Pentecostal theologian and scholar Cheryl Bridges-Johns proposed a radical reinvention of the ecumenical movement in a keynote address delivered on the third day of the Global Christian Forum which takes place 6-9 November in Limuru, near Nairobi, Kenya.

Bridges-Johns, a professor at the Theological Seminary of the Church of God in Cleveland (Tennessee), US, sparked a vivid discussion with her lecture, which elaborated on a statement from the 1961 New Delhi assembly of the World Council of Churches: “the achievement of unity will involve nothing less than a death and rebirth of many forms of church life as we have known them”.
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[Nairobi] Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders attending a world Christian forum in Kenya that has brought together many of Christianity’s diverse strands, say it offers new opportunities, but they also warn of possible difficulties ahead.

“When you share your journey and discover how other people have travelled and find similarities in the journey, that helps you to travel together,” commented the Rev. Richard Howell of the Evangelical Fellowship of India.
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“Church unity is like riding a bicycle. We will fall unless we go forward.” This affirmation was posed as a challenge by Korean missiologist Wonsuk Ma to participants at the Global Christian Forum taking place on 6-9 November in Limuru, near Nairobi, Kenya.

In a keynote address delivered on the second day of the forum, Ma analyzed Christian developments in unity and mission over the last century. He affirmed that in Christian mission, the seemingly contradictory emphases on “life before death” and on “life after death” – which have separated “mainline” and “evangelical” Christians for decades – are actually complementary and in need of each other.

Read the complete article on Dr. Ma’s address to the Global Christian Forum on our website.
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[Nairobi] Un éminent représentant du Vatican a déclaré que l’Eglise catholique romaine saluait le Forum chrétien mondial, qui est un rassemblement sans précédent des divers courants du christianisme.

“Lorsque les chrétiens sont divisés, la proclamation de l’Evangile souffre et c’est là une douleur que nous devons tous ressentir”, a déclaré l’évêque Brian Farrell, secrétaire du Conseil pontifical pour la promotion de l’unité des chrétiens.
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[Nairobi] A senior Vatican official has said the Roman Catholic Church welcomes a new Global Christian Forum intended to bring together the diverse strands of Christianity as never before.

“When Christians are divided, the preaching of the gospel suffers and this is a pain we all have to feel,” said Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, addressing a 6-9 November meeting of the forum near Nairobi.
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Le professeur John St. H. Gibaut de l’Université Saint-Paul, Ottawa, nommé Directeur de la Commission Foi et Constitution du Conseil œcuménique des églises à Genève. Selon un communiqué de presse de l’université, le professeur Gibaut prendra ses fonctions à Genève, en janvier 2008.
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Professor John St. H. Gibaut, from St. Paul University in Ottawa, has been appointed as the new director of the World Council of Churches‘ Commission on Faith and Order. According to a press release from the university, Prof. Gibaut will take up his duties in Geneva in January, 2008.
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A unique gathering of high level church leaders to start Tuesday, 6 November near Nairobi, Kenya, features the broadest range of Christian traditions ever represented at a global meeting, allowing for a discussion of unprecedented ecumenical breadth on what Christians are called to do – together if possible – in the world today.

The 6-9 November gathering, called the Global Christian Forum, brings together about 250 high level representatives of all the main Christian traditions and of their global organizations at the Jumuia Conference Centre in Limuru, near Nairobi.

The Forum’s stated purpose is to create a new, open space in which a broad range of Christian churches and interchurch organizations can gather in a multilateral setting to foster mutual respect and explore and address together common challenges. It aims to include all streams of Christianity, including those which have not been in conversation with one another. In Limuru about half of the participants will be Evangelicals and Pentecostals.

Over four days, with the theme “Our Journey with Jesus Christ, the Reconciler,” participants will discuss how best to promote dialogue and co-operation on issues of Christian unity and common witness to the world. They will debate proposals for the future of the Forum, and it is hoped that a “Letter to the Churches” will summarize the results of the meeting.
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Une réunion de hauts responsables d’Eglises telle qu’on en n’a jamais vue se déroulera près de Nairobi, Kenya, à partir du mardi 6 novembre. Jamais encore des traditions chrétiennes aussi diverses ne se sont retrouvées pour une rencontre mondiale d’une telle envergure œcuménique; on y parlera de ce que les chrétiens sont appelés à faire dans le monde d’aujourd’hui – si possible ensemble.

Sous le nom de Forum chrétien mondial, cette rencontre, qui se tiendra au Centre de conférences de Jumuia à Limuru, près de Nairobi, rassemblera du 6 au 9 novembre près de 250 représentants de haut niveau de toutes les traditions chrétiennes et de leurs organisations mondiales.
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The Ecumenical Health Care Network of the Canadian Council of Churches invites every congregation and community across the country to join in a time of celebration and renewal of Canada’s commitment to ensuring the preservation and strengthening of its universal public health care system, better known as Medicare. To this end, we have named the week of November 18th “Celebrate Medicare Week.”

In the past, Canada’s churches have played an invaluable role in defending access to care based on need not on ability to pay, and as a living statement of how we care for one another in Canadian society. In the words of a former vice-president of the Canadian Council of Churches, Karen MacKay-Llewellyn, “Defending public health care in a system that promises accessibility to all Canadians at the same level of quality, is a matter at the heart of our Christian confession, and this must rest at the heart of our public witness.”
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon will be holding a Diocesan Eucharistic Congress from October 26-28, 2007. A Eucharistic Congress is not a common event in any diocese, so it will be as unfamiliar to Catholics as it is to other Christians. Essentially, the Congress is a period of intense study and reflection about the many dimensions of the eucharistic mystery. As Bishop Albert LeGatt describes it, “A Eucharistic Congress… is an occasion to gather all the baptized, the Body of Christ, for the purpose of giving praise to Christ for the gift of the Eucharist.”
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[Port d’Espagne] L’Alliance réformée mondiale (ARM) a accepté de s’unir au Conseil œcuménique réformé (COR) pour former une nouvelle “entité mondiale” qui rassemblerait près de 87 millions de chrétiens réformés.

“Il s’agit d’un moment vraiment très important”, a déclaré le pasteur Clifton Kirkpatrick, président de l’ARM, après la décision unanime prise le 22 octobre par le Comité exécutif de l’Alliance, réuni à Trinité-et-Tobago, de s’unir avec le COR, dont le Comité exécutif avait accepté la proposition en mars.
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[Port of Spain] The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has agreed to unite with the Reformed Ecumenical Council to create a new “global entity” that will group 80 million Reformed Christians.

“This is a truly, truly important moment,” said WARC president the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick after the alliance’s executive committee, meeting in Trinidad, voted unanimously on 22 October to unite with the REC, whose executive committee had agreed to the proposal in March.
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A letter from Rt. Rev. Rodney Andrews (Anglican bishop of Saskatoon), Rev. Cynthia Halmarson (ELCIC bishop of the Saskatchewan Synod) and Most. Rev. Albert LeGatt (Roman Catholic bishop of Saskatoon) has been sent to the editor of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. The letter addresses the living conditions at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, a prison and detention centre operated by the Province of Saskatchewan. The issues raised in the letter have been brought to the attention of the churches and the community by the chaplains serving at the correctional centre.
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The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), announced Oct. 6 that the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, former bishop of the ELCA Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh, will lead the church’s Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations section for four years, effective Nov. 1.

McCoid, 63, completed his service Aug. 31 as a synod bishop, a role in which he served since 1988. He had previously announced he would not be available for re-election as bishop.

McCoid will succeed the Rev. Randall R. Lee, who will conclude his service as section executive on Oct. 31. Lee, 51, has led ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations since 2002.
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In their upcoming plenary Oct. 15-19, Canada’s bishops will focus their national activities to have more impact and will consider new communications strategies.

The bishops will debate reducing the number of national episcopal commissions from six to three, and the possible creation of standing committees that would include lay experts, said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) General Secretary Msgr. Mario Paquette.

The bishops will also put evangelization front and centre during the public portion of the week-long gathering in Cornwall, Ont. On opening day, sociologist Reginald Bibby will present an array of social data on Canadian attitudes towards religious faith. The next day Halifax Auxiliary Bishop Claude Champagne will lay out the theological and teaching dimensions.

The bishops, however, must find a way to accomplish their mission with fewer resources.
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A groundbreaking survey of more than 6,000 American congregations reveals that churches spend a significant amount of time, energy and money in the ministries of health care. According to the survey, about 70 percent of responding churches provide direct health services, with 65 percent offering health education programs within their community. The survey defines direct services as provision of medical care to individuals by trained health care professionals.
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Evangelical theology stresses the importance of a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ and sees the transformation of individuals as an important part of the transformation of the world. However, the notion of a purely privatized faith in which the gospel only affects individual, personal or family life but has no wider implications for society must be rejected as inadequate.
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The Vatican has announced the excommunication of certain members of the Army of Mary, a sect in Canada whose teachings have been deemed dangerous and erroneous by church authorities.
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Muslims in Canada today started fasting for the holy month of Ramadan. During the month, from dawn to sunset Muslims around the world abstain from food, drink and marital relations.
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Anyone who thought a look back at 20th-century history through the eyes of prayer would be comforting, uplifting or anodyne might want to begin with the 1919 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Organizers of this early version of the annual week of prayer pulled no punches when they began, “The crowning horror and blasphemy of our divisions is that we shut one another out from the one great Sacrament of Love.”
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At a time when the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople – today’s Istanbul – is facing growing hardships imposed by decisions of the Turkish judiciary, members of the worldwide ecumenical family have expressed support and solidarity to His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
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The U.S. National Council of Churches is challenging the U.S. government’s detention policy for prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The NCC joined the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Union for Reform Judaism, among others, in supporting two cases before the Supreme Court.
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L’Arche Saskatoon Giant Garage Sale is Friday, August 24, 4 – 9pm, & Saturday. August 25, 8am – 3pm, at Grace Westminster United Church Hall (505 10th Street E, just west of Broadway Ave.). Please bring your donated items to Grace Westminster (East entrance) on Thurs. Aug. 23, 1 – 7pm, or Fri. Aug. 24, 9am – 1pm. Proceeds will go towards the first L’Arche home in Saskatoon for people with intellectual disabilities. For more information, call Hilary at 343-7371 or Robert at 374-5501.
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The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) will publish a revised Lectionary for Sundays and Solemnities. This is the book of readings used in the public worship of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. The revised lectionary is expected to be available next spring in order to be used for the beginning of the following liturgical season – Year B – starting 30 November 2008.
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The CCC need back copies of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity services, and stories about celebrations before 1948. Please search your shelves, cupboards, attics, offices, for existing copies you might have. With your help, we can put together a complete collection. We will be producing an anthology of prayer services to help celebrate the centenary of the Octave of Christian Unity in 2008.
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CATHOLIC WOMEN IN MINISTRY: Changing the Way Things Are, by Marie-Louise Ternier-Gommers. Novalis (Montreal, QC ). © 2007, 216pp., $21.95. Reviewed by Gertrude Rompré.
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Margaret Pfeil wants peace. She wants it so much that three and a half years ago she moved into St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker community, a house of hospitality in South Bend, Ind. She believes in radical political participation, so she doesn’t vote except in local elections. Once her student loans are paid off, she hopes to practice tax resistance by living below the poverty line. Pfeil, an assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, wants peace but sometimes she finds she needs to look outside the Catholic church to find the resources and support to help her live her faith.
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On August 15th, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism moved its offices across Montréal to a new street-front address on Réné Lévesque Ouest. The new address is: 1819 boul. Réné Lévesque O., Montréal QC, H3H 2P5. All phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses will remain unchanged.
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The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is ready to join the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican in supporting a code of conduct to guide activities seeking converts to Christianity.
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The Apostolicity of the Church is the title of the current study document of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity. With this document, the Commission completes the 1995-2006 fourth phase of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue at the global level. The study document of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) is aimed at contributing toward deepening communion between the Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran churches. The document has been sent to the respective churches of the mandating bodies and to the wider public of persons and groups engaged in the ecumenical movement.
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CHICAGO (ELCA) — In response to a document released by the Vatican July 10, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said the statement does not appear to change the Vatican’s previously stated positions, and it will not alter the ELCA’s commitment to ecumenism, including ongoing discussions
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On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio entitled Summorum Pontificum, on the use of the 1962 Latin Mass. The document has been widely expected for some months now.
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The College of Emmanuel & St. Chad in Saskatoon is pleased to invite the public to a panel discussion entitled “Canadians and the Anglican World after General Synod” on July 1, at 7 p.m. in the college chapel. As part of the college’s “Faith in the World” summer school for lay people, the panel will consider the results of the 2007 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. Join Cathy Hartsook, Gary Sinclair, and Dean Terry Wiebe as they frame up their experience of this year’s General Synod; the decisions made, and the ramifications for our relationship with the broader Anglican world.
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Following a long and passionate debate at the 2007 General Synod in Winnipeg, the Anglican Church of Canada has rejected the blessing of same-sex unions. The result is not decisive, however, as both clergy and laity voted in favour with the bishops narrowly defeating the resolution. Earlier resolutions affirmed that the blessing of same-sex unions is a doctrinal matter and that they are consistent with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada.
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[Anglican Journal] Canadian Anglicans, meeting at their General Synod governing convention, voted by the slimmest of margins to defeat a proposal that would have permitted church blessing rites for gay couples. However, on the same day, the synod – also by a narrow margin – agreed that such blessings are “not in conflict with the core doctrine” of the church. Much of the sixth day of the synod was taken up with debate on the two questions, with dozens of people approaching microphones in the plenary hall to voice emotional opinions.
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Le 23 juin, le pape Benoît XVI a nommé l’abbé Murray Chatlain évêque coadjuteur du diocèse de Mackenzie-Fort Smith, dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest.
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On 23 June, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI named Reverend Murray Chatlain as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
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The Anglican Church of Canada‘s General Synod has elected Bishop Fred Hiltz as the church’s new primate. The Evangelical Lutheran Church, meeting in its National Convention has chosen the Rev. Susan Johnson as its new national bishop.
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Delegates at the Eleventh Biennial National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) have elected Rev. Susan Johnson, Assistant to the Bishop of the Eastern Synod, as the new National Bishop of the ELCIC. The election occurred on the sixth and final ballot for Bishop. Bishop-elect Johnson will succeed National Bishop Raymond Schultz who announced in January of this year that he will retire as of September 1, 2007. Bishop Schultz has been serving as National Bishop for six years. He was elected for a four-year term at the 2005 Convention but announced his retirement half-way through the term due to personal and health reasons.
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[ACC News • Winnipeg] The Anglican Church of Canada has chosen Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as its 13th Primate or national leader.

Bishop Hiltz was elected by the church’s General Synod, meeting in Winnipeg, on the 5th ballot, from among four bishops nominated last April by a gathering of all Canadian bishops.

Bishop Hiltz, 53, will succeed Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, elected three years ago, who announced earlier that he would retire at the end of the General Synod gathering now underway.

Bishop Hiltz was elected assistant bishop of the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in 1995 and elected diocesan bishop in 2002. He was a member of the Council of General Synod from 2001 to 2004 and, since, 2006, has served as the Anglican Co-Chair of the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission.

In a statement after his nomination for the primacy, Bishop Hiltz described the Primate as “a servant of the people of God (whose) ministry is to gather the Church, to unite its members in a holy fellowship of truth and love, and to inspire them in the service of Christ’s mission in the world.”

He is married to Lynne Samways and they have one son.
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[ACC News — Winnipeg] Nearly 1,000 Anglicans and Lutherans spent a day together in worship at the Winnipeg Convention Centre Thursday to celebrate six years of full communion between their two churches — and also to consider global warming.

The Anglican Primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, and National Lutheran Bishop Raymond Schultz, both of whom retire this week, took part in the liturgy with the theme of the “water” running through it.

Both the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are holding their major decision-making conventions in Winnipeg this week.
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[ACC News] The merger of Augsburg Fortress and the Anglican Book Centre is almost complete, with only a few legal and technical details renaming.
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Après leur rencontre privée et l’échange de discours, le Pape et don hôte SB Chrysostomos II de Chypre ont signé une Déclaration commune, dans laquelle ils déclarent leur sincère et ferme engagement à obéir à la volonté du Seigneur en intensifiant leur recherche de la pleine unité entre tous les chrétiens. Le Pape et l’Archevêque désirent que les catholiques et les orthodoxes de Chypre vivent fraternellement et solidairement. “Nous voulons en outre soutenir et développer le dialogue théologique qui, par le biais de la Commission internationale s’apprête à traiter des points les plus complexes ayant marqué la division historique” des Eglises. “Nous devons parvenir à un accord substantiel en vue de la communion parfaite dans la foi, dans la vie sacramentelle et l’exercice du ministère pastoral”.
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Following this morning’s private meeting, and their exchange of speeches, the Pope and His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, signed a Joint declaration in the presence of the Catholic and Cypriot Orthodox delegations. In the declaration, Benedict XVI and the archbishop of New Justiniana and All Cyprus declare their “sincere and firm desire, in obedience to the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to intensify the search for full unity among all Christians. … We wish the Catholic and Orthodox faithful of Cyprus to live fraternally and in full solidarity. … Furthermore, we wish to support and promote theological dialogue which, through the competent international commission, is preparing to consider the most onerous questions that marked the historical event of division. It is necessary to reach substantial agreement over full communion in the faith, in sacramental life and in the exercise of pastoral ministry.”
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The Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences will be in Saskatoon from May 26 to June 2. Congress, as it is now called, was once known as the Learned Societies’ Conference. Now in its 76th year, it is an important annual gathering of academic societies in the liberal arts from across Canada. According to the website, it is the largest annual academic gathering in Canada; and its multidisciplinary character marks it as unique in the world. In 2006, approximately 8,000 delegates representing over 68 learned societies went to Toronto from all over North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to present their research and to debate some of the most important social and cultural questions of the day.

Complete programs of events planned by these societies are available on their individual websites. Some highlights include:

Saturday, May 26 (all day)
The theme of the CETA annual meeting is Evangelical-Roman Catholic encounter. All of the presentations will relate to aspects of this theme. Keynote speaker: Gregory Baum (McGill)

Sunday, May 27, 10:30-11:25 (CTS)
Laurie Lamoreux Scholes (Concordia) – Building Bridges across Difference: A Study of the Christian Ecumenical Movement of the Early 20th Century (A Blueprint for the Interfaith Movement?)

Tuesday, May 29, 11:00-12:30 (Joint session of CSCH & CCHA)
Commemorating the Contribution of John Webster Grant to Canadian religious Historiography (a panel discussion)

Tuesday, May 29, 3:35-5:30 (CTS panel)
Bridging Churches: Development of the Understanding of Church through Canadian Ecumenical Dialogues (Moderators: Gail Allan and Mary Marrocco; Presentations: Helmut Harder, Sandra Beardsall, Susan Brown)
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[Anglican Journal] Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck, an Anglican priest in the diocese of Saskatoon who recently declared that he intends to marry gay couples if asked and who was asked by his bishop to reconsider his position by March 31 or risk losing his license to minister, has resigned his position.
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The annual Holocaust Memorial presentation will be on Sunday, April 22nd at 1:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Centre, 7115 McKinnon Avenue, Saskatoon. The keynote speaker will be Isaac Gottfried, who was born in Poland in 1925, and is a Holocaust survivor. Everyone is welcome to attend.
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The Saskatoon Children’s Choir (SCC), under the direction of Artistic Director Phoebe Voigts, presents its annual spring concert “Still We Rise!” Friday, April 20, 7:30 pm at Third Avenue United Church in Saskatoon.

The performance, featuring the 125 voices of the award-winning Saskatoon Children’s Choir and accompanist Michelle Aalders, will present an international repertoire focused on HIV and AIDS awareness.

Also included on the program are works by contemporary Canadian composers Imant Raminsh, Peter Tiefenbach and Stephen Hatfield, as well as classical folk and choral literature. Tickets are $15.00 and are available at McNally Robinson Booksellers or at the door. Reserved seating.

For more information about the choir, check the choir website at www.saskatoonchildrenschoir.org
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On Wednesday April 11, Pope Benedict XVI published a new book in German on the subject of creation and evolution. The book apparently arises out of the Schülerkreis, a group of his graduate students that continue to meet with him each fall. The annual gatherings have attracted a great deal of attention since Benedict was elected pope, particularly because the participants — each a former student of Benedict — represent some of the most well-known and highly-regarded theologians in Germany and around the world. In 2006 the gathering was held at Castel Gandolfo on the subject of creation and evolution.

It should be remembered that, in his 1950 encyclical Humanae Generis, Pope Pius XII taught that the “hypothesis” of evolution does not conflict with Catholic faith so long as it does not deny “that the spiritual soul is immediately created by God.” In 1996, John Paul II went further and stated that new knowledge leads to the recognition that the theory of evolution is more than an hypothesis. He pointed out, as many biologists would also insist, that there are “theories” of evolution rather than one theory.
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