The fifth meeting of Phase III of the international dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the Catholic Church took place 12-16 December 2022 in Rome, hosted by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU). … Read more »… lire la suite »
Two parallel dialogues were established with the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Malankara (Jacobite) Syrian Orthodox Church, respectively in 1989 and 1990, and were maintained even after the foundation in 2003 of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada‘s (ELCIC) National Bishop Susan C. Johnson and the Anglican Church of Canada‘s Primate and Archbishop Linda Nicholls have written a joint statement encouraging members of both churches to learn more about the realities of housing needs in our communities, to pray for shelter for all, and to call on all levels of government to work together to identify solutions to our national housing crisis. … Read more »… lire la suite »
As Christians we confess that “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” (Ps 24). We acknowledge our responsibility as stewards and caretakers of God’s unique and abundant Creation of which we human beings are part. And yet we look around our world today, and see that due to our greed and negligence the entire living planet is threatened by accelerating climate change. “The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers…”, “The earth is defiled by its people…” (Isaiah 24:4-5). … Read more »… lire la suite »
The commitment of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) to gender justice—with the ordination of women as a particular focus—was the topic of a workshop at the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly.
The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Methodist Council have announced in a communiqué their intention to begin a new round of dialogue in October of this year. The dialogue will focus on the inter-related themes of mission and unity. As the Church fulfils the Lord’s commission to take the good news of the Gospel “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 8) it moves into new contexts and cultures and encounters new questions. As demonstrated by the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and the Council of Nicea, whose 1700th anniversary will be marked in 2025, synodal processes are therefore necessary in order for the church to come to a common mind in responding to these questions. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, The Holy See's Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations
At the request of Pope Francis, the virtual reproduction of a collection preserving the requests for help addressed to Pope Pius XII by Jews from all over Europe after the beginning of Nazi-Fascist persecution is now accessible to all. It consists of a total of 170 volumes, or nearly 40,000 files. Only 70% of the total material will be initially available, but will later be supplemented with the final volumes currently being prepared.
“If I am writing to You today, it is to ask you to help me from afar”. Thousands of archived files that give voice to desperate calls for help. Like this one, from a 23-year old German university student “with Israelite origins”, who was baptized in 1938, and who, on 17 January 1942, made a last effort to free himself from detention in a concentration camp in Miranda de Ebro, Spain. He finally had the opportunity to join his mother who had fled to America in 1939, “to prepare a new life for me”, he wrote. Everything was ready for departure from Lisbon. The only thing missing was the intervention “of someone from outside” so that the authorities would consent to his liberation. “There is little hope for those who have no outside help”, he explains with few, but eloquent words. He then writes to an old Italian friend, asking her to ask Pope Pius XII to have the Apostolic Nuncio in Madrid intervene in his favour, knowing that: “with this intervention from Rome, others had been able to leave the concentration camp”. … Read more »… lire la suite »
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
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.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Conseil pontifical pour la promotion de l’unité des chrétiens
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
A collection of documents and publications from the World Council of Churches (WCC) is now available through its longstanding partner organization Globethics.net. The WCC collection, updated weekly, reflects a growing and longstanding electronic bridge between the organizations’ websites.
For many years, the Globethics.net Library has hosted a variety of collections on behalf of the WCC, an active member of the Globethics.net Consortium on Ethics in Higher Education, as well as co-founder of the former Global Digital Library on Theology and Ecumenism (GlobeTheoLib).
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
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. … Read more »… lire la suite »
There are hundreds of denominations within Christianity, and it can be easy to focus on the differences between them all. But a group of Mennonites and Anglicans is breaking through those walls. A group of 12 people from both denominations gathered from May 24 to 26 at the University of Manitoba’s St. John’s College in Winnipeg. They spent the weekend sharing the struggles each church experiences and the resources they offer, a practice they have labelled the “exchanging of gifts.”
“It seems that denominational affiliation is becoming less important, and Christianity is shrinking in many sectors in Canada,” says Melissa Miller, interim pastor at Home Street Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. “So it seems more important that Christians from different denominations engage with each other and learn from each other and lay down some of those divisions.” Miller is the Mennonite co-chair of the dialogue, and Christopher Trott, warden of St. John’s College, is the Anglican co-chair. … Read more »… lire la suite »