to God’s call. Becoming an ecumenist does not require extensive education or credentials. It doesn’t require ordination or commissioning in a particular ministry. To be an ecumenist is to pray and work for the unity that Christ wills in his church.
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order published two new volumes that collect responses received to The Church: Towards a Common Vision between 2013 and 2020.

The responses address the church’s mission, unity, and its being in the trinitarian life of God in order to encourage and advance the churches’ growth in communion with each other in apostolic faith, sacramental life, mission, and ministry for the sake of God’s world.
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) will host a webinar on 18 February from 14:00-15:30 (GMT+1) entitled “Common witness on environmental justice and religious pluralism” that will explore two recent papers released by the WCC Commission on Faith and Order.

The two publications are “Cultivate and Care: An Ecumenical Theology of Justice for and within Creation” and “Love and Witness: Proclaiming the Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ in a Religiously Plural World.”
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In a world crying out for justice and peace, the theme of the 2022 assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” speaks of hope for a future in which resources are shared, inequalities are addressed and all can enjoy dignity, according to a new publication reflecting on the assembly theme.

The result of the work of an international group drawn from different regions and confessional traditions, the text is intended as a resource for churches and Christians worldwide in advance of the WCC’s 11th Assembly, to take place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022.

The assembly, according to the text, is an opportunity to find inspiration in the love of God, the Holy Trinity; a love that has been revealed in Christ; and that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is moving in and through all humankind and all creation.
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Introduced into religious language by the Apostle Paul, the Greek word charisma means free gift, favour. In everyday English usage, “gifted” people may be tempted to think of themselves as a cut above others. For Paul, however, this cannot be valid because “gifted” means receiving a gift. A charism is a gift that has its
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Each year different Christian communities from around the world are invited to prepare resources for our common celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at the invitation of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This year, the task fell to an ecumenical monastic community, the Sisters of Grandchamp, which brings together women from diverse churches and cultures in French-speaking Switzerland. The theme they have chosen – inspired by chapter 15 of John’s Gospel – is born from a lived experience of unity in faith and prayer, and of the oneness at the heart of the monastic journey: “Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit.”
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A passage that I have returned to repeatedly in my vocational life as an ecumenist comes from Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical letter Ut Unum Sint (1995). It reads:

Praying for unity is not a matter reserved only to those who actually experience the lack of unity among Christians. In the deep personal dialogue, which each of us must carry on with the Lord in prayer, concern for unity cannot be absent. Only in this way, in fact, will that concern fully become part of the reality of our life and of the commitments we have taken on in the Church. It was in order to reaffirm this duty that I set before the faithful of the Catholic Church a model which I consider exemplary, the model of a Trappistine Sister, Blessed Maria Gabriella of Unity, whom I beatified on 25 January 1983. Sister Maria Gabriella, called by her vocation to be apart from the world, devoted her life to meditation and prayer centered on chapter seventeen of Saint John’s Gospel, and offered her life for Christian unity. This is truly the cornerstone of all prayer: the total and unconditional offering of one’s life to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The example of Sister Maria Gabriella is instructive; it helps us to understand that there are no special times, situations or places of prayer for unity. Christ’s prayer to the Father is offered as a model for everyone, always and everywhere (Ut Unum Sint, 27).

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After decades of nipping around the edges of the issues of systemic racism, the Commissioners of the 43rd General Council voted to declare the denomination to become an anti-racist church on Saturday, October 24, 2020. “This doesn’t mean we have achieved this goal,” explains the Moderator, the Right Rev. Richard Bott, “but we are taking a stand and saying we are publicly committed to eliminating systemic racism from our practices and policies.”

One of the last actions of outgoing General Secretary Nora Sanders was to create a new Anti-Racism and Equity Officer position in the General Council Office. After an extensive search process, we are pleased to announce that the successful candidate is Adele Halliday, who has already been deeply engaged in related work within the Church in Mission Unit and has worked with the United Church since 2004.
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Introduction In some ways, dialogue, which is essentially talking, seems a very simple thing to do. Yet, we all know there are various ways of talking. There are words that hurt and words that heal. The Epistle of James (3:1-12) clearly names the challenge. The tongue, he says, is “like a fire” and no one
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You are invited to join a fall ecumenical series on stewardship, Thursdays, Oct. 22 to Nov. 19 at 3pm and 7pm. Oct. 22, Stewardship in the land of ‘Mammon’: How are we working for God?, with Joe Gunn Currently the executive director of the Centre Oblat – A Voice for Justice in Ottawa, Joe is
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It is quite common in ordinary Catholic parlance to hear someone refer to him or herself, or to another in the Church, as a “convert.” Typically, this word is used to signify a person initiated (baptized) in one tradition of the Christian family, which they subsequently left before being received into full communion in the Catholic Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The implication is that the person “converted” away from their old (erroneous/incomplete) way of living the Christian faith to a new (true/fuller) Christian life in our Church.
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During their meeting on July 30, 2020 via video conference, the members of The Episcopal Church-United Methodist Dialogue Committee agreed that the churches postpone taking action on the full communion proposal until their next General Convention/General Conference after 2021:

“Our churches and people are responding to unprecedented challenges in their local communities, conferences/dioceses, and at the denominational level. The United Methodist General Conference scheduled for May of 2020 has been postponed until Aug. 29-Sept. 7, of 2021. The Episcopal Church as well, is rethinking the format, timing, and range of issues that might be taken up by the next General Convention.
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) have released a joint document, “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond.” Its purpose is to encourage churches and Christian organizations to reflect on the importance of interreligious solidarity in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The document offers a Christian basis for interreligious solidarity that can inspire and confirm the impulse to serve a world wounded not only by COVID-19 but also by many other wounds.

The publication is also designed to be useful to practitioners of other religions, who have already responded to COVID-19 with similar thoughts based on their own traditions.

The document recognizes the current context of the pandemic as a time for discovering new forms of solidarity for rethinking the post-COVID-19 world. Comprised of five sections, the document reflects on the nature of a solidarity sustained by hope and offers a Christian basis for interreligious solidarity, a few key principles and a set of recommendations on how reflection on solidarity can be translated into concrete and credible action.
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“Doctrine divides, service unites!”

This was a slogan heard regularly in the early ecumenical movement of the 20th century. The polemics of the Reformation and intervening years had left their toll. For ecumenically-minded Christians, the way forward was not through doctrinal debate but working together in care for the poor, orphans, widows, and prisoners. The earliest ecumenical stirrings led to the World Conference on Evangelism in 1910 where the great mission agencies agreed to coordinate their work in world mission. In 1925, the same year that the United Church of Canada was formed as a union of the Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches in Canada as a commitment to the Social Gospel, the “World Conference on Life and Work” in Stockholm gathered churches to work towards further unity in both the life of the churches and in Christ’s work. This stood in some contrast to the 1927 “World Conference on Faith and Order” which was committed to the unity of the church based on a common faith and a reconciled church order.

The division within the ecumenical movement between these three streams – Evangelism, Life and Work, and Faith and Order – continually threatens the faithfulness of this enterprise. In 1952, the newly-formed World Council of Churches (WCC) asked the churches “whether they should not act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately?”
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The final report on the Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Conversation has been published. The report summarizes five years of theological consultations between the three communions on the understanding and practice of baptism in light of contemporary pastoral and missional challenges facing all three Christian communities.

“The report shows that today these three churches agree that baptism is for discipleship,” says Mennonite delegation member Larry Miller. “It raises the question for each of these churches: are there ways of acknowledging our different practices of baptism that grow the unity for which Jesus prayed?”

Representatives of the Catholic Church (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and Mennonite World Conference (MWC) met from 2012–2017 to discuss understanding and practice of baptism.
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Changing the words of the formula for baptism render the sacrament invalid, said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Specifically, a baptism administered with the formula “We baptize you …” instead of “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is not valid because it is the person of Christ through the minister who is acting, not the assembly, the congregation said.

The doctrinal congregation’s ruling was published Aug. 6 as a brief response to questions regarding the validity of baptisms using that modified formula. The congregation was asked whether a baptism was valid if it had been performed with a formula that seeks to express the “communitarian significance” and participation of the family and those present during the celebration. For example, it said there have been celebrations administered with the words, “In the name of the father and of the mother, of the godfather and of the godmother, of the grandparents, of the family members, of the friends, in the name of the community we baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
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“May they all be one . . . that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:21). These words from Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper define the goal of the ecumenical effort among Christians around the world. Insofar as unity among the followers of Jesus witnesses to the credibility of the Gospel, it is not surprising that the 1910 Missionary Conference in Edinburgh is usually identified as the beginning of the 20th century ecumenical movement. Although the Catholic Church did not take part in the 1910 conference, the ecumenical landscape has changed so much over the past 100 years that the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) was actively involved with the World Council of Churches (WCC) in preparing to celebrate the anniversary and in exploring ways of undertaking mission together.
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Quite often in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, we are given glimpses into his prayer life. In many instances, we read simply that Jesus went away (by himself or with others) to pray. More rarely we discover the content of Jesus’ prayers, that is, the “what” of his prayers or the actual words that he used in prayer.

One place where the content of Jesus’ prayer is shared with us directly is in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John. At the end of a rather lengthy section (typically called Jesus’ Farewell or Last Supper Discourse – beginning in chapter 14), Jesus turns his eyes toward heaven and offers his so-called “priestly prayer” for the protection, sanctification, and unity of his disciples. He prays first for those who are his followers at that time, and then he prays for those who will follow him in the future.
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Black Anglicans of Canada deplores the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police.

For me, as an African American, the brutal murder of George Floyd is the last straw. People of African descent, for our entire 400-year history in America, have been put in the position of constantly having to defend our humanity, forced into a subculture of “over-achievement” so that we can be acknowledged as human beings and entitled to be equal citizens in our own country that we have helped build, died for and continue to defend. We are tired. We are angry. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
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I remember one year when the lectionary texts included 1 Corinthians 12, we sang a processional song by Canadian church composer Andrew Donaldson with the words: “the body is one with many parts, the parts are many the body is one.” The youth of the church had built huge papier-mâché bodies that danced on stilts at the front of the procession. The image of the whole church gathered to sing, worship, and even dance reflects the dynamic character of the church as a living body. This image of the church as a human body comes to us from the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians to help them overcome their own divisions. “Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many” (v. 14). We are one body because, in baptism, the Spirit has gathered us into the one body of Christ.
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Pope Francis has decided the next world Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, which will take place in October 2022, will have the theme: “For a synodal church: Communion, participation and mission.”

The Vatican announced the choice of “synodality” as the theme in a brief communique March 7.

“Synodality,” which literally means “walking together,” has become a key topic of Pope Francis’ pontificate, but one which has raised questions and even confusion.

The basic idea in the pope’s teaching is that the grace of baptism makes one part of the body of the church and, therefore, responsible for its life and mission. In a hierarchical church, that shared responsibility calls for regular, serious and structural forums for listening to all members of the church. At the same time, as the pope has said, it does not mean putting decisions to a vote as if a synod were a parliament.
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Meeting at First Presbyterian Church in San Diego Feb. 17-19, representatives of the Episcopal-Presbyterian Bilateral Dialogue met and considered how the two ecclesial traditions could partner with each other considering the context of the 21st-century church.
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A statement calling on the government of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to “immediately cease their occupation, arrests, and trespassing on Wet’suwet’en sovereign territory” has drawn signatures from 71 church leaders in in the Anglican Church of Canada and beyond.

The statement of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Nation pipeline opposition was released by Toronto Urban Native Ministry in the diocese of Toronto. Posted Feb. 6, it was signed by several Anglican bishops, including National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald and National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Susan Johnson. Many more signatures have since been added via the web.

The statement notes the unanimous opposition of the Wet’suwet’en Clan Chiefs to the construction of the pipeline. It says that the “militarized forced removal of the Wet’suwet’an from their own territory” is in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and is “consistent with the colonial practices of genocide,” and that the RCMP “does not hold the jurisdiction or right to arrest sovereign Wet’suwet’en peoples on their own unceded Nation and territory.”
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The Department for Unity, Faith and Order in the Anglican Communion has at its core the search for deeper unity between Christians, be that within and between the churches of the Anglican Communion or between the Anglican Communion and other Christian churches and bodies.

Much of the work of Unity, Faith and Order (which goes by the extra-terrestrial acronym UFO) is taken up with encouraging Christians to talk together. Over the course of the last century much work has been done to break down mutual suspicion and division between churches by patient dialogue and the building up of relationships. This happens at the local level, where Christians find that when they come together to pray or get involved with mission and ministry that they have more in common than they first thought. It also happens at national and international level, when theologians from different churches and traditions talk together to come to agreement on issues that have previously divided them.
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The Diocese of Southern Virginia announced Jan. 17 that it would change the location of its Feb. 1 consecration of Bishop-elect Susan Haynes from a Roman Catholic church in Williamsburg in response to backlash from some Roman Catholics who said they were disturbed by the ordination of a woman bishop.
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The work of the Task Group which was established by the Archbishop of Canterbury after the January 2016 Primates’ Meeting has been commended by the Primates. The Task Group has called for a Season of Repentance, focused around the fifth Sunday in Lent this year (29 March), and has prepared a common Anglican Communion eucharistic liturgy and papers on Anglican identity.

In their communiqué, released at the end of last week’s Primates’ Meeting, the Primates explained that the Task Group was established “to look at how we might walk together despite the complexities we face.”

They added: “at this meeting we affirmed our continued commitment to walk together; we received the work of the Task Group and commended it to the other Instruments of Communion – the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council.”

They also recommended that a new group be established “to continue the work of the Task Group to explore how we live and work together in the light of the Lambeth Conference.
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For the past year, a group of Christians and Muslims has been meeting for monthly conversations about faith.

“Islam and Christianity are two world religions that share a common theological root to Abrahamic tradition,” says group member Carol Pek, a Roman Catholic. “These two religions also share complex histories of conflict and coexistence. While the groundwork to build understanding between Christians and Muslims has been laid down by Christian and Muslim leaders, the idea is still not fully articulated in many local contexts.”

This reality led retired Catholic priest, Fr. Bernard de Margerie, and Fachrizal Halim, a Sunni Muslim who teaches Islamic Studies at St. Thomas More College, to get together a year ago to discuss the possibility of launching a Christian/Muslim conversation group.

Says Halim, “There is a genuine interest on the part of Muslims to know about Christianity and how it is defined by Christians, rather than perpetuating our own Muslim understanding of Christianity.”
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Together we wish you God’s richest blessings this Christmas and through the year ahead.

These few days at the turn of the year offer an opportunity for people who are normally very busy to give worthwhile time to family and friends. It can also be a stressful and difficult time for people who feel estranged from friends and loved ones to whom they were once close, and for those who feel they have no–one they can truly call a friend.

Over Christmas and New Year many people are able to rekindle relationships that have somehow gone sour. We are all capable of bringing light and love into another person’s life – perhaps someone for whom hope itself is fading, someone who desperately needs the rekindling of trust that only care and friendship can bring. Jesus Christ came into the world to bring us not only the light of his love but also the warmth of his friendship. Indeed, he assured his disciples that they were more than just “followers”; they were his “friends” (John 15.15).
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In days leading up to Christmas, I walked through the streets of Bethlehem with Palestinians for whom it is home.

In this place of present day occupation, where people struggle to live in dignity and peace, you can’t help but reflect on the meaning of the story of Christmas. How is the good news of so many, many years ago revealed in our day, whether in Bethlehem, Barrancabermeja or the Downtown Eastside?

The answer came to me through the children. The ones who played peek-a-boo with me from their mother’s laps when we visited the women’s groups. The ones who tugged at my sleeves in the markets asking me to buy trinkets. The ones who play in the shadow of the separation wall, or who walk through groups of soldiers with machine guns as if it was the most normal of things—because it is.
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Pope Francis declared Dec. 17, 2019 that the pontifical secret will no longer apply in cases of accusations and trials involving abuse of minors or vulnerable persons, and in cases of possession of child pornography by clerics.

With the instruction “On the Confidentiality of Legal Proceedings,” Pope Francis intends “to cancel in these cases the subjection to what is called the ‘pontifical secret’ bringing back instead the ‘level’ of confidentiality, dutifully required to protect the good reputation of the people involved,” according to Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
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The Anglican-Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue of Canada (ARC-B) held its most recent meeting in the Toronto area from November 27-29, 2019. The annual meeting facilitates opportunities for the Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops to share, learn, and discuss about their respective pastoral activities, update one another on the news from our churches, and further the aims of Christian unity in Canada. The Bishops specifically discussed issues relating to ecumenism, freedom of religion and conscience in Canadian society, interfaith partnerships, and various challenges and opportunities in chaplaincy ministry in military, corrections, and medical contexts. The ARC-B members were also joined for part of the meeting by the Roman Catholic and Anglican co-chairs of the Anglican-Roman Catholic theological dialogue of Canada (ARC) to discuss ARC’s current focus on the operations of synodical consultation and decision making in the two traditions. For several years now, both ARC-B and ARC have worked closely with one another, mutually enriching one another’s work and reflections.
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Le Dialogue des évêques anglicans et catholiques romains du Canada (ARC-E) a tenu sa dernière rencontre dans la région de Toronto du 27 au 29 novembre 2019. Cette réunion annuelle est l’occasion pour les évêques de s’informer, de partager et de discuter sur leurs activités pastorales respectives, de faire le point sur l’actualité dans les deux Églises, et de promouvoir les objectifs de l’unité chrétienne au Canada. Les évêques ont notamment abordé des questions relatives à l’œcuménisme, à la liberté de religion et de conscience dans la société canadienne, aux partenariats interreligieux, ainsi que les défis et possibilités concernant l’aumônerie dans les forces armées, les services correctionnels et les milieux hospitaliers. Pendant une partie de leur réunion, les membres de l’ARC-E ont reçu les coprésidents anglican et catholique romain du Dialogue théologique anglican-catholique romain au Canada (ARC) pour discuter de la priorité actuelle de l’ARC sur le fonctionnement des consultations synodales et de la prise de décision dans les deux confessions. Il y a maintenant plusieurs années que l’ARC-E et l’ARC collaborent étroitement à enrichir mutuellement leurs travaux et leurs réflexions.
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Christianity and Islam are two world religions that share a common theological root to Abrahamic tradition. The two religions also share complex histories of conflict and coexistence that span from the Middle Ages until the present day. While the groundwork to build understandings between Christians and Muslims has been laid down by Christian and Muslim leaders, the idea is still not fully articulated in a local context.

Wishing to pursue such an initiative among ordinary Christians and Muslims in Saskatoon, Fr. Bernard de Margerie, a Roman Catholic priest, and Fachrizal Halim, a Sunni Muslim professor of Islamic Studies at St. Thomas More College, Saskatoon, met in December, 2018 to discuss the possibility of having a Christian-Muslim conversation group. Both saw an urgent need to know more about each other’s faith and the importance of developing respect and friendships between the two faith communities.
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Catholics and Anglicans in Canada have been working on their relationship ever since Gen. James Wolfe surprised Gen. Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham in the fall of 1759.

By 1763 King Louis XV had no choice but to cede France’s North American possessions entirely to England’s King George III. The practicalities of a Protestant king and his Protestant army trying to impose their religion on a majority Catholic population were such that the English made allowances for the Catholic Church while they granted land and paid clergy salaries for the Anglicans.

More than 250 years later, the dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans in Canada carries on, unhindered by royalty and without much reference to the Seven Years’ War. The latest round ended Nov. 18 in Toronto after three days with a presentation to theology students at Trinity College of the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto.
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On Friday, 22 November 2019, an ecumenical prayer service including a commemoration of common baptism was held in the basilica of the Sant’Anselmo Benedictine Abbey in Rome.

The event marked the 20th anniversary of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed on Reformation Day 1999 (31 October) by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church. A facsimile of the document was placed on a lectern in the apse of Sant ̍ Anselmo.

The Joint Declaration was subsequently approved by the World Methodist Council, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Anglican Communion.

The prayer service in Sant’Anselmo was conducted following the liturgical order drawn up by the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity for the international anniversary celebrations.
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After five years of meetings by an international commission of Mennonites, Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the topic of baptism, John Rempel, the commission’s Mennonite representative, presented a trilateral report from that dialogue at an event called “One Baptism? A Symposium on Baptism and the Christian Life,” at Waterloo North Mennonite Church on Nov. 8.

Pastors, denominational leaders, professors and some students from Conrad Grebel University College attended the Anabaptist Learning Workshop event, sponsored by Grebel and Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.

Framed around scriptures emphasizing the image of the church as one body with one baptism, the symposium began and ended with times of worship. In between, Rempel summarized the report and then invited three people, one from each tradition, to respond. They formed a panel that fielded further comments and questions.

Mennonite World Conference (MWC) engaged in the trilateral dialogue because “Jesus Christ calls us to be one.” Participation was seen as a way to build on previous reconciliation efforts between the denominations, nurturing mutual understanding and cooperation.
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Following through on a proposal made at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, Pope Francis said there are plans to include a definition of ecological sins in the church’s official teaching.

“We should be introducing — we were thinking — in the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, ecological sin against the common home,” he told participants at a conference on criminal justice Nov. 15.

Members of the International Association of Penal Law were in Rome Nov. 13-16 for the conference, which centered on the theme, “Criminal Justice and Corporate Business.”

Pope Francis also denounced the abuse of law and legislation to justify acts of violence and hatred.
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The Patriarchate of Alexandria has become the latest to recognise Ukraine’s new independent Orthodox church, prompting angry reactions from Russian leaders who bitterly opposed its establishment by the Ecumenical Patriarchate a year ago.

In a brief statement during a Cairo service, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and All-Africa said the recognition had been conferred after “many prayers and consultations” among his senior clergy. Meanwhile, in a second message to his bishops, published by Greece’s Orthodox Romfea news agency, Theodore confirmed the move, adding that it had followed “mature reflection” and many personal talks, and been taken out of “concern for peace and the Orthodox churches’ unity and wellbeing”.
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The sixth session of the Reformed-Pentecostal Dialogue, which has revolved around the understanding of “mission,” focused on bringing together the fruits of their five years of work: mission and salvation; the Holy Spirit and mission; mission and the unity of the church; mission and eschatology.

The work will be presented in a single document to be published next year. Dialogue participants hope that this publication will be useful for Reformed and Pentecostal churches to better understand each other and encourage common witness in word and action.
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Working for Christian unity and engaging in formal theological dialogues to promote it obviously raises questions about what the nature and mission of the church is. In a project that took two decades of work by Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Catholic and Pentecostal theologians, the World Council of Churches in 2013 published a document summarizing the points of greatest consensus. In late October, the Vatican gave the WCC its formal response to the document, which was called “The Church: Towards a Common Vision.”

The response, coordinated by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and posted on its website, included input from Catholic theologians from around the world, bishops’ conferences and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. What is meant by “church” is a key ecumenical question as Christians work and pray for the unity Jesus wanted his followers to have, the Catholic response said. Or, as the WCC document said, “agreement on ecclesiology has long been identified as the most elemental theological objective in the quest for Christian unity.”
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The working group established in 2014 to conduct an informal dialogue between the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the International Lutheran Council (ILC) completed its task during a final session held September 23-26. 2019 on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Taking part from the Roman Catholic Church were Dr. Josef Freitag (Lantershofen, Germany), Dr. Wolfgang Thönissen (Paderborn, Germany), Dr. Burkhard Neumann (Paderborn), and Fr. Augustinus Sander O.S.B. (who has recently moved from Germany to Rome). Taking part on behalf of the churches of the ILC were Dr. Werner Klän (Lübeck, Germany), Dr. Gerson Linden (São Leopoldo, Brazil), Dr. John Stephenson (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada), and Dr. Roland Ziegler (Fort Wayne, Indiana). In addition, the chairman of the ILC, Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt (Hanover, Germany) of Germany’s Independent Evangelical Lutheran, attended the sessions in a guest capacity.
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Two dioceses in eastern Ontario — one Catholic and one Anglican — along with two religious orders are in talks to share one facility for all four entities’ archival records. It’s a project that some involved hope sets a precedent for future sharing between different faiths that are seeing declining numbers. “We hope this project will be trendsetting as an ecumenical archives project that relies heavily on partnerships of like-minded institutions,” said Veronica Stienburg, archivist for the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul in Kingston, Ont.

The project would see the archives of the Archdiocese of Kingston, the Sisters of Providence, the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph and the Anglican Diocese of Ontario all moved into the closed Church of the Good Thief in Portsmouth Village area of Kingston. The church was closed by the archdiocese in 2013 due to the deteriorating condition of the building and a lack of clergy to staff it. The archdiocese wants to keep the building however, which was added to the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2008. It has a heritage property designation from the City of Kingston and is protected by an Ontario Trust heritage easement. Readers of The Catholic Register may also remember it from the columns of the late Msgr. Thomas Raby, who was pastor there late in his life.
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The visit of Pope Francis to Mauritius on Monday brought fresh energy and confidence to Christians in the country, according to the Bishop of Mauritius, Ian Earnest, who leaves this month to take up his new role as Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.

Former Primate of the Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean, Archbishop Ian Ernest, attended the mass at the Mary Queen of Peace Monument at which the Pope presided during his day-long visit to the Island. The Archbishop said the timing of the Pope’s visit, just weeks before he begins his new role in Rome, made him think about how God works. “It was a great opportunity to meet with him, to be part of this eucharistic celebration at which he presided in front of 100,000 people with the authorities of the country.”

The eucharist was attended by people from all areas of Mauritius and of many different religious persuasions. Archbishop Ian said: “As Anglicans we were praying the Pope’s visit would create an impact on our people so that they can see and discover the values of the kingdom of God. We had been preparing for that and we have not been disappointed.”
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The Ecumenical Adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr William Adam, is to be the new Director of Unity, Faith and Order for the Anglican Communion. His new role, which he takes on with immediate effect, will be held alongside his role at Lambeth Palace, which he has held since 2017. He succeeds the Revd Canon Dr John Gibaut, who was appointed to the post in 2014 and held it until earlier this year, when he became President, Provost and Vice-Chancellor of Canada’s Thorneloe University.

Will Adam was ordained in the Church of England in 1994 and held parish appointments until taking up his post advising the Archbishop of Canterbury. From 2017 until now he has also served as Ecumenical Officer in the Church of England’s Council for Christian Unity. He has experience of ecumenical dialogue at national and international level.
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