Nineteen Canadian Christian evangelical pastors are spending nine days on a study tour of Israel that is intended to provide them with information and perspectives that could be used to defend Israeli government policies. The tour, a project of the Modern Israel Studies Department at Canada Christian College in Toronto in conjunction with the B’nai Brith World Center in Jerusalem, was funded by private donors.
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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina and the Anglican Diocese of Qu’Appelle have entered into a covenant committing themselves to prayer together and for each other, to work together for justice, peace, and aboriginal reconciliation and healing, and to consult regularly where developments affect the other. Archbishop Daniel Bohan and Bishop Gregory Kerr-Wilson signed the covenant on behalf of their churches in a joint worship service on Sunday, January 23rd at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Regina.
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According to Pastor Harry Strauss, the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers Fellowship (SEMF) intention is to build up fellowship among its members and within the wider community.

Strauss is an associate pastor at Forest Grove Community Church and chair of SEMF which is an association and fellowship of pastors and leaders from about 40 evangelical churches in the city. It also includes representatives from a dozen or so para-church organizations like Youth for Christ, Power to Change, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and Christian Counselling Services.

SEMF has been operating for many years as an organization that sees its membership constantly changing.

“The heart of our mission is to foster a spirit of unity among Christian ministers and ministries in the city,” Strauss says.

The group meets monthly, and in recent years has become involved in a number of interesting initiatives.
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Ecumenical News International, an award-winning agency reporting on religion and based at the World Council of Churches (WCC), has been temporarily closed and had its two top editors removed, one of them said on Monday.

The decision, taken at a meeting of its executive committee last week, comes after the Geneva-based WCC cut the agency’s funding and its former head criticised its coverage.

The suspension and leadership changes led to the resignation of the ENI president and its treasurer, both senior figures in Scandinavian Protestant churches, a report by the agency said.
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Last year, Green Church was a humble project run by a committee linking inspiration and environmental action together. Since September 2010, Green Church is now a national program offered by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in both English and French. We redesigned the logo with a green maple leaf and a cross to reflect the mission of the program
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A gathering to improve relations between the many Protestant denominations in the Netherlands recently took place on the site of an earlier historic synod, though any idea of complete church unity taking place was said to smack of “an unrealistic utopia.” About 700 Christians from 50 Prot­estant churches attended what was billed as a “national synod” December 10-11 in the main church in the town of Dor­drecht.
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The president of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Munib Younan has said before meeting Pope Benedict XVI that their churches should issue a common statement on Holy Communion to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luther began in 1517.

“Our [the Lutheran federation’s] intention is to arrive at 2017 with a common Roman Catholic-Lutheran declaration on eucharistic hospitality,” Younan told the Italian Protestant news agency NEV the day before his audience with the Pope Dec. 16.
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After several years of informal talks, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Seventh-day Adventist Church held their first formal dialogue in late-October in Chicago.
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The head of the World Council of Churches in his first official meeting with Pope Benedict XVI has said he wants to strengthen cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the Middle East.
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Church leaders support Good Food Junction; Grocery store heart of Station 20 West Advent sees many churches encouraging members to give a special gift to charity. This year, local church leaders suggest these gifts be directed to the Good Food Junction project at Station 20 West. Earlier this week, local leaders from a variety of
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More help is being offered to churches that want to do something about climate change.

The Montreal-based Canadian Centre for Ecumenism has launched the Green Church program to advise churches on ways to reduce their carbon footprint and lower heating bills. Joined with Toronto-based Greening Sacred Spaces, Green Church will offer certification to churches that achieve a high level of environmental awareness and act on it starting in April 2011.
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The leaders of many Saskatoon churches gathered on Wednesday, November 24th to sign a letter of support for Station 20 West’s Good Food Junction grocery store. The churches have agreed to work together as an ecumenical advent project, to raise much-needed funds for the equipment required by the store.

At today’s public event, the Rev. Amanda Currie (Presbyterian Church in Canada) and Bishop Donald Bolen (Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon) offered their reflections on this project. Speaking about the dream of having a full-service grocery store in the core neighbourhoods, Currie said: “What may come as a surprise to many people across Saskatoon is that many of the families and individuals who live in the core neighbourhoods are not dreaming that they’ll get to move to the East side. Their dream is the transformation of their own neighbourhoods. And that is a dream that can become a reality.”

“We do have differences which separate us as Christian communities, but nevertheless we chose to stand together today,” said Bolen, the Roman Catholic bishop of Saskatoon. “We hope this is an invitation to all of Saskatoon to rise above differences, political differences, differences of neighbourhoods or perspective, to join in support of people of Pleasant Hill.”

“The only politics that really belongs here is the politics of providing food to people who need food, to providing food security for this neighbourhood,” said Bolen.
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An address given by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at a conference to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, on November 17, 2010. The theme of the conference was “Towards a new stage of ecumenical dialogue.”
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Remembering, Seeing, Hoping: An Ecumenical Advent Retreat with Bishop Donald Bolen
Queen’s House of Retreat and Renewal, 601 Taylor Street, Saskatoon
Friday November 26, 2010 to Sunday November 28, 2010
To register call 306-242-1916, or register online at www.queenshouse.org
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On Wednesday 17 November, at the “Sala San Pio X”, at Via della Conciliazione 5, Rome, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity will hold a public commemoration to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, says a communiqué released today.
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“Our theology is not the same,” said Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan, “but we are all in the same boat.” The prince was addressing an assembly of Christians and Muslims gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to mark the beginning on Monday of a four-day international consultation on Muslim-Christian dialogue.
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Special needs met in a special place; Former Presbyterian church becomes resource for the mentally challenged Several decades ago, five lots of city land on McKercher Drive were donated to the Presbyterian Church in Canada by the McKercher family, long-time members of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. A plan was eventually put together to develop a
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Members of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue in the United States approved by unanimous consent on October 17 the dialogue’s final report on “The Hope of Eternal Life.” The 65-page report represents the fruit of the dialogue’s four-and-a-half-year study. It explores issues related to the Christian’s life beyond death, such as the communion of saints, resurrection of the dead, and final judgment, as well as historically divisive issues such as purgatory, indulgences, and prayers for the dead.
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The head of the World Council of Churches has reached out to a global gathering of Evangelicals saying Christians of different traditions need to learn from each other to participate together in God’s mission.

“We are called to be one, to be reconciled, so that the world may believe that God reconciles the world to himself in Christ,” the WCC general secretary, the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, said in a 17 October address on the opening day of the 3rd Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization.
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The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization opens in Cape Town this weekend, Sunday 17 October 2010. It draws together 4,000 invited participants from 197 nations, and extends through GlobaLink sites to 90 countries. The Congress theme is ‘God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Corinthians 5:19) and how to bear witness to Jesus Christ and all his teaching in every region of the world and every sphere of society.
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Tuesday 19 October 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the Faith and Order movement. “Faith and Order” seeks Christian unity through theological dialogue among representatives of various churches.

The beginnings of Faith and Order are closely linked to the World Missionary Conference of June 1910 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The focus of the Edinburgh Conference was cooperation in global Christian mission. Questions around church-dividing issues and controversial points of doctrine were intentionally avoided during public discussions in Edinburgh, yet they were in the minds of many who attended.

One participant in the conference was Charles Brent, a Canadian by birth, a missionary bishop then serving in the Philippines on behalf of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. The idea of a Faith and Order conference began with Bishop Brent, who made the link between the Edinburgh Conference with its call for Christian unity and the need to resolve issues of faith and order in the divided churches.
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Another Canadian Anglican has been appointed to an international ecumenical post. Ecumenism in Canada congratulates Natasha Klukach on her new role at the WCC.

Natasha Klukach, General Synod’s coordinator for ecumenical relations, has been appointed to an international role that will make the most of her strong theological and relationship-building skills.

The Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has approved her appointment as Programme Executive: Church and Ecumenical Relations / North American Regional Relations at the WCC office in Geneva, Switzerland. Ms. Klukach is ready to take up her appointment in January 2011.
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Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue Lays Out a Vision of Unity in Unprecedented Document

Representatives of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches have issued two new documents outlining immediate steps they can take to overcome their thousand-year separation.
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Catholic-Oriental Orthodox Dialogue Discusses Proselytism, Other Pastoral Issues Facing Their Churches

[Washington – USCCB] The United States Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultation held its 2010 meeting at the Passionist Spiritual Center in Bronx, New York, on September 20 and 21. The meeting, co-chaired by Catholic Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, New York, and the Right Reverend Chor-Episcopos John Meno of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, focused primarily on pastoral issues facing both churches.
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You have spoken, Your Grace, of the historic meeting that took place, almost thirty years ago, between two of our predecessors – Pope John Paul the Second and Archbishop Robert Runcie – in Canterbury Cathedral. There, in the very place where Saint Thomas of Canterbury bore witness to Christ by the shedding of his blood, they prayed together for the gift of unity among the followers of Christ. We continue today to pray for that gift, knowing that the unity Christ willed for his disciples will only come about in answer to prayer, through the action of the Holy Spirit, who ceaselessly renews the Church and guides her into the fullness of truth.
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Pope & Archbishop of Canterbury call for common Christian witness

Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury knelt together before the tomb of an 11th-century Christian king after affirming the need for Catholics and Anglicans to give a united witness to society. St. Edward the Confessor, who is buried in the Anglicans’ Westminster Abbey, reigned five centuries before English Christians became divided.

The pope and the primate of the Church of England paid homage together to the Christian king Sept. 17 at the end of an afternoon that included public speeches, a 30-minute private meeting and a joint ecumenical prayer service in Westminster Abbey. Archbishop Williams welcomed Pope Benedict as the first pope ever to visit Westminster Abbey, which was home to a community of Catholic Benedictine monks until 1540 when King Henry VIII dissolved the monastic community.
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U.S. Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Commission plans statement on Approaches to Moral Issues

The Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the United States held its sixty-eighth meeting in Alexandria, Louisiana, on September 9 and 10. This session was largely devoted to the examination of a draft outline of a potential agreed statement on the topic of the current round of dialogue, “Ecclesiology and Moral Discernment: Common Ground and Divergences.” This topic explores the fact that while the two churches share the same convictions on a wide range of ethical questions, there are serious differences regarding certain issues in personal morality, especially those pertaining to human sexuality. In earlier meetings of the Commission, members discussed Catholic and Anglican positions on contraception, debt relief, immigration, same-sex unions and health care.
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Benedict XVI: Dialogue and Collaboration among Different Religions

At midday today in St. Mary’s University College at Twickenham, the Holy Father met with leaders from the main Christian confessions and from other religions present in the United Kingdom: Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.
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An international grouping of churches and Christian organizations says that if one sixth of the world’s population is hungry when there is sufficient food to feed the world, then action to address the problem’s root causes is needed.

The Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, which campaigns for food justice, said in a statement on September 14 that new figures on world hunger highlight that the food crisis is still acute for one-sixth of the world’s population.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme had on the same day announced that 925 million people are estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger in 2010, down from the 1.023 billion estimated in 2009.
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Moravians establish covenant relationship with PCUSA

The Southern Province of the Moravian Church in America voted last week to enter into a covenant relationship with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). With the Northern Province of the church having taken a similar vote in June, the PCUSA is now in covenant relationship with all North American Moravians except those in Alaska, which is a separate province.
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A recent meeting of the executive committee of the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from July 28 to August 4, 2010. Among other topics on the agenda for the meeting were proposals for two ecumenical dialogues, one with Seventh Day Adventists, and the other with Lutherans and Catholics.
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Young Christians from around the world are invited to apply to the World Council of Churches (WCC) stewards programme for one of two hands-on learning experiences at major ecumenical meetings in 2011, the WCC Central Committee meeting, 8-24 February, and the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, 12-26 May. Applicants must be between the age of 18-30 years.

During the meetings stewards will work in the areas of worship, conference room, documentation, press office, sound, and other administrative and support tasks.

The WCC Central Committee meets every 18 months in Geneva, Switzerland to monitor and set directions to the Council’s work. The meeting brings together about 150 church representatives, advisers and observers from WCC member churches and associated organizations worldwide. Twenty stewards will help to make this event happen.
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Webcam for the new Saskatoon cathedral construction

Construction began last winter on Holy Family Cathedral and Pastoral Centre, the largest project in the history of the RC Diocese of Saskatoon, and the first Catholic cathedral to be built in Canada since St. Boniface cathedral in Winnipeg was rebuilt after a 1968 fire. A webcam is now available to view the progress of the construction. The image updates every 30 seconds.
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Bishop Munib A. Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) has been elected President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) by the Eleventh Assembly in Suttgart, a gathering of 418 delegates and others from the LWF member churches.
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The Lutheran commitment to ecumenism will not end until members can share the Eucharist with other churches, said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to a news release from Lutheran World Information (LWI).

The LWF Assembly is the organization’s highest legislative body, and it is meeting here July 20-27. The LWF is 140 member churches in 79 countries, representing more than 70 million Christians worldwide.

Speaking at a July 21 news conference following the presentation of his report to the LWF Eleventh Assembly, Hanson outlined progress made in ecumenical relations, but said that “we must continue the dialogue about theological issues that still prevent us from communing together,” LWI reported.
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In what Bishop Mark S. Hanson, President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), described as possibly “the most significant legacy this Assembly will leave,” the Eleventh Assembly of the LWF today took the historic step of asking the Mennonites for forgiveness for past persecutions. Delegates unanimously approved a statement calling Lutherans to express their regret and sorrow for past wrongdoings towards Anabaptists and asking for forgiveness.

Hanson described the act of repentance and reconciliation as “communion building and communion defining. “We will not just look back; we will also look towards together to God’s promised future.”
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The Vatican has officially confirmed the appointment of Swiss Bishop Kurt Koch to replace Cardinal Walter Kasper as head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, after widespread speculation that such a move was to take place. A Vatican announcement on 1 July said that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation of 77-year-old-Kasper and had named in his place Bishop Kurt Koch of Basel, aged 60.
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has welcomed the appointment of Bishop Kurt Koch as new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. “We rejoice at the appointment of Bishop Kurt Koch as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,” said Tveit commenting the
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Pope offers good wishes to WCRC
Pope Benedict XVI has been one of several church leaders who have acknowledged the newly organized World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). The pope sent a letter to the new organization as well as a representative of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
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WCRC: a new day in Reformed history
More than 80 million Reformed Christians in 108 countries united Friday when the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) agreed to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
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A fully integrated meeting with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) is planned to take place at the Anglican Church of Canada‘s General Synod 2013 in Ottawa.
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The Anglican Church of Canada‘s governing body has approved a landmark resolution today repudiating and renouncing the Doctrine of Discovery. It also pledged a review of the church’s policies and programs to expose the doctrine’s historical impact and to end its continuing effects on indigenous peoples.
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Two ecumenical partners greeted the Anglican Church of Canada‘s General Synod members on Wednesday. The Archbishop of Halifax Anthony Mancini represented the Roman Catholic Bishops of Canada, and Moderator Mardi Tindal represented the United Church of Canada.
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Bishop-elect Donald Bolen’s mission; Spiritual shepherd plans to promote reconciliation Monsignor Donald Bolen plans to be a shepherd to the faithful. However, the bishop-elect of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon also sees his ecumenical mission as bringing about reconciliation among all Christians. As bishop, he hopes to lead the Catholic faithful to deeper discipleship
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Faith in face of persecution; Martyred nuns examples of the price of principles How strong would your faith be in the face of persecution? That question, expressed in the theme, The Cost of Discipleship in Our Time, will be examined March 20 at a workshop hosted by the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. The workshop will
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Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical On the Sunday of Orthodoxy (February 21, 2010)
+ BARTHOLOMEW By God’s Grace Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Fullness of the Church, Grace and Peace From our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Our most holy Orthodox Church today commemorates its own feast day, and – from this historical and martyric See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the Mother Church of Constantinople directs its blessing, love and concern to all of its faithful and dedicated spiritual children throughout the world, inviting them to concelebrate in prayer.
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The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomeos I, a key leader for the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, has written a Lenten encyclical that stresses the need for greater unity for churches, and counters accusations from some of his bishops that ecumenism is heresy.
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Cardinal asks dialogue partners if an ecumenical catechism might work

A Vatican official has floated the idea of a shared “ecumenical catechism” as one of the potential fruits of 40 years of dialogue among Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and members of the Reformed churches.
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Glad tidings for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon arrived a few days before Christmas with the appointment of Msgr. Donald Bolen of Regina as seventh bishop of the diocese.

Pope Benedict XVI’s appointment of Bolen as bishop was announced Dec. 21 in Rome. The diocese of Saskatoon has been without a bishop since September, when former bishop Albert LeGatt was inaugurated as Archbishop of St. Boniface, Manitoba.

Bolen, 48, is presently serving as vicar-general of the Archdiocese of Regina, and pastor of St. Joseph parish, Balgonie; St. Agnes at Pilot Butte; and St. Peter’s Colony, Kronau.

… continued
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Canadian Government cuts funding for KAIROS overseas work
CIDA cuts to KAIROS will devastate human rights work overseas

(Toronto) The Canadian government’s decision to cut funding to KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives will have a devastating impact on KAIROS’ overseas partners and the thousands of marginalized people in local communities they support, KAIROS announced today.
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