“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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Continuing to strengthen relationships with the Jewish community is essential for Catholics, Sr. Lucy Thorson believes.

“For us as Catholics it is really not a luxury, it is a necessity for us to be familiar with Judaism,” said the Sister of Sion. “It is the roots of our Christian faith. So many of our Christian practices are rooted in the Jewish tradition.”

Despite this connection which is grounded in “the Jewishness of Jesus,” a significant degree of tension has existed between the two faiths in the past.

“Our history has been very painful with our relationship with the Jewish people.”

Thorson blamed misunderstandings during the interpretation process of the New Testament resulting in negative portrayals of the Jews as one of the leading causes of this tension.

But things have been improving since Vatican II, she noted. During an evening lecture at Scarboro Missions on Feb. 5, Thorson reinforced this by highlighting some of the major milestones in Catholic-Jewish relations starting with the council.

The event, which was part of World Interfaith Harmony Week, drew about 35 people despite a winter storm blanketing much of the city earlier that day.
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The Presbyterian Church in Canada‘s Presbytery of Montreal has adopted a response to Bill 60 – the Québec Charter of Values.

“We acknowledge and celebrate the unique identity of Quebec as a Francophone nation and province within Canada, and acknowledge the particular religious and cultural history that has shaped its values, laws, and social fabric. We also acknowledge and celebrate the presence of other linguistic and cultural communities within Quebec – including a large Anglophone minority – and celebrate the contributions such communities have made to the history, identity, and success of Quebec as a liberal democratic polity. We believe that Quebec has been enriched by this diversity.”
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Pope Francis’ attitude of hospitality and humility towards Oriental Orthodox leaders has had a positive impact on the dialogue between Catholics and these ancient Orthodox Churches.

That‘s according to Fr Gabriel Quicke, who’s in charge of relations with the Oriental Orthodox Churches at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He came back this week from Kerala in India where he took part in the 11th meeting of the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between Catholics and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The two delegations at the meeting continued their ongoing discussions on the ways in which full communion was expressed in the first five centuries, before the divisions between the different Churches. Since the 5th century, these ancient communities of Christians have not been in communion with either the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox world, with the result that very little is known about their rich heritage and traditions outside the countries where they are based – Egypt, Armenia, Syria, India and Ethiopia.
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The Rev. Daniel Montoya, longtime professor at Seminario Evangelico Teologia (Evangelical Theological Seminary, or SET) here, calls his core class “Practical Theological Ecumenism.”

“In Cuba, Christians are a tiny minority, so they try to get together to know each other,” Montoya explains. “They are not so keen on institutional or ‘macro’ ecumenism, but on local or “base” ecumenism.”

In Cuba, as most everyplace else in the world, ecumenism at the national or interdenominational level is in crisis. “These institutional groups forget location,” Montoya says. “They forget the base.”

For example, he says, “people are neighbours, their children attend the same schools, they ride the same buses, they walk in the same streets ― they are friends. On the ground they don’t see any differences, just on Sundays when they go to different churches.”

Practical ecumenism for Montoya, then, means teaching seminary students how to involve people locally “so they have better understanding and don’t have prejudice.” His classes focus on ecumenical cooperation in local communities, not on the dogmatic or doctrinal differences between churches.

Practical ecumenism must also be theological “because all of our hope ― what it means to be the church ― is based on faith and confidence in God.”
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Representatives of the Lutheran World Federation, the Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity met in Strasbourg, France, from 26 to 31 January 2014 for the second meeting of the Trilateral Dialogue Commission. The general topic of the dialogue “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church” was developed in the meeting through papers on the theme “Baptism: God’s Grace in Christ and Human Sin”. Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga and Rev. Gregory Fairbanks (Catholic), Professors Alfred Neufeld and Fernando Enns (Mennonite) and Professor Friederike Nüssel (Lutheran) presented papers on this topic. The commission also continued to study the baptismal rites of each participating Christian tradition, with special attention in this meeting to the Lutheran tradition, particularly regarding the contextualization of baptismal rites in the African region. Papers on these themes were presented by Professor Sarah Hinlicky-Wilson and Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata. The commission began its working days with prayers and joint reflections on biblical texts relating to baptism.
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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), formed in 2008 to help begin healing over Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous peoples, will be holding its final public event at the end of March in Edmonton.

Similar to past events, this one will feature traditional ceremonies, survivor gatherings and statements, an education day, and more.

Although the mandate of the TRC has been extended through 2015, this final public event signals the end of a journey and the beginning of a new one for those who have been involved.

National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald is already looking to the future.

“It has become more and more clear as we’ve gone on that this is a beginning, and not an end. This is the beginning of reconciliation. I don’t think that after we finish this, anybody will say ‘Well, we did that!'”

“I think the next steps on the path are the building of the positive relationships between non-Indigenous people and institutions, and Indigenous people. It’s all about building on the bedrock of reconciliation.”
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In a letter to the Honourable John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Most Reverend Paul-André Durocher, Archbishop of Gatineau and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), has expressed the concerns of the CCCB about the security wall in the Cremisan Valley, near Bethlehem. Archbishop Durocher is also a signatory of a statement issued today by the Coordination of Episcopal Conferences in Support of the Church in the Holy Land on a proposed extension of the Israeli security wall. This situation will affect the lives of many Christian families and the pastoral work of the religious communities in this area of the Holy Land.

In his letter to Mr. Baird, Archbishop Durocher conveys the concerns of the Catholic Bishops of Canada: “we ask your government to raise our objections about the extension of the security wall in the Cremisan Valley, with the hope that a change to the present Israeli plan could become one step forward toward making it possible for Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace and justice.”
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Almost a year after Francis’ election and with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at an end, it is now possible to give a first overview of the Pope’s initiatives to promote ecumenism. “For me ecumenism is a priority” Francis told Vatican Insider and Italian newspaper La Stampa in last December’s interview.

Some of the choices he made even at the very start of his pontificate had a very positive impact of ecumenism.
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An interview with the Archbishop of Utrecht, Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, sparked controversy in the Netherlands during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The interview was published in Reformatorisch Dagblad and reprinted by Trouw, on Monday 20 January.

The title of the interview is: “Eijk: the doctrine and condemnations of the Council of Trent still apply fully” The subheading read: “Cardinal Eijk has confirmed that the teachings of the Council of Trent still apply and so do the condemnations the Council made against those who reject said teachings. Protestants for example.”

The cardinal did not check the interview title and introductory summary, only the interview itself, which he approved. His statements were also quoted on the Dutch Bishops’ Conference website.

According to Eijk, the Council of Trent is a sign of the “Roman Catholic Church’s ability to purify itself,” with the “guidance of the Holy Spirit.” Eijk said Trent ended much of the malpractice in the Church during the Middle Ages, such as the ecclesiastical “job” trade, non biblical interpretations of the priesthood and the lack of discipline in monasteries: “When all the decrees (of the Council) were implemented, order was restored to the Church.”

The Council of Trent also contributed to defining some “truths of faith” regarding Protestants. The cardinal stated that these are still fully applicable. For example the essence of the sacrament of the Eucharist and transubstantiation.
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On Saturday, Pope Francis presided over evening Vespers at Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls Basilica where he was joined by members of the many different Christian Churches present here in Rome.

The celebration, which lands on the Feast of Saint Paul, marks the closing of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which has been exploring the theme, taken from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, “Has Christ been divided?”

Saturday’s celebrations coincide with the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.
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Preaching to Evangelicals at the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity didn’t phase Saskatoon Bishop Don Bolen — much.

“I’m always a bit nervous. I’m very mindful of my own shortcomings and inadequacies whenever I preach anywhere,” Bolen told The Catholic Register a few days after his Jan. 19 appearance at Saskatoon’s Circle Drive Alliance Church. “I did prepare more because they told me I had 30 minutes. Sweet, but it did require more preparation.”

Bolen preached on the story of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus’ ruling under the law that the one who has no sin should cast the first stone.

“He chose a beautiful text,” said Circle Drive Pastor Eldon Boldt. “Jesus showed grace and it was mercy upon mercy upon mercy. One girl wrote me (after the service) and said, ‘I don’t know why, but I found myself choking back tears as the bishop spoke.’ Well, that’s just the Holy Spirit.”

A Catholic bishop preaching in an Evangelical church is a rarity. As a member of the Evangelical-Roman Catholic International Consultation, Bolen hasn’t heard of other bishops preaching to Evangelicals. He plans to bring it up when the official international dialogue meets in March.
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Bishop Don Bolen of Saskatoon is Canada’s most ecumenically minded bishop.

He worked seven years for the Pontifical Commission for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome where he co-ordinated Vatican participation in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and watched and encouraged official dialogues between the Catholic Church and Anglicans and Methodists. Though now leading one of Western Canada’s most important dioceses, he remains a member of the Vatican’s ecumenical commission, co-chairs the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission, is a member of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, sits on the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada and is a member of the Evangelical-Roman Catholic International Consultation.
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Pope Francis dedicated the catechesis of this Wednesday’s general audience to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ends next Saturday, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. It is a spiritual initiative in which Christian communities have participated for over one hundred years, and is a time dedicated to prayer for the unity of all baptised persons, in accordance with Christ’s will “that they may all be one”. Every year an ecumenical group from one region in the world, under the guidance of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, suggests the theme and prepares the activities for the Prayer Week. This year the initiatives were prepared by the Churches and Ecclesiastical Communities of Canada, who have proposed the question posed by St. Paul to the Christians of Corinth: “Has Christ been divided?”
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In what might very well be a historic first, on Sunday January 19 Roman Catholic Bishop Donald Bolen was the guest preacher at one of Saskatoon’s flagship Evangelical churches, Circle Drive Alliance Church. Pastor Eldon Boldt invited Bishop Bolen to preach some months ago and suggested January as a possible time. Boldt has been offering the congregation a series of sermons through January on the theme of Reconciliation so the bishop’s sermon on Christian unity was a natural fit. Nevertheless, the significance of the occasion was not lost on anyone, including the congregation of Holy Family Cathedral to whom Bolen had preached earlier in the morning. Before he left for Circle Drive Church, the Catholic congregation gave Bolen a rousing cheer amid their prayers for Christian unity and thanksgiving for their bishop’s ecumenical passion.

The invitation to Circle Drive Church did not come out of the blue. Pastor Boldt and Bishop Bolen have been friends for a number of years and have happily shared together in prayer and witness. They are both members of a joint consultation committee between the Catholic diocese and the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers’ Fellowship (SEMF).
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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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There are many reasons to be hopeful about the direction of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue but it is threatened by tensions emerging within the Orthodox Church. As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity gets under way today, a leading ecumenist gives his assessment.

In 1923, a schoolteacher priest of Lyons started devoting his spare time to helping the 10,000 refugees from Bolshevism camped and lodged around the city and its suburbs. It was his first encounter with a Christianity that was not Roman Catholic. Thus he learned the friendship of receiving as well as giving, finding great respect for the Orthodox clergy and people in their moment of destitution, as his heart opened to their faith and the beauty of their worship. He was astonished to find Catholics from the old Russian Empire who were not Latins, but Eastern Christians who maintained their unity with the Bishop of Rome with roots to before the Great Schism. Over the next decade, Paul Couturier became convinced of the need for Christian unity, and in 1935 he took hold of the Catholic Church Unity Octave, founded in 1908, and developed it into a “Universal Week of Prayer for the Unity of Christians in the charity and truth of Christ”. Inspired by the holiness of the Orthodox, beyond this world he imagined an “invisible monastery”, in which all could unite in prayer to God in Heaven, in the hope of seeing the same union realised in the Church here. He took for his motto the saying of Metropolitan Platon Gorodetsky of Kiev: “The walls of separation do not rise as far as Heaven.”
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The Archbishop of Canterbury affirmed his commitment to the reconciliation of Eastern and Western churches during a meeting with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew yesterday.

The Most Revd Justin Welby was meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew during a two-day visit to Istanbul.

During their meeting Archbishop Justin said that Patriarch Bartholomew had been “an example of peace and reconciliation, politically, with the natural world, and in your historic visit to the installation of His Holiness Pope Francis I.

“Such reconciliation [is] very dear to my heart and is one of my key priorities. It is the call of Christ that all may be one so that the world may see. I will therefore be taking back with me the warmth of your hospitality and also, after our discussions today and tomorrow, a renewed and refreshed focus for greater unity and closer fellowship. We want to carry the cross of our divisions, but be filled with the hope and joy that comes from the grace and the love of Jesus.”
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The Ecumenical Patriarch said today he hoped for a continuing exchange of Orthodox and Anglican students to aid the two Churches’ relationship.

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who occupies the First Throne of the Orthodox Christian Church, was speaking today during his welcome of the Anglican Communion’s spiritual head Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

He said, “In the past, the rapprochement between our two Churches has been greatly assisted by the exchange of students, and we trust that this will continue. Our Theological School at Halki used to offer scholarships to Anglicans, and when it is reopened – as will happen in the near future (so it may be hoped) – we shall certainly wish to revive this tradition.

“These exchange students have frequently gone on to become leaders in their respective Churches, and their early inter-Church experience has enabled them to further the cause of Christian unity in highly constructive ways.”

Archbishop Welby is on what has been described as an ‘intensive two-day visit’ that will include official reception in the Chamber of the Throne, and a discussion with the Synodical Committee for Inter-Christian Affairs.
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The diocesan phase of the process leading to the canonization the Jesuit priest who proclaimed the Christian message in China, is complete. Ricci’s beatification cause moved to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints yesterday.

The dossiers on Matteo Ricci’s beatification cause were received by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome yesterday. The news was announced by Claudio Giuliodori, the Apostolic Administrator of the Italian Diocese of Macerata at a public meeting yesterday. The diocesan phase of the process leading to the canonization of this great Jesuit who brought the Gospel to China, has concluded in Macerata, where the priest was born in 1552. Once all relevant documentation has been studied, the Roman phase of the canonization process will begin: a Relator will be appointed to organise the material collected to certify that the candidate for sainthood has lived their human and theological virtues to a heroic level.
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Reverend Dennis Vavrek, OFM, Western Canada Provincial for the Franciscans, in a January 2 telephone interview confirmed that Franciscans are leaving St. Michael’s Retreat Ministries. “Like most religious communities in the Western world our numbers are declining and we have two retreat centres. At our chapter meeting in May 2013 the future was discussed and it was decided that we can no longer maintain two retreat centres, that we’d have to leave one and it was decided that we would leave St. Michael’s Retreat in Lumsden on or before the next Chapter meeting which will be in 2016.” St. Michael’s Retreat Ministries celebrated its 50th anniversary during 2013 and the community did not wish to discuss the issue until the end of the anniversary year. The other Retreat facility is Mount St. Francis in Cochrane, Alberta.

Retreat houses do not make money, said Vavrek. St. Michael’s income pays the operating bills but doesn’t make a profit and the Franciscan community, because it owns the building, pays all capital costs.

Vavrek said the ecumenical board of Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic faith traditions and representatives from the Franciscans and the Regina Archdiocese will continue to govern but other options are being considered. “Yes, we have sort of tested the waters to see what interest there might be but our number one priority is to find a way to continue as St. Michael’s Retreat Ministries,” said Vavrek.
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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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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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The world will pray with Canada this January, and in a special way with native Canadians. For the second time in the 106-year history of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Canadians have written the biblical reflections, prayer services and educational materials to be used worldwide.

Celebrated Jan. 18-25, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is prepared each year in a different country under the direction of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome and the Geneva-based World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission. Since the two major ecumenical organizations took over the annual event in 1968, Canada is just the second country to be asked twice to prepare the worship and study material.

Coming back to Canada, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity wanted to make sure the material is fresh and reflects a different perspective. In 1989 Canada’s offering was prepared by the Canadian Council of Churches. This time, preparations were led by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal and the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism in Saskatoon.

Having Canada’s independent ecumenical centres take over was the initiative of Saskatoon Bishop Donald Bolen, who for years worked on the Week of Prayer as an official for the Pontifical Council in Rome. Though the CCC did not lead the 2014 effort, general secretary Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton played an important role helping to review the material, said Nicholas Jesson, ecumenical officer for the diocese of Saskatoon and part of the 2014 writing committee.
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Archbishop David Moxon is now, formally, Archbishop Sir David Moxon – an honour he calls “a complete bolt out of the blue.”

In the New Year’s Honours he’s been appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit “in recognition of his services to the Anglican Church.”

“I was very, very surprised,” he said today. “I genuinely don’t think of myself in that league at all.”

Archbishop Sir David Moxon – that will become his formal title – is presently in Raglan with his family, on holiday from his job in Rome as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the Holy See, and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.

Before taking up his Rome appointment Archbishop David, 62, had already had carved out a stellar record in the Anglican Church in these islands.

He’d served as Bishop of Waikato for almost 20 years, and in 2006 he was chosen as the Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses – and therefore as one of the three Archbishops heading the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
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After serving as the National Council of Churches’ executive leader for the briefest tenure in the Council’s history, Peg Birk can also look back on the most comprehensive restructuring and redirecting of the NCC since its founding in 1950.

Birk, a nationally known change management expert and Congregational laywoman, took office as Transitional General Secretary of the NCC in July 2012 with the understanding she would serve with the sole purpose of guiding an historic re-envisioning and restructuring of the financially beleaguered Council.

Now, with a new President and General Secretary about to take office and a new organizational structure in place, Birk is returning home to Minneapolis, Minn., on January 1.

The Rev. A. Roy Medley, Chair of the NCC Governing Board, said Birk has been “a tireless and resourceful leader for the Council at a critical point in its history.”

Birk “worked skillfully with board and staff to guide an essential reexamination of the Council’s ministries and resources,” Medley said, “and the NCC is in a far stronger position for mission than it was 18 months ago. We are grateful for her service.”

The NCC’s Past President, Kathryn Lohre, who worked closely with Birk during the transition, said, “The Council is deeply indebted to Peg Birk for leading this 18 month transition with grace, stamina, wisdom, and tenacity,”

“She has successfully implemented a complex plan for re-envisioning and restructuring the NCC under significant pressure for time, resources, and reserves,” Lohre said.
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Former Anglicans who convert to Catholicism must be a bridge to Christian unity and a force for true ecumenism, said the leader of North America’s Anglican ordinariate as four former Anglican priests were ordained to the Catholic priesthood.

“If the Ordinariate is to be anything worthy and worth keeping for the long term, it must be an instrument of Christian unity,” said Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, head of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (POCSP).

In a Dec. 14 ceremony in Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast ordained Bryan Kipling Cooper, Douglas Hayman, both of Ottawa, John Hodgins of Toronto and James Tilley of Oshawa, Ont., to serve as priests in the Ordinariate.
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Austria’s Vienna Archdiocese has defended its gifts of Catholic churches to Orthodox communities, as part of a current reorganization.

“Our own church is receding in Vienna, whereas other Christian confessions are on the rise because of immigration,” Michael Pruller, the archdiocese spokesman, told Catholic News Service Dec. 19.

“Many large churches were built in the 19th century for parishes numbering tens of thousands. As in other countries, we’re now having to get rid of churches, which can’t be maintained by their small congregations.”

He said the archdiocese had tried to find an “alternative Catholic use” for unwanted churches, to prevent them being turned into “supermarkets and cafes,” but would otherwise hand them over to other Christian denominations. No money is given as compensation, he said.
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The President of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), Jerry Pillay, has welcomed progress in the past two years by churches of the Reformed family in South Africa to overcome major hurdles on the path to unity.

“We give thanks to God,” Pillay said at the end of a visit to South Africa by the WCRC South Africa task team from 29 September to 2 October.

The team led by Pillay also included WCRC General Secretary Setri Nyomi, Sabine Dressler of the Reformed Alliance in Germany and Oscar McCloud of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The team had meetings with the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), the Dutch Reformed Church (NGK), the Reformed Church in Africa (RCA) and the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA). These four churches have been engaged in reunification talks for more than a decade. The team said they felt encouraged about what they heard from the four churches. Challenges that had created mistrust and stalled the process seemed to be dissipating.
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At a service in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) marked the more than six decades in which the Reformed church family has been based in the Swiss city. In January 2014, WCRC’s operating office moves to Hannover, Germany.

“We gather here to join our hearts in thanksgiving for 65 years of God’s presence,” said WCRC General Secretary Setri Nyomi. He recalled that the Presbyterian World Alliance, a forerunner of WCRC, moved from Edinburgh to Geneva in 1948 to be near to the newly-founded World Council of Churches (WCC).

The service on 5 December was attended by WCRC President Jerry Pillay and officers, current and former staff, representatives of Swiss and German churches, and sister organizations in the Ecumenical Centre, as well as the German Ambassador to Switzerland, Otto Lampe.

“We certainly thank God for the fact that … we could be physically part of a wider ecumenical family,” said the WCRC’s Executive Secretary for Theology and Communion, Douwe Visser, in his sermon. Above all, however, the period in Geneva, he said, was a time of being able to receive God’s word. “Looking at our 65 years of being with you here in Geneva from the perspective of God’s word given to us, we see so much to thank God for.”
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For Pope Francis, the reform of the Catholic Church and its structures “isn’t a project, but an exercise of the Spirit” that will take time, said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga.

The cardinal, co-ordinator of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals, which is working on the reform of the Roman Curia and advising him on Church governance, spoke about the Pope and his approach during a Dec. 4 book presentation at the Vatican.

Other cardinals on the council were in attendance as well for the presentation of Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro’s book, La Mia Porta ‘E Sempre Aperta (My Door is Always Open), an expanded version of the interview with Pope Francis published in Jesuit periodicals around the world in September. Rodriguez said the title of the book could well be the main theme of Pope Francis’ pontificate.
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The Vatican will restart its stalled dialogue with Sunni Islam’s main theological centre, Al-Azhar University, said Fr. Rafic Greiche, spokesman for Egypt’s Catholic Church.

Talks between the Vatican and Al-Azhar were suspended by the Muslim university in 2011 following a series of remarks made by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.

Greiche spoke to Catholic News Service in Cairo Dec. 4, a day after Comboni Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, met at the prominent Muslim university with Abbas Shouman, deputy to Al-Azhar’s grand imam, Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb.

“There was a meeting in a positive atmosphere, and both (sides) agreed to continue,” Greiche said.
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The Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium recently delivered by Pope Francis concerning the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world has stirred interest and appreciation from the World Council of Churches (WCC) as a challenging and inviting document.

“The Apostolic Exhortation is more than simply conveying the message of the Synod on evangelization, but addresses the need for the renewal of the church at all levels from the perspective of the call to be a missional church,” WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said.

“The tone of the document is open and both challenging and inviting,” he added. “It is really inspiring to read as we now try to implement the mandate from our recent assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea. It provides an inspiring interaction between ecclesiological reflections, missionary perspectives and concerns about economic, ecological justice and peace building as significant missionary dimensions of the church.”

“At the recent WCC 10th assembly in Busan we too highlighted the need for the renewal of the church both through a new mission statement that speaks of mission being from the margins of society, and the movement of the church and ecumenical movement toward justice and peace,” Tveit said.

Tveit added that he sees parallels between the “pilgrimage of justice and peace” the WCC fellowship of 345 member churches will be embarking on, especially now after the November assembly and the reflections of Pope Francis.

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Church officials in Germany defended plans by the country’s bishops’ conference to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, insisting they have the Pope’s endorsement.

“We already have our own guidelines, and the Pope has now clearly signalled that certain things can be decided locally,” said Robert Eberle, spokesman for the archdiocese of Freiburg.

“We’re not the only archdiocese seeking helpful solutions to this problem, and we’ve had positive reactions from other dioceses in Germany and abroad, assuring us they already practice what’s written in our guidelines,” he said.
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Putting into practical action the recent progress made in ecumenical relations: that’s the aim of an international commission of Anglican and Catholic bishops, whose leaders held an annual meeting here in Rome this week.

Set up in 2001 to promote closer co-operation between bishops of the two denominations, the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, or IARCCUM, is currently led by Canadian Catholic Bishop Don Bolen and Anglican bishop David Hamid.

Among the projects they’ve been developing is a new website and a way of showcasing practical actions by bishops working together in many different parts of the world. Philippa Hitchen sat down with them both to try and find out more about what’s been going on behind the scenes since last year’s meeting.

Listen here (Real) media01.radiovaticana.va/audio/ra/00401866.RM
Listen here (MP3) media01.radiovaticana.va/audiomp3/00401866.MP3
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The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the International Lutheran Council (ILC), an organization for the purpose of encouraging, strengthening, and promoting confessional Lutheran theology, met to discuss the possibility of extending local and regional informal discussions into an informal ecumenical dialogue process on the international level. The meeting between the PCPCU and the ILC primarily occurred after several informal discussions between some ILC members and Roman Catholic organizations resulted in positive outcomes, especially those held between the Lutheran Theological Seminary Oberursel of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) and the Johann-Adam-Möhler Institute for Ecumenism in Paderborn, Germany. Other informal discussions that contributed to the meeting between the PCPCU and the ILC included those held between The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and the Archdiocese of Saint Louis and the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, and those between Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) and representatives of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, gave an address at today’s inaugural session of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Centre for Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Dialogue (KAICIID). The centre is an independent organisation based in Vienna and founded by Saudi Arabia, Austria and Spain, to which the Holy See adheres in the role of Founding Observer.

The Conference, which ends today, is intended to raise awareness among younger generations to enable them to have an objective, honest and accurate image of one another. From this perspective, three related themes will be considered over the next three years. In 2013, the theme “The Image of the Other” focuses on education, with the presence in Vienna of a number of education ministers from all over the world; next year’s forum will be dedicated to means of communication and finally, in 2015, the Internet will be the focus of attention.
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James E. Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, has been elected General Secretary/President of the National Council of Churches by the NCC Governing Board meeting here.

Winkler will succeed Peg Birk, who has served as Transitional General Secretary of the Council since July 2012. Birk was named to lead the Council through a transitional period of reorganization following the resignation of General Secretary Michael Kinnamon in 2011 for health reasons.

The office of General Secretary/President, formerly General Secretary, is the leading staff position in the NCC.
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For more than two years, a group of Evangelical and Catholic Christians in Saskatoon have been meeting to talk about their common faith in Jesus Christ, discussing what is shared, as well as examining where their understandings and convictions differ.

Formally appointed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers Fellowship, the local dialogue group is now in the process of writing a joint statement, just as a second Catholic-Evangelical worship service is being planned for Saskatoon Nov. 14.

It was after the first shared worship service in March 2011 at St. Paul’s Catholic Cathedral that a small group of church and ecumenical leaders met to try and find ways for the two traditions to further engage in common prayer, common witness, common mission and common study. A dialogue group was subsequently launched, with the first meeting held in December 2011.

Rev. Harry Strauss, associate pastor at Forest Grove Community Church (left) and a member of the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers Fellowship, and Nicholas Jesson, ecumenical officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, are part of the 20-member dialogue group, which includes 10 representatives from each tradition.

Both Strauss and Jesson are also serving on a four-member committee that is now drafting a joint statement emerging from two years of conversation, study and relationship building.

Strauss describes the joint statement: “We confess our common faith, we acknowledge our differences and we affirm our common mission.”

Although the joint statement is not finished, there are plans to introduce portions at the 7 p.m. Nov. 14 Evangelical-Catholic worship service being hosted by Circle Drive Alliance Church, led by Pastor Eldon Bolt.
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The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) opened on Wednesday, 30 October in Busan, Republic of Korea under the theme “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.”

The opening service of common prayer on the first day of the assembly honoured diverse faith traditions from around the world. The gathering prayer included deeply moving litanies of lamentations, cries and hopes from the churches in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the Pacific.

The first plenary session of the assembly welcomed delegates and participants to Busan. The mayor of Busan, Hur Nam Sik, moderator of the Korean Host Committee of the WCC assembly the Rev. Dr Kim Sam Whan and the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit welcomed all the assembly participants.

Tveit expressed thanks to the Korean churches, the city of Busan and the government for their gracious hospitality and welcome. Tveit addressed participants of the assembly which includes some 3000 participants representing 345 member churches of the WCC, including youth, WCC staff members, stewards, co-opted staff, interpreters and more than 1,000 Korean church members and day visitors. All these participants represent more than 100 countries.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has called for the Church to be ‘holy’ and ‘in unity’ as it proclaims the gospel in challenging circumstances around the world.

Archbishop Justin sent a video greeting to the Second Global Anglican Future (GAFCON) Conference, which is taking place in Nairobi this week. He told them that it was his prayer that they would ‘meet Jesus afresh with elation and joy’.

The Archbishop was unable to attend the GAFCON meeting because of previous commitments, including the baptism of Prince George today.

In his message, Archbishop Justin affirms the recent call by the Archbishop of Kenya, Dr Eliud Wabukala, who chairs the GAFCON Primates Council, for the Church to proclaim the gospel confidently.

To do this, Archbishop Justin says, ‘we need to be a Church that is holy’. That is a ‘massive challenge’ to churches in different contexts around the world, but is ‘absolutely critical to our proclamation of the gospel’.

To proclaim the gospel effectively, the Church must also be ‘in unity’, the Archbishop says. ‘It doesn’t mean being unanimous, all saying exactly the same thing in exactly the same way. It means that, as Jesus prays in John 17, that we demonstrate by our love for one another that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore people are drawn to believe in him. We’ve got to find ways of doing that and I don’t underestimate the challenge that is to all of us.’
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During an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican earlier today, leaders from The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) expressed gratitude for the partnership with the Roman Catholic Church that makes it possible for churches to strengthen their commitment to the poor and vulnerable.

“As people who have been encountered by Christ, we are called to accompany the poor and vulnerable. The message of reconciliation entrusted to us turns into the hope for our fragmented world and its yearning for peace with justice,” LWF President Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan said in LWF’s greeting to the pope.

Younan expressed gratitude for the ecumenical milestones of the partnership with Catholics, including the recent publication of the report “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration in 2017.”

By jointly approaching a shared history which includes elements of pain “the promise of healing appears on the horizon,” Younan said of the publication that outlines the mutual responsibility by Lutherans and Catholics for a common approach to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.

The June 2013 report by the Lutheran–Roman Catholic Commission on Unity marked the first time that both partners have worked together at the global level to tell the history of the Reformation as part of their commitment to deepen Christian unity. Baptism is the focus of ongoing dialogue by the commission, which will mark its 50th anniversary in 2017.
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The only route to reuniting Eastern and Western Christianity is to strengthen the primacy of the pope, according to Orthodox theologians.

And in Pope Francis they detect signs that a window to unity may be opening.

For Catholics used to Orthodox objections to the pomp and presumptions of the Catholic papacy, talk of beefing up Roman primacy — the doctrine that gives the Successor of St. Peter authority over the entire Church — may come as a surprise. But that’s exactly what Orthodox theologians will be discussing with their Catholic counterparts when the North American Catholic-Orthodox Theological Consultation meets Oct. 24 to 26 in Mississauga, Ont.

“Both the North American and the international dialogues have been dealing with issues of primacy and synodality. They are two sides of the same coin,” said Paul Meyendorff, Orthodox delegate to the North American dialogue. “From the Orthodox perspective, synodality is absolutely essential for a proper primacy to function.”
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Il y a 17 ans, les conférences épiscopales de langue française à travers le monde, y compris la Conférence des évêques catholiques du Canada (CECC), avaient convenu d’entreprendre la traduction intégrale de la Bible pour usage liturgique. Depuis le Concile Vatican II, certains textes bibliques pour célébrer la Messe et les sacrements ont été traduits; mais il a été convenu que ceux-ci méritaient une révision. Il en est résulté une traduction intégrale et révisée de la Bible liturgique, qui sera publiée en français le 22 novembre prochain. Une édition populaire à reliure souple sera disponible aux Éditions de la CECC au début de la nouvelle année.
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As top-level domain names are being rolled out and up for grabs, the Vatican has scored control of .catholic.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which coordinates the assignment of Internet domain names and addresses around the world, has been allowing entities to apply for ownership of hundreds, and soon thousands, of new domain names such as .london, .insurance and .xbox, among others.

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications completed the application process last summer and just received approval that it will now control the new Internet address extension .catholic and decide who is allowed to use it.

The Vatican will control .catholic and its equivalent in other languages using Latin letters, as well as the equivalent of the word “Catholic” in the Cyrillic, Arabic and Chinese alphabets. Its request for .catholic in Chinese is number one on the ICANN list of priority domain names, right above .Amazon in Japanese.
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The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) begins at the end of October and promises to be one of the most diverse gathering of Christians in the world.

The assembly will be an opportunity for renewing the worldwide ecumenical movement – infusing it with honesty, humility and hope, according to the WCC general secretary.

As to why this is the case, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary, and a Lutheran pastor from the Church of Norway says, it is “through humility, honesty and hope that we can live together as humanity and a Church in a world, where justice and peace are fundamental initiatives and not merely words.”

The theme of the WCC assembly is a prayer “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”.

The assembly will take place from 30 October to 8 November in Busan, Republic of Korea.

It will bring around 3,000 participants from Asia, Pacific, Africa, Europe, Middle East, North America and Latin America, including a large number of young people and several thousand Korean Christians.
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The Roman Catholic co-chair of the Third Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) has expressed his personal view that, seeing how in 1993 certain relaxations were made in the Vatican’s rules on eucharistic sharing, further relaxation is possible.

Speaking last week to the Gazette editor following a joint session of the National Advisers’ Committee on Ecumenism of the Irish (Roman Catholic) Episcopal Conference and representatives of the Church of Ireland’s Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue, at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the Most Rev. Bernard Longley — Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham and ARCIC III co-chair — referred to the changes in “specified circumstances” set out in the 1993 Ecumenism Directory.

He commented, “Given that that represents a change, and a very significant shift away from the impossibility to the limited possibility, then I could imagine and foresee one of the fruits of our ecumenical engagement as moving towards a deeper understanding of communion and a deeper sharing, a deeper communion between our churches which perhaps would lead to reconsideration of some of the circumstances.”
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The Anglican-Lutheran International Co-ordinating Committee (ALICC) held its first meeting in the Cultural Centre Sofia, Helsinki, Finland from 19 to 25 September 2013, under the leadership of the Most Reverend Maurício Andrade, Primate of Brazil, and of Bishop Michael Pryse of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The meeting was hosted by the Lutheran World Federation with the generous assistance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

The Co-ordinating Committee studied the mandate given by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Anglican Communion. The focus of this work is to monitor and encourage existing Anglican-Lutheran relations, as well as to advance co-operation between the two Churches in areas where there are not yet any formal agreements. To enable the Committee to function as an encourager as well as a catalyst, the Committee has begun a process of mapping agreements, initiatives and projects in different regions. This mapping project is an ongoing task for the Committee and we urge Churches, in both communions, to provide information to further this task.
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Writing in one of Italy’s major secular newspapers, Pope Francis called for a “sincere and rigourous dialogue” between the Church and non-believers as an “intimate and indispensable expression” of Christian love.

The Pope’s words appeared in a 2,600-word letter published in the Sept. 11 edition of the Rome daily La Repubblica, in reply to recent articles by Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the newspaper.

An “open and unprejudiced dialogue” between Christians and those of no religious faith is “rightful and precious” today for at least two reasons, Pope Francis wrote. Such a dialogue could “open doors for a serious and fertile encounter” between secular culture and Christian culture, which have lost the ability to communicate due largely to modern views of faith as the “darkness of superstition opposed to the light of reason.”
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Montreal Archbishop Christian Lépine has warned against the Parti Quebecois’ plans to enshrine Quebec values in a charter.

Once Quebec “values” are enshrined in such a charter, they are “frozen in time” and the charter “puts pressure on everyone, on institutions and individuals,” Lépine said in an interview from Montreal.

On Sept. 10, the Quebec government released details of the proposed Charter of Quebec Values that would prohibit public servants from wearing visible signs of religious belief such as Jewish skullcaps, Muslim hijabs, Sikh turbans, large crucifixes or Star of David jewellery. The government released a chart showing that small symbols such as a tiny crucifix around the neck or on earrings or a small Star of David ring would be allowed. These rules would apply to everyone employed in the public sector. The charter would also bar people whose faces are covered from providing or receiving public services.
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