Anglicans and Jews discuss religion and democracy

The sixth meeting of the Anglican-Jewish Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office took place at Mansfield College, Oxford, on July 31 and Aug. 1, 2012.

The commission’s mandate provides for the archbishop and two chief rabbis (one each from the Ahkenazi and Sephardi communities) to meet each year alternately in England and Jerusalem. It also provides for an annual meeting to study agreed-on themes and the arrangement of other meetings that include the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, The Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani.

The meeting’s theme was religion and democracy in both faith traditions. A paper by Dr. Jane Clements on Anglicanism and the secular state explored the dynamic between the kingdom of God and the earthly realm in scriptural interpretation.
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Posted: August 16, 2012 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=2236
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican, Judaism Transmis : 16 aoüt 2012 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=2236
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican, Judaism

Margaret O’Gara: 1947–2012

One of Canada’s most eminent theologians and one of the greatest Catholic experts in ecumenism has died. Margaret O’Gara, Professor of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, entered the realm of eternal life on Thursday, August 16, at age 65. She had suffered from cancer for two years.

In 37 years of work as a theologian O’Gara was able to foster dialogue among Christians for the sake of overcoming divisions between the churches. Besides her teaching, research, writing, and extensive public lecturing, she was a member of official ecumenical dialogues in Canada, the United States, and at the international level. She served terms as president of both the North American Academy of Ecumenists and the Catholic Theological Society of America.
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Posted: August 22, 2012 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=2235
Categories: Anglican Journal, Memorials • In this article: Catholic, ecumenism Transmis : 22 aoüt 2012 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=2235
Catégorie : Anglican Journal, Memorials • Dans cet article : Catholic, ecumenism

Ottawa axes non-Christian prison chaplains

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has announced the cancellation of the contracts of all part-time non-Christian chaplains ministering in federal prisons across Canada. The cuts take effect as of the end of March 2013. After that date, penitentiary inmates of minority faiths, from Buddhists to Wiccans, will have to rely on full-time Christian chaplains for interfaith services, religious counsel and spiritual guidance.
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Posted: October 5, 2012 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=2242
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Canada, criminal justice, ministry Transmis : 5 octobre 2012 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=2242
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Canada, criminal justice, ministry

Hardwick succeeds Kerr-Wilson as bishop of Qu’Appelle

The Ven. Robert Hardwick is the new bishop of the Anglican diocese of Qu’Appelle, in Regina, Sask.

Currently serving as the diocese’s assistant to the bishop and executive archdeacon, Hardwick was elected on the first ballot of the electoral synod, held Dec. 8. He succeeds Bishop Greg Kerr-Wilson, who is now the bishop of the diocese of Calgary.
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Posted: December 12, 2012 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=2280
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican, bishops, Saskatchewan Transmis : 12 décembre 2012 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=2280
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican, bishops, Saskatchewan

Anglicans, Roman Catholics ‘committed to dialogue’

Canadian Roman Catholics have expressed the hope that the Anglican Church of Canada would seek input from its ecumenical partners as it continues discussion concerning a resolution to amend the church’s marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage.

The marriage canon resolution was discussed at a joint meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue (ARCB) and the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada (ARC Canada) held last December. Anglican Bishop Linda Nicholls, ARC Canada co-chair, reported on the Anglican-Lutheran Joint Assembly held last summer, which included an explanation of the said resolution passed by General Synod.

Nicholls assured her Catholic counterparts that since the resolution states that action taken on the marriage canon must demonstrate “broad consultation,” this could be interpreted to include consultation with the church’s ecumenical partners, including the Roman Catholic Church, said Archdeacon Bruce Myers, General Synod co-ordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations. who assisted the ARC meeting as staff. [On Jan. 6, the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada appointed Nicholls as a member of the commission on the marriage canon, which will conduct a broad consultation on the proposed change to the marriage canon.)

Catholic members stated that consultations were necessary since “any decision our church takes regarding our understanding of marriage will have implications for our relationships with other churches,” said Myers.
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Posted: January 7, 2014 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=7113
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican, Catholic, dialogue, ecumenism, human sexuality Transmis : 7 janvier 2014 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=7113
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican, Catholic, dialogue, ecumenism, human sexuality

Four-way Anglican-Lutheran dialogue deepens

The heads of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have agreed to co-ordinate their responses to “events that transcend” their borders, such as natural disasters.

They could, for instance, issue a joint pastoral letter in response to a natural calamity and invite their members to contribute to relief and recovery efforts through one of their four relief agencies, said Archdeacon Bruce Myers, General Synod’s co-ordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations. Myers served as staff support at the meeting.

Leaders of the four churches reached this agreement when they met for a day and a half of informal talks last December in Winnipeg. Since 2010, the heads of these four churches have met for informal talks, “becoming colloquially known as the ‘Four-Way,’ ” said Myers.

The Anglican Church of Canada’s primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, ELCIC Bishop Susan Johnson and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori were joined in the meeting by the new presiding bishop of the ELCA, Elizabeth Eaton.
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Posted: January 7, 2014 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=7116
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican Church of Canada, dialogue, ecumenism, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, full communion Transmis : 7 janvier 2014 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=7116
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican Church of Canada, dialogue, ecumenism, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, full communion

Guide to WCC Common Vision document published

Aptly released for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Anglican Communion Office has produced a study guide to the World Council of Churches (WCC) document The Church: Towards a Common Vision, the result of 20 years of study and dialogue among the council’s member churches, who represent most of the world’s churches.

The WCC published Towards a Common Vision in March 2013 and asked its members to study it and comment on it. According to the WCC’s introduction, the document asks and offers answers to the questions “What can we say together about the Church of the Triune God in order to grow in communion, to struggle together for justice and peace in the world, and to overcome together our past and present divisions?” It begins by addressing “the Church’s mission, unity, and its being in the Trinitarian life of God” and then looks at ecumenical “growth in communion – in apostolic faith, sacramental life, and ministry – as churches called to live in and for the world.”
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Posted: January 20, 2014 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=7195
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: church, dialogue, ecclesiology, ecumenism, WCC, WCC Commission on Faith & Order Transmis : 20 janvier 2014 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=7195
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : church, dialogue, ecclesiology, ecumenism, WCC, WCC Commission on Faith & Order

Anglican and United churches discuss differences

“Both friendly and intense”—that’s how the Rev. William Harrison describes the latest phase of the dialogue between representatives of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada after the last of three annual meetings wrapped up at the Vancouver School of Theology on Jan. 16.

Harrison, the group’s Anglican co-chair, said the participants from both churches have prepared an interim report, which has to be submitted the Anglican Church of Canada’s Council of General Synod (CoGS) for its next meeting in May before it can be discussed in detail. In the meanwhile, he answered a few questions from the Journal by email about the latest meetings and their progress.

In keeping with a resolution from the 2010 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, and with the agreement of the United Church’s Theology and Inter-Church Inter-Faith Committee, these most recent talks have focused on “the doctrinal identities of the two churches and the implications of this for the lives of the churches—including understandings of sacraments and orders of ministry.”

“Both sides have been willing to engage and ask tough questions,” Harrison wrote. “Where the previous phase focused on what we have in common, this phase has been more inclined to recognize differences. The result is that we have challenged one another and ourselves.” The previous dialogue took place over six years and ended in 2009. Those conversations were described in Drawing from the Same Well: The St. Brigid Report.

In spite of those differences, Harrison wrote, “We found that on core theological commitments (as expressed in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, for example) we are really in much the same place, facing common challenges. Our differences on these matters tend to be more in the realm of how we do theology than in the things that we affirm.”
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Posted: February 14, 2014 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=7352
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican Church of Canada, Christian unity, dialogue, United Church of Canada Transmis : 14 février 2014 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=7352
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican Church of Canada, Christian unity, dialogue, United Church of Canada

Ecumenism must involve dialogue and social action, says Welby

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has underscored the value of continuing ecumenical dialogue at a “passionate theological level” while at the same time having “a closer relationship of action” that addresses the needs of the world in such areas as poverty and social justice. Ecumenism must be “something that is our burning desire,” Welby told a gathering of ecumenical guests at a reception at Toronto’s St. James’ Cathedral Centre, during his “personal, pastoral visit” to the Anglican Church of Canada April 8 to 9. “In the last seven verses of John: 17, Jesus prays with extraordinary passion and extraordinary directness about the absolute necessity of the visible unity of the church… Love one another…” In a divided and diverse world, Welby said the church could demonstrate “how humanity can overcome its cultural divisions and truly be… a holy nation of God’s people.” In different parts of the world, there has been “a new movement of the spirit,” said Welby. He cited a decision by Chemin Neuf, a Jesuit-founded French Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation, to accept his invitation to take up residence in Lambeth Palace. Last January, four members set up “a fraternity” in Lambeth Palace. “We hope that is something that will grow and develop,” said Welby, adding that he and his wife, Caroline, got to know the community over the last seven years. (The archbishop’s spiritual director is a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Nicholas Buttet.) The Guardian newspaper has noted that the move breaks five centuries of Anglican tradition and ushers “a further rapprochement between the churches of England and Rome.”
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Posted: April 11, 2014 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=7508
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican Church of Canada, dialogue, ecumenism, justice, Justin Welby, social policy Transmis : 11 avril 2014 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=7508
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican Church of Canada, dialogue, ecumenism, justice, Justin Welby, social policy

Roman Catholic bishop receives Anglican honour

The Anglican-run University College of Emmanuel and St. Chad has awarded an honorary fellowship to the seventh bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, Donald Bolen. Bolen, 53, a well-respected ecumenist in Canada and internationally, received the honour May 9 in recognition of his work in building Anglican-Roman Catholic relations, according to a press statement. Anglican Diocese of Saskatoon Bishop David Irving, who is also the university’s chancellor, presented the award during the 13th Joint Convocation of the Saskatoon Theological Union, where Bolen was the convocation speaker. In a telephone interview, Bolen said it was “a great privilege and a great delight,” to have been bestowed the award. “It’s been a great joy to work with Anglicans to foster reconciliation,” said Bolen. There is a “deep bond of friendship and deep relations between Anglicans and Roman Catholics. We hold so much in common that it’s a lovely field of ecumenism to work in.”
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Posted: May 30, 2014 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=7673
Categories: Anglican Journal • In this article: Anglican, Catholic, Donald Bolen, Saskatoon Transmis : 30 mai 2014 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=7673
Catégorie : Anglican Journal • Dans cet article : Anglican, Catholic, Donald Bolen, Saskatoon