Putting into practical action the recent progress made in ecumenical relations: that’s the aim of an international commission of Anglican and Catholic bishops, whose leaders held an annual meeting here in Rome this week.

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

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

Listen here (Real) media01.radiovaticana.va/audio/ra/00401866.RM
Listen here (MP3) media01.radiovaticana.va/audiomp3/00401866.MP3
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The General Secretary of the United Church of Canada, Nora Sanders, has issued a message to the church’s General Council to announce that the General Synod of the United Church of Christ (USA) has accepted the United Church of Canada as an ecumenical partner. The announcement, issued 11 July, follows.
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Asserting that “We are in danger of losing what the ecumenical spirit is all about,” historical theologian and longtime ecumenical activist Keith Clements argued on 28 May at a presentation in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva that people and churches need to rediscover the essential “ecumenical dynamic” at the heart of the movement.

“There is a need… to restore the word ecumenical to proper and positive use… The story, past and to the present, needs to be told,” he has written.

At once critical and encouraging, Clements complained that often “an obsession with identity today,” evident in resurgent confessionalism, ethnocentrism and nationalism, leaves people less willing “to step outside their home, their tradition and inhabit another’s tradition,” meet each other’s needs and serve the larger good.
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The visit of Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, “strengthens the bonds of friendship and brotherhood that already exist between the See of Peter and the See of Mark, heir to an inestimable heritage of martyrs, theologians, holy monks, and faithful disciples of Christ, who have borne witness to the Gospel from generation to generation, often in situations of great adversity,” said Pope Francis on receiving the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt this morning. The pontiff remarked on the memorable meeting that took place, 40 years ago, between the predecessors of both, Pope Paul VI and Pope Shenouda III, which united them “in an embrace of peace and fraternity, after centuries of mutual distance.”
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Catholic and Anglican ecumenical experts meeting in Rio de Janeiro have made progress towards their goal of a common statement on relations between the local and universal Church. This third meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) has also been exploring the ways in which both communities make decisions regarding moral and ethical issues. During the week-long meeting which concluded on Monday, participants met with local Anglican and Catholic leaders to find out about local ecumenical initiatives. They spent a day in the ‘Cidade de Deus’ or City of God, one of the many slum areas around Rio de Janeiro, where the churches are working closely with police and other civic authorities to provide services and support community development.Members of the Commission described the meeting as a hope filled encounter and plan to hold the next ARCIC III session from May 12th to 20th, 2014.
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Reformed and Catholic theologians recently concluded the latest in a decades-long series of ongoing international talks on a matter theologians see as central to the disputes of the Reformation era. Theologians from the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity met from April 7-13 as part of the third session in the fourth phase of the Catholic-Reformed dialogue which will conclude in 2017. The theme of the phase is “Justification and Sacramentality: The Christian Community as an Agent for Justice.” The talks began in 1970. The next meeting in the series will take place in Scotland. The themes to be covered are Justification: Holy Communion/Eucharist and Justice” and “Justification and Justice: Sanctification/ Universal Call to Holiness.” The ongoing dialogue could eventually determine if the World Communion of Reformed Churches aligns itself with a joint document on the doctrine of justification agreed to by Roman Catholics and a top Lutheran body in 1999.
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Pope Francis’ reference to himself as the ‘Bishop of Rome’ was music to the ears of Orthodox leaders for whom the question of papal primacy has long been a problem for reunion. Their attendance at the new Pope’s inaugural Mass was a sign of their hopes for closer communion. A statement from the patriarchate explained Bartholomew’s decision to attend Pope Francis’ inauguration personally: the need for “a profoundly bold step … that could have lasting significance”. It is the first time the Bishop of Constantinople has attended the inauguration of the Bishop of Rome ever, let alone since the great schism of 1054. According to the patriarchate ­website: “after such a long division … authentic reunion will require courage, leadership and humility. Given Pope Francis’ well-­documented work for social justice and his insistence that globalisation is detrimental to the poor … the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic traditions have a renewed opportunity to work collectively on issues of mutual concern … But such work requires a first step and it would appear as though Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is willing to take such a step.” In one of those seemingly informal but resonant gestures that we are beginning to expect from Francis, the response was immediate and commensurate. The successor of Peter greeted the successor of the other Galilean fisherman as “my brother Andrew”.
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In a World Council of Churches (WCC) governance meeting, The Church: Towards a Common Vision, a convergence text of the Commission on Faith and Order, was officially presented by the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit. Tveit launched The Church at the WCC Executive Committee meeting on 6 March, which took place at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland. “The Commission on Faith and Order presents to us a gift, a statement about the Church,” stated Tveit in his foreword to The Church. “Work on ecclesiology relates to everything the Church is and what its mission implies in and for the world. It reflects the constitutional aims and self-identity of the WCC as a fellowship of churches who call each other to the goal of visible unity,” he added. The Church identifies what Christians can say together about the Church in order to grow in communion, to struggle together for justice and peace, and to overcome together their past and present divisions. After twenty years in the making, The Church was approved by the Standing Commission on Faith and Order at its 2012 meeting in Penang, Malaysia. It was later received by the WCC Central Committee and commended to the churches for study and formal response. It is the second convergence text to be approved in the long life of the commission, the first being the Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry which was celebrated at the WCC 6th Assembly in Vancouver (1982).
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Theologians will meet in Switzerland this week to discuss a possible model for bilateral dialogues between Reformed church theologians and Lutherans, Catholics and Pentecostals. The model involves emerging young ecumenists, according to the Geneva-based World Communion of Reformed Churches. The discussion is part of the agenda for a March 3-8 meeting in Rüdlingen, in the northeastern part of the country. Organizers expect 22 participants from 15 countries, with about 20 percent of them under the age of 35. The WCRC‘s Theologians’ Network meeting aims to reflect on the priority issues for theological study in the coming year.
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Last week I invited reflections from the readers of Ecumenism in Canada on the ecumenical significance of the papal resignation. Here are the first of the reflections received:

John H. Armstrong, ACT3 Network, Carol Stream, IL (USA) — While the media discusses what they think about a pope resigning office ecumenical Christians should ask deeper questions rooted in faith, hope and love. I believe Pope Benedict XVI made a courageous decision that demonstrates deep humility. In this decision he has opened the door to deeper conversations about the unity of the whole church. The fuller implications of his decision will not be understood for decades. Historians will likely see this as a significant step into a new world shaped by global realities. Will the papacy be the same in 2050? I doubt it. I have no idea what this means but I do believe history was made by the decision of this humble man, a decision that showed us what serving Christ looks like in a time when true peacemaking and humility could not be more important.
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I invite you to contribute your own reflections to the ‘Ecumenism in Canada” website. A little more than a week has passed since the surprising news that Pope Benedict XVI has decided to resign at the end of February. Now that the initial flurry of news reports have reported the details of his resignation and the expected process of the conclave in March, I invite you to join in a more reflective moment to consider the ecumenical significance of the papal resignation.

In 1995, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical on commitment to ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint, in which he invited discussion and dialogue about ways in which the petrine ministry might be reformed to more effectively serve as a universal ministry of unity. The resignation of Pope Benedict is one of the most visible reforms of the papacy in recent memory. What is it’s ecumenical significance?

I invite you to write short reflections, 100-300 words, and send them to me at editor [at] ecumenism [dot] net. I will select appropriate reflections to publish on the “Ecumenism in Canada” website. I cannot promise to publish every response, but I will endeavour to publish responses that are focused on the question at hand: What is the ecumenical significance of the papal resignation? I reserve the right to edit responses. Please include your full name, address, and occupation.

Please send your responses by February 28.
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The meeting of the Roman Catholic-United Church of Canada dialogue group which I attended in October reaffirmed the report on marriage that was submitted to our sponsoring bodies last spring. I have had the pleasure to be a part of this dialogue for the last 5 years as we discussed the often personal topic of marriage and our churches’ policies regarding marriage. What could have been a very confrontational discussion ended up being a wonderful celebration of the ideals of the institution as well as the rites involved in a wedding. Indeed, our two churches have much in common around marriage.
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Ministry leaders, priests and pastors from different Christian denominations in Saskatoon gathered Jan. 23 for a workshop held at the Cathedral of the Holy Family as part of the new De Margerie Series on Christian Unity and Reconciliation.

Bishop Gregory Cameron of the Anglican Diocese of St. Asaph in Wales led the morning workshop held in the middle of the 2013 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, offering leaders “pointers for the ecumenical quest” and encouraging discussion and practical goal-setting for the year ahead.

Looking for Christ in the other is vital, said Cameron. “There is a danger, I think, in the ecumenical context, that we start using our head quite a lot, and begin our critique of other traditions, without remembering to look for the Christ who is at work in one another.”
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Understanding the church as communion changes ecumenism, said the inaugural speaker of the new De Margerie Series on Christian Unity and Reconciliation. A paradigm of church as a communion or “Koinonia” shifts the understanding of church from a focus on our adherence to particular doctrines, to God’s action at work in us, said Bishop Gregory Cameron. “Communion clearly implies that the church is not merely an institution or organization, it is a fellowship of those who are called together by the Holy Spirit and who in baptism, confess Christ as Lord and Saviour. They are thus fully committed to him and to one another,” asserted Cameron. The understanding of church as communion — which is clearly expressed in the New Testament — has been rediscovered and deepened in recent decades, he described. “The shift has come about via a new emphasis of understanding the church less as a body of confessing believers, and more as a supernatural reality brought into being by God’s grace,” he said, after emphasizing the influence of paradigms in determining our ongoing understanding of any theological concept.
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Leaders of U.S. Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches will sign a historic agreement Tuesday in Austin [Texas] by which the two traditions will formally recognize each other’s liturgical rites of baptism.

The product of seven years of talks among five denominations, the agreement will be signed at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at a prayer service and celebration at St. Mary Cathedral. The service will be open to the public and will be part of the opening day activities of the national meeting of Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A., which will continue through Friday in Austin.

Representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Christian Reformed Church in North America, Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ will sign the document.
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This afternoon at 5:30pm, for the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Benedict XVI presided over second Vespers in the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls. The celebration marked the closure of the 46th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which this year had the theme: “What does God require of us?” Many representatives from other Churches and ecclesial communities participated in the celebrations, including Metropolitan-Archbishop Gennadios (Limouris), representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and Rev. Richardson, representing the Archbishop of Canterbury. Communion in the same faith is the basis for ecumenism,” the Holy Father said, emphasizing that “God gives us unity as something inseparable from the faith” and that “the profession of baptismal faith in God, the Father and Creator, who has revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ, pouring out the Spirit who gives life and holiness already unites Christians. Without faith―which is first a gift from God, but also the response of human persons―the entire ecumenical movement would be reduced to a type of ‘contract’, to adhere to out of common interest. … The doctrinal questions that still divide us should not be overlooked or minimized. Rather, they should be faced with courage, in a spirit of fraternity and mutual respect. Dialogue, when it reflects the priority of faith, can be open to God’s action with the firm confidence that alone we cannot build unity, but that the Holy Spirit is the one who guides us toward full communion and who allows us to see the spiritual wealth present in the different Churches and ecclesial communities.”
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The Ecumenism in Canada website is changing, moving, and growing. In its various forms since 1995, this site has continued to serve the global ecumenical community with a mission to “call the churches to visible unity in one faith, one baptism, and one eucharistic fellowship.” This mission is, of course, not ours alone. We find these words in the mission and vision of the World Council of Churches and they are echoed in the agreed statements of numerous dialogues.

The website has had a close relationship with the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism since the beginning. When I was executive director of the PCE, I began to play around with a website in my spare time sometime in the fall of 1995. Over the past 17 years, the site has grown into one of the most significant ecumenical websites, with over 10,000 visitors per month. The site has always given priority to collecting documents and other resources as a partial archive of the ecumenical movement in our time, and as a way of assisting the formation of an informed ecumenical leadership.
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon and St. Thomas More College are pleased to inaugurate a new series of lectures and workshops that will bring to Saskatoon distinguished ecumenists from around the world. Our hope is that this will be an annual event, sometimes in conjunction with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The series is named in honour of Fr. Bernard de Margerie. Those who know him, know that his greatest complement is to remind you to “stay humble.” His own humility is one of the many virtues he has brought to ecumenical ministry for over fifty years. Bernard is best known for his work in founding the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism in 1984, and serving as its first director for the next decade, but his ecumenical interest was sparked long before by Pope John XXIII who opened the Catholic Church to the ecumenical movement. Bernard’s vision for the ecumenical movement has always placed prayer at the centre. Spiritual ecumenism, which is fostered in prayer together and for each other, promotes humility about the distinctive aspects of our own faith and life. Through the early years of Catholic ecumenism, in the euphoria of new relationships between our churches, Bernard patiently and prayerfully built firm relationships that have seen us through the so-called “ecumenical winter.”
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The first event of a new ecumenical speaker series was held in Saskatoon Jan. 19, on the eve of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, as Anglican Bishop Gregory Cameron of Wales presented a morning ecumenical workshop about “Lessons learned in ecumenism.” Cameron spoke in a joyful “affective” way about the work for Christian unity – telling stories of lessons he has learned through his ecumenical experiences – rather than addressing doctrine, shared mission or spiritual ecumenism. Through discussion questions, he also encouraged participants to share their experiences of ecumenism. “I think it is very important to list and to explore the benefits of ecumenism, to celebrate the riches of ecumenical experience,” Cameron said, stressing that such personal experience can be an important answer to those who question the need to work for Christian unity. “Unless we can recognize what gifts the Lord gives us through the ecumenical journey, we are never going to be able to talk with passion and commitment about why the Church needs to be One.” Cameron therefore explored seven blessings that he has experience on his own ecumenical journey – life lessons from numerous encounters – listing them in seven key words: faith, challenge, joy, nurture, friendship, Christ, and vision.
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An international trilateral dialogue between Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans began in Rome, 9-13 December 2012.

According to a joint release issued after the Rome meeting, the overall theme of the five-year process is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The release further stated: “This innovative trilateral forum will allow the dialogue to take up questions surrounding the theology and practice of baptism in the respective communions.”

The three international communions came to the inaugural meeting with a history of bilateral dialogues with each other. They mutually agreed to hold three-way talks on baptism, a topic that had surfaced in earlier exchanges.
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“Christian unity is an intrinsic dimension of God’s grace to us. It belongs to our faith, as we also confess it together in the creeds of the early church. To belong to Christ means to belong to the body of Christ, the church,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). He was referring to the covenanting process of five church denominations in Wales.
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On our ecumenical journey we have come to understand more about God’s call to the Church to serve the unity of all creation. The vocation of the Church is to be: foretaste of new creation; prophetic sign to the whole world of the life God intends for all; and servant spreading the good news of God’s Kingdom of justice, peace and love.
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Au cours de notre cheminement œcuménique, nous sommes parvenus à mieux comprendre l’appel lancé par Dieu à l’Église à servir l’unité de l’ensemble de la création. La vocation de l’Église est d’être: un avant-goût de la nouvelle création, un signe prophétique, pour le monde entier, de la vie nouvelle que Dieu veut pour toutes et tous, ainsi qu’un serviteur propageant la Bonne Nouvelle du Royaume de justice, de paix et d’amour de Dieu.
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The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity had its fourth meeting from 12-19 July 2012 at the “Johann-Adam-Möhler-Institut für Ökumenik” in Paderborn, Germany. This is the fifth round for an official dialogue which began already in 1967. Looking toward the 500th Reformation anniversary in 2017, the Commission noted that this year will mark also the 50th anniversary of this process of dialogue. Harvesting the results of this ecumenical work, the Commission finalized a document “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.”
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A preparatory meeting for the 16th session of the Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission identified areas of agreement and a considerable number of open questions and differences between the two traditions on their understanding of ministry/priesthood in the Church.

Meeting in London 5-10 May, representatives from The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate began a new phase in the commission’s work by exploring the topic “The Understanding of Ministry/Priesthood in the light of the Holy Scriptures and the early Church,” which had been agreed at their 2011 meeting.
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The Anglican Church of Canada has entered a new round of dialogue with the United Church of Canada. The aim is to explore ways in which the two churches can work together for more effective ministry and mission.

“Much of the impetus for these conversations is coming from the grassroots of our two churches,” says Archdeacon Bruce Myers, the Anglican church’s coordinator for ecumenical relations. “Many communities across Canada are served by ecumenical shared ministries in which Anglicans and United church people and clergy work and worship side by side. They’re asking our churches’ leadership to find ways to facilitate such cooperation in mission and ministry.”

To that end, 12 new representatives from the two denominations met in Toronto May 14 to May 17 at St. John’s Convent, the headquarters of the Sisters of St. John the Divine. In addition to theological conversation, the group shared common prayer, meals and fellowship.
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This Pentecost Sunday, May 27, Anglican and Lutheran leaders in the Holy Land will issue a joint pastoral letter informing their churches that they are fully committed to establishing closer relations, and in time, full communion. The letter was a result of a meeting held in Jerusalem May 15 to 21 in which national leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) were invited to share their journey into full communion.

Read the complete story by Marites N. Sison from the Anglican Journal
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After years of preparation, a new Christian denomination will be formed this week in France when two synods meet in the eastern town of Belfort, a location historically important in the growth of Protestantism.

The Reformed Church of France (L’Église Réformée de France, ERF) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France (L’Église Évangélique Luthérienne de France, EELF) are merging to form the United Protestant Church of France (L’Église Protestante Unie). The new entity will be a reality after the churches’ synods meet 17-20 May, said Pastor Laurent Schlumberger, president of the ERF’s national council.
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The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission has completed the second meeting of its new phase (ARCIC III), at the Mission to Seafarers in Kowloon, Hong Kong (3-10 May 2012).

The Commission, chaired by the Most Revd David Moxon (Anglican Archbishop of the New Zealand Dioceses) and the Most Revd Bernard Longley (Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham) comprises nineteen theologians from a wide range of backgrounds across the world. According to the mandate given to it by the two Communions, the Commission is addressing interrelated issues: the Church as Communion, local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal Church come to discern right ethical teaching. The Commission has also been mandated to present the documents of ARCIC II for reception by the relevant authorities of both communions. Accordingly, the Commission is reviewing responses already received in order to prepare some elucidations, together with commentaries, which will enable the material of ARCIC II to be studied at all levels of the churches’ life.

Read more on “Ecumenism in Canada”
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Representatives of a broad range of Christian churches and organizations met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 14 to 19 January to complete a report and make recommendations for significant advances toward Christian unity and inter-religious cooperation.
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As of Jan. 2, the Anglican Church of Canada will have a dedicated new advocate for ecumenism.

Archdeacon Bruce Myers, missioner of communications in the diocese of Quebec, will assume a one-year, part-time position as coordinator for ecumenical relations with the Faith, Worship and Ministry department of General Synod.

“I’ve always had a passion for ecumenism even if I didn’t always call it that,” says Myers, who is manager of the Quebec diocese’s website and editor of its newspaper, Gazette. “Early on, I recognized that it was not right that the body of Christ was divided into so many pieces.”

Myers, who holds a master’s degree in ecumenical theology from the The Ecumenical Institute of Bossey in Switzerland, now brings that passion to healing the divisions in Christendom, so much of which was united as one church for 15 centuries. “I think ordinary Christians of every denomination are questioning whether the differences are all that important when we share so much in common,” he says. “The overarching ecumenical task is how to mend those broken fences and relations.”
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In the first century, when the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians about the Church as “one body with many members,” he had no idea of the differences and divisions that would come to fragment the Church so many centuries later. Paul wrote to address the particular concerns that were plaguing the early Christian communities. He pointed out that “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.”

It’s not difficult for us to apply the metaphor of the Church as the body to our congregations. We recognize the different gifts that are shared within our church communities – preaching, teaching, administration, music, hospitality, prayer, evangelism, and more – and we learn to value the different gifts and to acknowledge their importance for the healthy functioning of the church as a whole, as one body.

But what if this metaphor is meant to apply not only to the local congregation, but to the whole Church throughout the world? John’s Gospel indicates that it was Jesus himself who first prayed for the unity of the Church: “I ask … on behalf of those who will believe in me … that they may all be one … so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)
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Teams from the Baptist World Alliance and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople held exploratory talks Oct. 30-Nov. 2 that could lead to formal dialogue between Baptist and Orthodox Christians internationally.
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Representatives of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Mennonite World Conference held the first of several theological conversations June 28 to July 1, 2011 at the world headquarters of the 17 million-member Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland.

For four days representatives of both world communions exchanged ideas and perspectives centering on the theme of “Living the Christian Life in Today’s World.” After each group presented an overview of the history of their communion, papers were also presented by each group on the topics of peace, non-violence and military service; discipleship and non-conformity; health, healing/salvation and ecology; and the nature and mission of the church.

… continued.
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Last month, the national Canadian ARC Bishops’ Dialogue celebrated 40 years of bringing Anglican and Roman Catholics closer together. “The Canadian Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue is one of the longest running in the world,” says Bishop Michael Ingham of the Anglican diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver.

Unity headed the agenda as five Roman Catholic and four Anglican bishops (one was absent due to illness) met over three days in Pickering, Ont., to discuss–among other things–Growing Together in Unity and Mission, a document produced by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission.

Growing Together encourages practical co-operation at local levels between Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and visible signs of religious unity. “For example, it recommends that the two churches consider offering baptismal preparation together, using the same baptismal certificates or making public professions of faith together at Pentecost or on other significant occasions,” says Bishop Ingham.

It also encourages other joint ventures such as non-Eucharistic worship, pilgrimages and social justice initiatives. Religious collaborations are not common now, but Bishop Ingham is optimistic that they may become so. “We discussed how to develop this co-operation in Canada. The bishops will be taking the recommendations back to the House of Bishops. If the bishops are supportive, then they have to go out to the dioceses and encourage the clergy there.”
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When I moved to Saskatoon sixteen years ago, I was surprised by the ecumenical interest that I encountered in the churches. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, Saskatoon has the only ecumenical centre in Canada which focuses on parish ecumenism. This diocese has a history of ecumenical cooperation and experimentation that goes back to our earliest settlements. Over the years I have discovered that at the core of the prairie ecumenical experience there are some basic principles that provide guidance and insight to the search for Christian unity here, just as they do throughout the church. These principles are found in our own experience, but they are rooted in our biblical and doctrinal convictions about Christian faith and life. I think we experience these in a particularly unique way in Saskatchewan.
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The co-Chairmen and co-secretaries of the new phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III) have drawn up a plan for the first meeting of the Commission. This will be hosted by the Monastery of Bose, northern Italy, from 17 to 27 May 2011. The new phase of ARCIC’s work was mandated by Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, at their meeting in Rome in November 2009.
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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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By Nicholas Jesson On April 24th next year, we will celebrate Easter together in the Eastern and Western calendars. This happens occasionally, and it can always be a moment of great ecumenical opportunity. However, it also reflects one of the deepest divisions in the Body of Christ. Easter, as the celebration of the passion, death,
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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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Fifty years after the first meeting of a Pope and an Archbishop of Canterbury in modern times — that of Pope John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher, in December 1960 — Pope Benedict XVI paid a fraternal visit to Archbishop Rowan Williams.
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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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by Byron Rempel-Burkholder, Mennonite World Conference news service [Strasbourg, France • MWC] When Lutherans from around the world gather in July, they will seek a historic reconciliation with Mennonites and other Christians of the Anabaptist tradition. On July 22, the third day of the eleventh assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to be held
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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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Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan has been appointed director for Unity, Faith and Order for the Anglican Communion. Ms. Barnett-Cowan is currently director of faith, worship and ministry of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, a post she has held since 1995. She was recently appointed to the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO).
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At the end of June this year, Fr. Bernard de Margerie retired from active ministry after over 50 years. During these years he has served in parish ministry across the RC Diocese of Saskatoon, and in a number of specialized ministries. The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism claims Fr. Bernard as our own. He was the founder of the Centre back in 1984, and served as the executive director until 1994. He has continued to have an active role in ecumenism in Saskatoon and across the diocese in more recent years. At retirement, he was pastor of Paroisse Sts-Martyrs-Canadiens in Saskatoon, and ecumenical officer for the diocese.
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The fifth round of the Lutheran – Roman Catholic Commission on Unity had its first meeting, 19-24 July 2009 at the Christian Jensen Kolleg in Breklum, Germany. The commission’s work will focus first on the ecumenical significance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and then on the topic “baptism and growth in communion.”
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Christian unity has come a long way in the past 50 years, but there is still a long way to go in the face of many complex factors that are slowing progress, said Rev. Tom Ryan, CSP, director of the Paulist Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, based in Washington, D.C.

“During the past four decades, the rediscovery of our brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ, along with the result of several bilateral and multilateral dialogues, have presented an historical shift and a new situation,” he said during a keynote address June 4 at a Summer Ecumenical Institute held in Saskatoon. “There is a new situation emerging in which we can be said to be facing a crisis in the dual sense of the term: on the one hand danger, and on the other hand opportunity.”

Paradoxically, the crisis in today’s ecumenical movement is related to its success. “The closer we come to one another, the more we feel the differences that still exist,” Ryan said. “After resolving many misunderstandings and establishing a basic consensus concerning the essentials of our faith, we’ve now reached the inner core of our differences.”
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SEI 2009: Formation of Catholics on unity still ‘severely lacking’

Four panelists reflected on the state of the ecumenical movement during a Summer Ecumenical Institute organized by the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism June 2 – 5 in Saskatoon.

The churches and their leadership need a new conversion to Christian unity, said Rev. Bernard de Margerie, founder of the Prairie Centre. “The journey has become too long, too heavy, and light has dimmed.”

… read the entire article at ecumenism.net/news/
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