Fifty bishops – 25 Anglicans and 25 Catholics – will convene in the British city next January 16-17. Rev Worthen told SIR: “Spirituality, theology and coexistence will be the ingredients of the meeting” that with a tight agenda: liturgy and debates with the spotlight on the Declaration “Walking together along the way”

Next January 16 and 17 fifty bishops, half of them Catholic and half of them Anglican, will convene in Leicester, central England, a city with an important tradition of interreligious dialogue, for a two-day ecumenical meeting. These meetings take place every two or three years, providing participants with the opportunity to create precious relations based on mutual esteem, friendship and cooperation. “Spirituality, theology and coexistence are the ingredients of the Leicester meeting”, said Rev Jeremy Worthen, Secretary for Ecumenical Relations at the Council for Christian Unity, a body of the Church of England in charge of fostering relations between Christian churches. “The Church of England is in charge of organizing this year’s two-day event that will take place behind closed doors. In addition to the bishops, the meeting will be attended also by press officers and administrative staff.”
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The second meeting of the third phase of international ecumenical conversations between the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity took place Dec. 10-14 in Rome at the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI. The Baptist delegation was led by co-chair Frank Rees, associate professor and chair of the academic board at the University of Divinity in Australia; the Catholic delegation was led by co-chair Bishop Arthur Serratelli, bishop of Paterson, New Jersey. The meeting took up the theme of the “Context of Common Witness.” This discussion reflected on the global cultural context in which common Christian witness is being conducted today in six continents of the world.
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Catholic bishops in British Columbia and Yukon have endorsed medical marijuana use, but condemned recreational pot smoking as contrary to the teachings of the church.

In a letter posted online in late November, the bishops — six from B.C. and one from Whitehorse — warn that “the mere fact that an activity is made legal by the government does not automatically mean that it is morally acceptable.” Recreational cannabis became legal in Canada on Oct. 17, one of the signature accomplishments of Justin Trudeau’s government.

But the letter from all six B.C. bishops and the one Yukon bishop distinguishes between therapeutic uses, such as controlling for pain and nausea, and toking for fun. In the former, the letter states, impairment “can be accepted as a foreseen but unintended secondary effect of the drug’s beneficial use.” Medical cannabis has been legal in Canada for nearly two decades.
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At Solemn Vespers in the Shrine Church on Monday 24th September – the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham – a new Covenant agreed between the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Shrines in Walsingham was announced and signed by Fr Kevin Smith (Priest Administrator of the Anglican Shrine) and Mgr John Armitage (Rector of the Roman Catholic Shrine). Messages from the Bishop of Norwich and the Bishop of East Anglia were read out to mark the occasion. This historic event was witnessed by visiting pilgrims and members of the local community.
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The Roman Catholic‒United Church of Canada Dialogue has released a report on climate change entitled The Hope within Us. Since October 2012, the Roman Catholic‒United Church of Canada Dialogue has met eight times to explore our churches’ responses to the ecological crisis, with particular attention to climate change. The report explores the spiritual resources of our common tradition for addressing climate change and working for ecological justice. While not turning away from the real dangers of the ecological crises, the dialogue provides a vision of hope, based on our common Christian faith, that a new relationship between humanity and creation is possible.
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Le Dialogue de l’Église catholique romaine et de l’Église Unie a publié un rapport sur le changement climatique intitulé l’Espérance en nous. Depuis octobre 2012, le Dialogue de l’Église catholique romaine et de l’Église Unie du Canada s’est réuni huit fois pour examiner les réponses de nos Églises à la crise écologique, en portant une attention particulière au changement climatique. Le rapport explore les ressources spirituelles de notre tradition commune pour faire face au changement climatique et travailler pour la justice écologique. Sans fermer les yeux sur les dangers réels des crises écologiques, le dialogue offre une vision d’ espérance fondée sur notre foi chrétienne commune, voulant qu’une nouvelle relation entre l’humanité et la création soit possible.
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The Third Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) has issued its first agreed statement with the title Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be the Church – Local, Regional, Universal. Since its first meeting in 1970, ARCIC has published thirteen agreed statements. The third phase of the dialogue began in 2011 with the dual mandate to explore “the Church as Communion, local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal Church come to discern right ethical teaching.” The current document completes the first part of this mandate.

Walking Together on the Way employs the method of Receptive Ecumenism to examine the structures by which Catholics and Anglicans order and maintain communion at the local, regional and universal level. It examines common theological principles that Anglicans and Catholics share, and the differentiated structures, based on these principles, by which they make decisions. This method invites both traditions to repentance and conversion, by looking at what is underdeveloped or wounded in themselves. It is also predicated on the belief that in our dialogue partner we meet a community in which the Holy Spirit is alive and active. We can therefore ask firstly, where our communities are in need of reform, and, secondly, what we can learn from the our dialogue partner to help us in this growth. The Commission described this process as “receptive learning.”
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According to a regional newspaper report, Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn has decided to allow Protestant spouses of Catholics living in his diocese to receive holy Communion “in individual cases.”

As the newspaper Westfalenblatt reported, the archbishop told his presbyteral council on June 27 that the document formerly known as a “pastoral handout,” which the German bishops’ conference has re-published as “pastoral guidance” following discussions with Rome, offers “spiritual help for the decision of conscience in individual cases accompanied by pastoral care.”

“At the meeting of the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Paderborn on 27 June 2018, I presented my interpretation [of the document] and formulated the expectation that all pastors in the Archdiocese of Paderborn will familiarize themselves intensively with the guidance document and will act in a spirit of pastoral responsibility,” the archbishop told the newspaper.
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After a day of touting ways in which Christians might share in greater unity, that commitment to coming together didn’t prevent Pope Francis from backing the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog in its decision to insist on caution regarding proposals for intercommunion with Protestants.

On a return flight to Rome on Thursday from a day-long ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva, Francis said he supported the Vatican’s Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria, in requiring a rethink of a draft proposal from the German bishops that would allow for non-Catholics to receive communion under certain conditions.

Among other items discussed during the 30-minute in-flight press conference was the global migrant and refugee situation – where, once again, Francis reiterated his support for the U.S. Catholic bishops in opposing the Trump administration’s hard line – as well as the challenges of nuclear weapons.
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Anglican and Roman Catholic leaders in northern Alberta say they’re looking forward to repeating this fall a conference held last November involving clergy from both denominations.

More than two dozen clergy from the Anglican diocese of Athabasca and the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan gathered in November 15, 2017 at Slave Lake, Alta., for a one-day conference, to get acquainted and share thoughts and experiences about doing ministry in Alberta’s north.

“We thought it went very well, and I think the clergy found it quite valuable,” says Bishop Fraser Lawton, of the diocese of Athabasca. “I think they appreciated just getting to know one another.”
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Pope Francis urged members of the German Lutheran Church, whom he received in the Vatican, to continue walking the path to unity.

Receiving a Delegation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in audience, Pope Francis on Monday recalled his positive 2016 visit to Lund in Sweden to mark the Common Commemoration of the Reformation.

Pointing out that “for the wounds of the past” the event could have provoked controversy and hatred, he said that instead it took place in a spirit of fraternal communion highlighting the fact that the last fifty years have been characterized by a “growing communion”.

“Thanks to the work of the Spirit, fraternal meetings, gestures based on the logic of the Gospel rather than human strategies, and through the official Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, it has been possible to overcome old prejudices on both sides” he said.
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A joint Anglican-Roman Catholic delegation visited southern Malawi last week to celebrate the success of an ecumenical scholarship programme started last year by the Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangochi. The St Timothy Scholarship Programme was launched in September 2017 as a direct response to the Common Declaration of Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at San Gregorio al Celio in Rome on 5 October 2016. The two leaders commissioned and sent out 19 pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops to work together in collaborative mission and witness to the “ends of the earth” to give voice to their common faith in Jesus Christ. The programme has been warmly endorsed by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM).

The programme, which is funded by offshore donors and managed jointly by the two dioceses, provides scholarships to enable children from the poorest families to attend residential secondary schools run by the dioceses on an all-expenses-paid basis. The €600 (Euro, approximately £530 GBP) scholarships cover tuition fees, room and board, school uniforms, school shoes, athletic wear, stationery, toiletries, bedding, school bag, scientific instruments and a travel allowance funding the student’s cost of travelling from home to school and return by public transport at the beginning and end of each school term.
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An informal but officially-sanctioned ecumenical dialogue between Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians has met to consider “the difficult question of Anglican Orders.” The Malines Conversation Group was originally established in the early 1920s by Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malines-Brussels; some 24 years after Pope Leo XIII declared that Anglican Orders were “absolutely null and utterly void”. The 1920s Malines Conversations Group envisioned the restoration of communion between Anglicans and Roman Catholics in the phrase l’Église Anglicane unie non absorbée – united, but not absorbed.

Since then, a number of formal dialogues and relational groups between the two churches have been established, including the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), which undertakes theological dialogue; and the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM), an episcopal commission which seeks ways to put joint agreements into practice.
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The leaders of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches in Ireland have issued a joint statement celebrating “all that has been achieved in building peace” since the historic Belfast Agreement was signed 20 years ago. In a joint statement on eve of the 20th anniversary of the agreement, which is also known as the Good Friday Agreement, as it was agreed by political parties on 10 April 1998 – Good Friday – Archbishops Richard Clarke and Eamon Martin, say that the agreement “has continuing potential to transform society and life for all of us. Nothing remotely its equal has been outlined then or since.”

Archbishop Richard is the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primates of the Church of Ireland; Archbishop Martin is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and leader of the Catholic Church in the country. They say that the Good Friday Agreement “sought to address contentious political problems in the context of decades of violence, divided communities and immense suffering and death on our streets. As such it was a complex and, in places, controversial document.
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The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has welcomed a recent resolution by the German Catholic bishops’ conference to make it possible for Catholic-Lutheran married couples to receive the Eucharist together.

This development follows the Joint Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration of the Reformation in 2016, where the LWF and the Catholic Church expressed it as a joint pastoral responsibility to “respond to the spiritual thirst and hunger” of many of their members “who yearn to receive the Eucharist at one table, as the concrete expression of full unity.”

In the German Bishops Conference earlier this month, the Catholic bishops agreed to provide an orientation that would help local Catholic priests and their bishops to formally decide on a case-by-case basis to open the Eucharist to Protestant spouses, which in Germany would include Lutherans, Reformed and members of united churches.
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A dialogue document on Church, Eucharist and Ministry published by Lutherans and Roman Catholics in Finland in 2017 could pave the way for an international declaration between the two Christian churches, church leaders in the Nordic nation say.

Communion in Growth, a report from the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue Commission of Finland, found that despite differences of emphasis between the Roman Catholic Church in Finland and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Eucharist and (ordained) Ministry, they don’t need to be church dividing issues in the light of the achieved consensus on the basic truths of faith regarding these themes.
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In the spirit of the recommendation of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) that there should be regular meetings of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops in individual countries to discuss common concerns, a sixth such meeting of Irish bishops took place in Dublin on Saturday, 28th September. Thirteen bishops were present representing the Irish Episcopal Conference and the House of Bishops. In an atmosphere marked by positivity and candour, the bishops discussed a wide range of issues of common interest in relation to the ministry and service churches offer in Irish society, both north and south of the border. These included education; engagement with young people; the World Meeting of Families, emphasizing its ecumenical possibilities; the plight of refugees and migrants; and current social issues. All the participants said the experience was very valuable as they shared insightful perspectives that engendered renewed commitment to promoting the Kingdom of God.
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When we think of Church teachings that are uncomfortable to discuss and difficult to live up to these days our minds tend to go to controversial issues like that of contraception, homosexuality, gender and so forth. Yet, in many ways, the Church’s views on ecumenism are for many even more uncomfortable. On this topic, however, it is all too easy to say yes, yes with one’s lips, while denying and undermining this teaching in practice.

Ecumenism is the attempt to strengthen unity between the diverse Christian Churches through dialogue about doctrine, prayer in common, cooperation in good works and other means that deepen mutual understanding and growth. In the case of the Catholic Church, these endeavours are also motivated by a desire that our Churches may unite in full communion, however remote that hope may seem to our eyes here and now.

A key to the possibility of any ecumenism lies in a few basic realizations. The first is that we are all genuinely Christians, baptized into the body of Christ. This entails that there is always more that unites us than what divides us. The important essentials of the faith: the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the role that baptism plays in drawing us into the participation of the divine life are all unifying features of Christian life. In this respect, we should be grateful for the profound unity that already does exist among the majority of Christian communities (Unitatis Redintegratio, no. 3).
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Anglicans and Roman Catholics should see in each other “a community in which the Holy Spirit is alive and active,” the latest communiqué from the official ecumenical dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church says.

Members of the third-phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) met in the central German city of Erfurt early this month for their seventh meeting. They chose to meet in the city to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation – it is here that Martin Luther was ordained and lived as a monk.

During their meeting, the members of ARCIC agreed the text of a new statement looking at Anglican and Roman Catholic ecclesiology. Walking Together on the Way: Learning to be Church – Local, Regional, Universal, to be known as The Erfurt Document, will be published next year.
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Pastor Harry Strauss, co-chair of the Saskatoon Catholic and Evangelical Dialogue, has written a small group resource specifically for dialogue. It is entitled Catholics and Evangelicals in Dialogue: A Small Group Discussion Guide. It is 7 sessions in length, addressing the topics of revelation, the church, salvation, baptism, communion, the communion of the saints, and missional engagement. It is designed for laypeople, shaped as a user-friendly resource. Anticipated outcomes include new friendships, shaped around spiritually engaging conversations, and most importantly, relational growth in Jesus Christ. The material has been field tested some, with good results. However, there is a desire for additional testing. If interested in being part of this effort, particularly in initiating and leading a small group, please contact Pastor Harry Strauss at harry [at] forestgrovecc [dot] com or call 306-280-7147.
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While attending an ecumenical service at a Lutheran church in Rome a year ago, Pope Francis encountered a Lutheran woman who was married to a Roman Catholic. She asked the Pope why she could not receive the Eucharist while attending Catholic services with her husband.

Caught unawares by this spur-of-the-moment question, Pope Francis’ immediate reply was to suggest that the woman should follow her conscience. It was the type of pastoral response that has become a trademark of Pope Francis, but it would be a mistake to believe his intention was to introduce a new Church teaching. His pastoral response does, however, signal that ancient barriers may well be in the process of reform.

Most Roman Catholics are probably aware that Protestants should not receive communion at a Catholic celebration of the Eucharist. But few probably know the reason why. Likewise, it is also fair to suggest that Catholics attending a Protestant service are often uncertain whether it is proper to receive Eucharist in a Protestant church.

Amid this uncertainty, I suspect a common response today from both Catholics and Protestants is to feel less conscience-bound to refrain from eucharistic sharing at each other’s gatherings.
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Catholic and Orthodox leaders have pledged to stand together against fundamentalism and terrorism, as well as resisting forces working to erode and destroy religious belief in Europe.

“Terrorist violence against people considered unbelievers or infidels is the extreme degree of religious intolerance — we unreservedly condemn it and deplore that such acts have developed in the soil of a misguided religious culture,” the church representatives said in a joint message Jan. 13.

“The constitutions of our states guarantee the fundamental rights of the human person. Nevertheless, in our societies, forces are always at work to marginalize or even erase religions and their message from the public space. We believe Europe needs more than ever the breath of faith in Christ and the hope it provides.”

The 14-point message was published after a Jan. 9-12 meeting of the European Catholic-Orthodox Forum, co-chaired in Paris by Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, former president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, and Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

It said Catholic and Orthodox bishops deplored “crimes that may have been committed in the name of religion,” but believed their churches should not be blamed “for attitudes of intolerance that are inadmissible nowadays, but used to be shared by societies in the past.”
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According to a story often repeated in the diocese of Quebec, when the first Anglican bishop, Jacob Mountain, arrived in Quebec City in 1793, he was greeted on the dock by his Roman Catholic counterpart, Bishop Jean-François Hubert.

“Your people are waiting for you,” said Hubert, welcoming Mountain to his new home.

While relations between French Catholics and English Protestants in Quebec have not always been so cordial, the leadership of the two churches have long understood the practical need to work together in a province where religion historically has played an outsized role in public life.
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A group of Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops have acknowledged both churches’ failure to protect children, women and indigenous peoples. In a statement issued by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) today following the group’s historic meeting in Canterbury and Rome last month, they call on the Church to repent and seek justice for victims. They say that, “at the foot of the Cross we, as bishops, have reflected on an ‘ecumenism of humiliation’. We lament our failures and share the brokenness of our church communities.”

They continue: “We failed to protect vulnerable people: children from sexual abuse, women from violence, and indigenous peoples from exploitation.

“In this communion of shame, we confess that our own feeble witness to God’s call to life in community has contributed to the isolation of individuals and families, and even to that secularisation which removes God from the public space. We, as bishops, are called to lead the church in repentance and to seek justice for the abused.”

The bishops have called their statement “an appeal from the IARCCUM bishops to the bishops and the people of the Anglican and Catholic communities.”
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A call for Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops from around the world to work more closely together in witness and joint mission is part of the ongoing fruit of a unique eight-day gathering held earlier this fall in Canterbury and Rome, says Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen.

“We were commissioned as pairs of bishops to go and work together, to witness together wherever possible, and to encourage our brother bishops to work together,” says Bolen, one of the bishops from around the world commissioned for the task by Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

“The ongoing story is what the pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops can do together across Canada, and across the world.”

The purpose of the summit was to discover where Catholics and Anglicans can give greater witness to their common faith and collaborate in mission to the world, based on 50 years of dialogue and the agreed statements of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the IARCCUM document, “Growing Together in Unity and Mission.”
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Commemorations of next year’s 500th anniversary of the Reformation – which led to the separation of protestant churches from the Catholic Church – have begun with a combined prayer service in Lund Cathedral, Sweden, attended by Pope Francis and the Revd Dr Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. The participation of Pope Francis at the start of the year of commemorations is hugely significant and symbolises the growing ecumenical thaw which has been taking place over the past 50 years.

The prayer service is taking place in Lund Cathedral, which began life in 1080 as the seat of the Catholic archiepiscopal diocese of Lund; but since Danish Reformation in the 1520s and 1530s, has been a Lutheran cathedral. It became part of the Church of Sweden when the Province of Skåne (Scania) was ceded from Denmark to Sweden in 1658.

Through the Porvoo Communion, the Church of Sweden is in full communion with several Anglican churches, including the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, the Lusitanian Church of Portugal, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain, and the Church in Wales. Elsewhere across the globe, other Anglican churches are in varying degrees of unity and communion with other Lutheran churches.

“We are on our way from conflict to communion,” Archbishop Antje Jackelén, leader of the Church of Sweden, said at a press conference, referencing the ground-breaking 2013 joint report between the two churches. “We are going to express our joy and gratitude for what we have in common: namely, the Gospel of Jesus Christ which unites us – that can be celebrated never enough.

“But there are also things that we definitely do not want to celebrate; but to repent and express our lament and sorrow; and that is, of course, the pain that division has caused throughout so many centuries.”
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Joe Tosini believes that on the last day Jesus will judge people on whether they fed the hungry, clothed the naked and, especially, whether they loved one another, not on whether they were baptized with a sprinkling of water as an infant in a Catholic Church or by being plunged into a pool as an adult in an evangelical service.

Tosini, a Pentecostal Christian, is founder of the Phoenix-based John 17 Movement, an ecumenical initiative about forming relationships and friendships among Christians.

Unlike the formal ecumenical dialogues the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and mainline Protestant churches engage in, the John 17 initiative does not involve theological dialogue and the examination of doctrinal similarities and differences.
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If Christians are called to live their faith concretely, then they cannot leave out concrete signs of the unity to which Jesus calls them.

And just because the formal Anglican-Roman Catholic theological dialogue has been forced to grapple with new church-dividing attitudes toward issues such as the ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex marriages, it does not mean that common prayer led by Anglican and Catholic leaders and concrete collaboration by Catholic and Anglican parishes are simply window dressing.

Dozens of Catholic and Anglican bishops and several hundred priests and laity from both communities gathered in Rome in early October to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Vatican meeting of Blessed Paul VI and Anglican Archbishop Michael Ramsey of Canterbury, almost 50 years of formal theological dialogue through the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (known as ARCIC) and the 50th anniversary of the Anglican Center in Rome.

The celebrations, highlighted by an ecumenical evening prayer service Oct. 5 with Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, coincided with a meeting of a newer body, the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, known as IARCCUM.
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The bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories have issued pastoral guidelines for clergy dealing with Catholics who are considering euthanasia or assisted suicide, which is now legal in Canada.

The 32-page document, written for priests and parishes, gives guidance on when people in such situations are eligible to receive certain sacraments or a Catholic funeral. It includes references to canon law and pastoral guidance for special circumstances.

The document specifically addresses the sacraments of reconciliation and anointing of the sick.

“In our day a priest may encounter a penitent who has officially requested physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia,” the document says. “The penitent has not yet been killed, nor has he/she committed suicide, but he or she has initiated the process, which is already a grave matter.

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Leading Catholic and Orthodox bishops were meeting in Italy to continue discussions on the key issue keeping their Churches apart: the role of the bishop of Rome, the pope.

The Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church was meeting in Chieti, September 15-22.

Participants were to discuss the draft document, “Towards a common understanding of synodality and primacy in the service to the unity of the Church,” which was finished during a meeting in Rome in 2015, the Vatican press office announced September 15.

Participants were being asked “to determine whether the draft accurately reflects the current consensus on the delicate question of the theological and ecclesiological aspects of primacy in its relation to synodality in the life of the Church or whether it will be necessary to continue to delve deeper into the issue,” said the Vatican communique.
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The Roman Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories have issued some new guidance for priests, deacons, and pastoral workers in caring for individuals and families in difficult contemporary situations. One document aims to answer the call of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, particularly to assist priests in their duty to accompany those Catholics who are divorced and remarried without having received a decree of nullity. The other follows the legalization in Canada of assisted suicide and euthanasia (“Medical Assistance In Dying”), and focuses on spiritual and sacramental considerations in caring for individuals and families who may be considering death by these means. “The ultimate aim of these guidelines is to help the faithful understand the beautiful teachings of the Church on sacramental marriage, the dignity of the human person, and the inviolable sanctity of human life,” said Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, who serves as president of the Alberta-NWT Bishops. “We know that many Catholics, often due to the messages they receive through the secular culture, have come to some serious misunderstandings around life and family issues,” he said.
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The Anglican-Roman Catholic Covenant between the Regina archdiocese and the Diocese of Qu’Appelle signed in 2011 continues to grow, with activities between the two faith communities. They gathered May 15, Pentecost Sunday, at St. Paul’s Cathedral for a traditional Anglican evensong service with a homily delivered by archdiocesan administrator Rev. Lorne Crozon and the apostolic blessing performed by Winnipeg Archbishop Emeritus James Weisgerber. Canon Michael Jackson, Anglican co-chair of the Covenant Implementation Committee, opened the service, followed by St. Paul’s Cathedral dean Michael Sinclair, who welcomed everyone.

Susan Klein, Roman Catholic co-chair of the Covenant Implementation Committee reported on the numerous activities the covenant participants have shared since the last time they met. Among the highlights was Signs of Hope: A Conversation on First Nations Ministry, held in the fall of 2015. It attracted Aboriginal and non-Aboriginals who engaged in conversations following presentations by Rev. Dale Gillman and Sister Re-Anne Letourneau.

Sinclair spent a week in Rome attending a Christian leadership course at the Anglican Centre, visited Assisi and attended a public audience with Pope Francis. Archdeacon Catherine Harper presented on the diaconate program, and Canon Jackson is in touch with the Roman Catholic Diaconate programs in Saskatoon and Prince Albert as well as Roman Catholic authors and diaconate leaders in the U.S.

In addition to these highlights, there were several joint parish activities, including a vacation Bible school, marriage course, Advent and lenten programs. “Concrete examples of what we are doing together,” said Klein in her report.
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Is doubt just the opposite of faith? Or is it more complicated?

Bishop Donald Bolen, of the Roman Catholic diocese of Saskatoon, says this is one of the central issues facing people today, and a question that’s been on his mind throughout his life as a priest.

For him, it’s definitely more complicated.

“In a sense, apathy is the opposite of faith, whereas a lively doubt is a part of our faith,” Bolen says. “Doubt wants faith to have its reasons… I think when people pay serious attention to their doubts and don’t give up on them, but work with them, the doubting becomes a motivation to think more, to search more, to pray more, to look harder, to find reasons, and I think that’s a motivation which leads to a deeper faith,” he says.

“The doubter is on a quest.”
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Anglican and Catholic theologians, meeting in Toronto, Canada this week, have agreed on the publication of their first ARCIC III document on the theme “Towards a Church fully reconciled”. The volume, which is likely to be published in the autumn, uses the ‘Receptive Ecumenism’ approach to look at the limitations within each communion and see how one Church can help the other grow towards the fullness of faith.

The third Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) is holding its sixth annual meeting from May 11th to 19th, hosted by the Anglican sisters of St John the Divine in Toronto. The 18 members of the Commission have completed work on the first part of their mandate, exploring tensions between the local and Universal Church within the two communions, and are continuing discussions on a second volume, looking at how Anglicans and Catholics make difficult moral and ethical decisions.
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About 23 years ago, says Archbishop David Moxon of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, he and the local Roman Catholic bishop made an agreement that still makes him feel hopeful.

The two church heads decided to share the rite of imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday-a tradition that continues in New Zealand today.

Outstanding doctrinal differences prevent the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches from being able to actually take communion together. But Moxon, who is also the Anglican co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC)-the two faith groups’ international ecumenical body-is encouraged about the prospect of ongoing dialogue. The relationships made between New Zealand Anglicans and Roman Catholics through sharing the Ash Wednesday rite, he says, led the two churches to spearhead a joint mission that involves nine Christian charities and serves about 7,000 people in the city of Hamilton, New Zealand.
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One of the most important and troubled projects from the Second Vatican Council arrives in Toronto May 11 for some serious, scholarly, and saintly talk.

The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, better known as ARCIC, rolls into town to puzzle over how Catholics and Anglicans make decisions over ethical questions and to find new ways to sum up its work over the last five decades.

ARCIC is the official ecumenical dialogue between the world’s 85 million Anglicans and 1.3 billion Catholics set up by the Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1969.

This is the first time ARCIC has met in Canada, and it gives Canada’s own Anglican-Catholic dialogue partners a chance to rub shoulders with their international counterparts.
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Affirmation of the Lutheran-Catholic agreement on justification and a call for Anglicans to commemorate the 2017 Reformation anniversary were among ecumenical resolutions adopted by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) at its recent meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

Bishop Dr Matti Repo of Tampere, Finland, who participated in the Anglican Communion’s governing body meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, mid-April says he was encouraged by the enthusiastic discussions on these issues “which both point to the grace of God and the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.”

Repo was at the ACC as an ecumenical guest representing The Lutheran World Federation (LWF). He presented the call to affirm the substance of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), which was signed by the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church in 1999. The LWF was also asking Anglicans to recognize the significance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation which will be observed next year.
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Father Tony Currer, officer responsibile for Anglican Relations at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), brought a message of greeting to all the participants of the 16th Anglican Consultative Council Meeting, in Lusaka (8 to 19 April) from His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the PCPCU.
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Following its last meeting in Toronto on February 6, 2016, the Hindu–Catholic Dialogue of Canada released a joint statement to reaffirm the importance of hospitality in receiving the stranger and welcoming refugee. “Hospitality is among the most sacred values in many religious traditions, including Hinduism and Christianity,” stated the members of the dialogue. The statement concluded with an appeal to all peoples in Canada “to offer our prayers to those reeling in response to war, terror, and hate…” and urging “all Canadians to respond with openness, care and generosity to those refugees who find their ways to our shores, and indeed to all strangers in our midst. Dialogue and encounter are among our most important resources for meeting the demands of the present refugee crisis.”

The theme of the last meeting of the Hindu-Catholic Dialogue was on the Theology of Incarnation in both Catholic and Hindu traditions. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has eight appointees on this national dialogue, with the Most Reverend Daniel Miehm, Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton, serving as the Catholic Co-Chair. Dr. Tinu Ruparell, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, is the Hindu Co-Chair. The Hindu-Catholic Dialogue meets twice annually and is scheduled to meet again in August 2016.
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À la suite de sa dernière réunion, le 6 février 2016 à Toronto, le Dialogue hindou-catholique du Canada a publié une déclaration commune pour réaffirmer l’importance de l’hospitalité pour accueillir l’étranger et bien recevoir le réfugié. « L’hospitalité est une valeur des plus sacrées dans plusieurs traditions religieuses, dont l’hindouisme et le christianisme », ont affirmé les membres du dialogue. La déclaration concluait par un appel à toute la population du Canada afin d’offrir « des prières pour ceux et celles qui souffrent des conséquences de la guerre, de la terreur et de la haine… » et par une interpellation à « toutes les Canadiennes et tous les Canadiens à faire preuve d’ouverture d’esprit, de sollicitude et de générosité à l’endroit des réfugiés qui arrivent chez nous, de même qu’à l’égard de tous les étrangers parmi nous. Le dialogue et la rencontre sont les ressources les plus importantes dont nous disposions pour répondre aux exigences de la crise actuelle des réfugiés. »

Le thème de la dernière réunion du Dialogue hindou-catholique portait sur la théologie de l’incarnation pour les traditions catholique et hindoue. Huit délégués de la Conférence des évêques catholiques du Canada (CECC) participent à ce dialogue national, dont le coprésident catholique, Mgr Daniel Miehm, évêque auxiliaire à Hamilton. M. Tinu Ruparell, Ph.D., professeur d’études religieuses à l’Université de Calgary, est le coprésident hindou. Le dialogue catholique-hindou se réunit deux fois par année, et sa prochaine réunion est prévue pour août 2016.
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In Jesus’ times, no one among the poor was poorer than a widow, a woman without a man, hence without either rights or protection. The world and the society in which Jesus lived and moved were basically structured on a patriarchal model; women were invisible in society with the kind of invisibility typical of a legal status of minority, indeed of exclusion. The originality of Christ’s behaviour must be integrated into this historical truth. In fact, Jesus saw, looked, noted and connected his life with the lives of the women who followed him, loved him and accompanied him even to his death.

Whereas the gaze of Simon the Pharisee (cf. Lk 7:36) – as Maria dell’Orto wrote – saw and judged, scrutinized and condemned, excluding people, Christ’s gaze set people on their feet, identified and recognized them. In so doing he invited all, both women and men, to discernment, to asking themselves questions and to communion. In this perspective a panoramic view of Christian history leads one to consider those prophetic and charismatic female figures who, by their personal authority, in turbulent centuries, contributed to evangelizing a still pagan world and/or a Church which was hostile and divided: Saints Genevieve, Clotilda, Joan of Arc, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena…
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Anglican, Roman Catholic and Methodist Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand are forming an ecumenical entity to pursue closer ties and share understandings. They held an inaugural meeting for the National Dialogue for Christian Unity (NDCU) on 25 February in Wellington.

Participants said they hope that the NDCU will lead to formal ecumenical collaboration among churches and other groups in society that want to work together on issues concerning all New Zealanders.

In addition to meeting during the day, participants attended a Service of Celebration at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Wellington.

The formal establishment of the NDCU represents a significant and very hopeful development in ecumenical relationships in Aotearoa New Zealand, said Archbishop Philip Richardson, bishop of Taranaki and archbishop of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. “Friendships between churches have been strong, so to give structure and form to these is cause for rejoicing.”
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“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13).

1. By God the Father’s will, from which all gifts come, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit Consolator, we, Pope Francis and Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, have met today in Havana. We give thanks to God, glorified in the Trinity, for this meeting, the first in history.

It is with joy that we have met like brothers in the Christian faith who encounter one another “to speak face to face” (2 Jn 12), from heart to heart, to discuss the mutual relations between the Churches, the crucial problems of our faithful, and the outlook for the progress of human civilization.

2. Our fraternal meeting has taken place in Cuba, at the crossroads of North and South, East and West. It is from this island, the symbol of the hopes of the “New World” and the dramatic events of the history of the twentieth century, that we address our words to all the peoples of Latin America and of the other continents.

It is a source of joy that the Christian faith is growing here in a dynamic way. The powerful religious potential of Latin America, its centuries–old Christian tradition, grounded in the personal experience of millions of people, are the pledge of a great future for this region.

3. By meeting far from the longstanding disputes of the “Old World”, we experience with a particular sense of urgency the need for the shared labour of Catholics and Orthodox, who are called, with gentleness and respect, to give an explanation to the world of the hope in us (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).
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A public lecture with Dr Robert Stackpole, director of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This lecture is presented by the Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue of Saskatoon, and complements the April 2015 lecture “What can Evangelicals Learn from Catholics?” by Dr Gordon Smith (Ambrose University, Calgary). For further information, contact Nick Jesson (306-659-5814) or Pastor Harry Strauss (306-933-2266).

Robert has a special academic interest in ecumenical dialogue with Evangelical Christians, an interest that grew during his 10-years of teaching theology to undergraduates at Redeemer Pacific College at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. Robert also enjoys reading and writing about the works of C.S. Lewis, and describes himself as an incurable “Narniac.” From 2012 to 2015, Robert taught at St. Therese Institute in Bruno, SK where he was the Assistant Director of Formation. During this period, he also served on the Evangelical-Roman Catholic dialogue in Saskatoon.

Since 1997, Robert has been the Research Director, and later Director, of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy based in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In that capacity, he has been a speaker at many conferences, and the author and editor of numerous journal articles and books, including Divine Mercy: A Guide From Genesis To Benedict XVI (Marian Press, 2009).
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When the leaders of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion gather in Canterbury next week, they will have among them a visible sign of the long history of the English church.

The ivory head of a crozier associated with St. Gregory the Great, the pope who sent the first missionaries to England in the sixth century, has been loaned to Canterbury Cathedral by the Roman Catholic Church to coincide with the Primates’ Meeting, according to a report from the Primates’ Meeting website.

Canterbury Cathedral’s Dean, Robert Willis, said the cathedral was “very pleased to receive the crozier as a symbol of ecumenical encouragement at this time of the meeting of Anglican Primates.” He noted that it was “a link with St. Gregory, whose vision of the conversion of England caused Augustine to found the community at Canterbury.”

While the roots of Christianity in Britain go back to the time of the Roman Empire, subsequent invasions by Germanic tribes in the fifth century all but destroyed the church. In 597, Gregory sent Augustine, a Benedictine monk, to the court of the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelberht. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Church of England dates its formal foundation from the date of his arrival.
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On December 2nd, 55 years ago, Pope John XXIII had a private audience with the Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, the first time that Anglican and Catholic leaders had met together since the Reformation.

Following their historic encounter, the archbishop met with Cardinal Augustin Bea, head of the newly established Secretariat for Christian Unity, leading to the invitation of Anglican observers to the Second Vatican Council. The meeting also paved the way for the first official encounter between their successors, Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey in March 1966 and the establishment of an Anglican Centre here in Rome.

The current director of that Centre and representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Vatican is New Zealand Archbishop David Moxon. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the upcoming 50th anniversary and about the significance of Archbishop Fisher’s visit to the Vatican in December 1960 ….
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Today, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus (CRC) convened the first national, bilateral dialogue between Catholics and Jews in Canada.

The organizations launched this initiative as part of a joint celebration of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Declaration issued by the Second Vatican Council which rejected antisemitism and underscored the importance of the Jewish roots of Christianity. The first dialogue session involved a combination of clergy and scholars, with six-person delegations from each faith community. Themes addressed included the substantial role of Nostra Aetate in transforming Catholic perceptions of the Jewish community, the deep significance of the State of Israel to the Jewish people, and the importance of acknowledging painful history while embracing mutual respect and working together to build a common future.
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Few prophetic oracles in the Old Testament can be dated so precisely as that of Haggai, which we have just heard in the first reading. We can place it between August and December in the year 520 BC. The exiles, after the deportation to Babylon, have come back to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. They set to work, but soon grow discouraged, each preferring to work on his own house instead. Into this situation comes the prophet Haggai, sent by God with the message we have heard.

The Word of God, once it is proclaimed, remains forever alive; it transcends situations and centuries, each time casting new light. The situation deplored by the prophet is renewed in history each time we are so absorbed in the problems and interests of our own parish, diocese, community – and even of our particular Christian denomination – that we lose sight of the one house of God, which is the Church.

The prophecy of Haggai begins with a reproof, but ends, as we heard, with an exhortation and a grandiose promise: “Go up into the hills, fetch timber and rebuild the House, and I shall take pleasure in it and manifest my glory there” – says the Lord”.

One circumstance makes this point particularly relevant. The Christian world is preparing to celebrate the fifth centenary of the Protestant Reformation. It is vital for the whole Church that this opportunity is not wasted by people remaining prisoners of the past, trying to establish each other’s rights and wrongs. Rather, let us take a qualitative leap forward, like what happens when the sluice gates of a river or a canal enable ships to continue to navigate at a higher water level.
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Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father met with the evangelical Lutheran community of Rome in the Christuskirche, where he was warmly welcomed by Pastor Jeans-Martin Kruse, who in his welcome discourse also recalled the visits to the same [church] by St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis then answered questions from three members of the community, a child and two women, and after the vespers prayer, with the reading from the Gospel of St. Matthew (25, 31, 46), he pronounced an off-the-cuff homily in which he emphasised that Lutherans and Catholics must ask mutual forgiveness for persecutions against each other and for the scandal of divisions.

The first question to which the Pope responded was from a child who wanted to know what he liked the most about being the Pope. “The thing I like best, sincerely, is being a pastor”, Francis replied. “I like being the Pope in the style of a parish priest. Service: I like it, in the sense that I feel good, when I visit the sick, when I speak with people who are desperate or sad. I like going to prisons … to speak with detainees… Every time I enter a prison I ask myself, ‘Why them and not me?’. And I am aware of the salvation of Jesus Christ, His love for me. Because He saved me. I am no less a sinner than they are, but the Lord took me by the hand. And when I go into a prison I am happy. Being a Pope is being a bishop, being a pastor. If a Pope is not also a bishop, if a Pope is not also a pastor, he may be a very intelligent person, very important and hold great influence in society, but I think that inside he will not be happy”.
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Drawing on 50 years of national and international dialogue, Lutherans and Catholics together have issued the “Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist,” a unique ecumenical document that marks a pathway toward greater visible unity between Catholics and Lutherans. The October 30 release of the document comes on the eve of the anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting the 95 Theses, which sparked the Protestant Reformation.

“Pope Francis in his recent visit to the United States emphasized again and again the need for and importance of dialogue. This Declaration on the Way represents in concrete form an opportunity for Lutherans and Catholics to join together now in a unifying manner on a way finally to full communion,” said Bishop Denis J. Madden, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Catholic co-chair of the task force creating the declaration.

“Five hundred years ago wars were fought over the very issues about which Lutherans and Roman Catholics have now achieved consensus,” said ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton. “Church, ministry and Eucharist have been areas of disagreement and even separation between our two churches, and we still have work to do both theologically and pastorally as we examine the questions. The declaration is so exciting because it shows us 32 important points where already we can say there are not church-dividing issues between us, and it gives us both hope and direction for the future,” she said.
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