Summer Ecumenical Institute 2009: Telling our story, shaping our future: Christian unity and reconciliation in Canada

June 2-5, 2009 in Saskatoon, SK

The Summer Ecumenical Institute will function as a stock-taking and a vision-building exercise for the grassroots ecumenical community in Canada. 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. It is also the 50th anniversary of the announcement by Pope John XXIII of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose main aims was the advancement of Christian unity. It is 50 years since our founder, Fr. Bernard de Margerie, received his call to the path of ecumenism. There is much to celebrate!

More details at ecumenism.net/sei/
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That they may become one in God’s hand

Inspired by the witness of churches from a divided country, Christians throughout the world will be praying “that they may become one in God’s hand” during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2009.

continued …
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The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (IASCER) held its last meeting in Kyoto, Japan, under the chairmanship of the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, Primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. The Commission is charged with reviewing current international ecumenical dialogues involving Anglicans, and provincial and regional initiatives towards unity with other Christians. IASCER consists of representatives from each international dialogue involving Anglicans, including the multilateral dialogue of Faith and Order, and of certain other commissions and networks, and consultants who bring particular regional or theological expertise.
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Liturgies for Christian Unity: The First Hundred Years, 1908-2008

Earlier this year, Canadian Council of Churches announced their latest publication, an anthology of prayers for Christian unity. Featuring a foreword by retired Anglican Archbishop Michael G. Peers, Liturgies for Christian Unity is an anthology of the very best approaches to celebrating common religious ground. Containing prayers and texts from the past 100 years of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, it offers a wide range of ideas for liturgies of all forms and sizes. Its inclusiveness and its usefulness make it a required resource for parishes, retreat centres, chaplains, and educators in all manner of situations.

This resource is the fruit of rich editorial work by the Faith and Witness Commission of the Canadian Council of Churches, under the guidance and leadership of Rev. Judee Archer-Greene, Rev. Richard Vandervaart and Dr. Mary Marrocco.

ISBN-13: 978-2-89507-958-3 • Price: $27.95 • Paperback, 200 pp., 8.5 x 11
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Is Christianity still relevant today? – Summer Ecumenical Institute 2008

A Summer Ecumenical Institute will be held in Montréal from June 4 to 6, 2008, with the theme “Is Christianity still relevant today? How to respond effectively to a postmodern culture.” This bilingual programme has been planned and organized by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. There will be a variety of speakers, including Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton; Fr. Tom Ryan, c.s.p.; Rev. Dr. James Christie; Rev. Dr. Glenn Smith; Rev. Dr. Stephen Bigham; Dr. Édouard Bédard, and Joy Bédard.

For further information, please contact the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism at 1819 René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, QC, H3H 2P5; phone 514-937-9176; fax 514-937-4986; email infor [at] oikoumene [dot] ca or their new website www.oikoumene.ca. The registration brochure is also available online.

Note: The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism will not be holding a Summer Ecumenical Institute in 2008 and encourages Prairie ecumenists to participate in this SEI in Montréal.
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More than 20,000 Baptists from across North America will gather in Atlanta January 30-February 1, 2008, in an unprecedented demonstration of Baptist unity. The history-making event will culminate months of planning by leaders of more than 30 Baptist organizations who laid the groundwork for a new era of cooperation during a series of meetings at The Carter Center in 2006 and early 2007.

The New Baptist Covenant is an informal alliance of more than 30 racially, geographically, and theologically diverse Baptist organizations from throughout North America that claim more than 20 million members. Representatives of these Baptist organizations have reaffirmed traditional Baptist values, including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality, as well as their obligations as Christians to fulfill the biblical mandate to promote peace with justice, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick and the marginalized, and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity.

Under the theme “Unity in Christ,” the three-day Atlanta Celebration will feature speakers and presenters who will address historic Baptist commitments and explore other opportunities to work together as Christian partners. The Biblical text for the Celebration is Luke 4:18-19. Themes for the five plenary sessions are:

• Unity in Seeking Peace with Justice
• Unity in Bringing Good News to the Poor
• Unity in Respecting Diversity
• Unity in Welcoming the Stranger
• Unity in Setting the Captive Free

In addition to the plenary sessions, the Celebration will feature 16 special-interest sessions dealing with topics such as racism, religious liberty, poverty, the AIDS pandemic, faith in public policy, stewardship of the earth, evangelism, financial stewardship, and prophetic preaching.

Joint Midwinter Board Meeting

Prior to the New Baptist Covenant Celebration, the Joint Midwinter Board Meeting of the National Baptist Conventions in America, represented by the four Black Baptist Conventions — National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBCUSA, Inc.), National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. (NBCA, Inc.), Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (PNBC, Inc.), and National Missionary Baptist Convention of America (NMBCA) — will be held January 28 – 30 at the Georgia World Congress Center. The mission of this second historic meeting is to continue strengthening the bonds between the four Conventions.

The Joint Midwinter Board Meeting is expected to draw 10,000 attendees from across the nation, and the world, who will meet over a three-day period to review the business and governance of their respective Conventions, engage in biblically based educational and informational forums highlighting community, domestic, and world issues, and join in Christian fellowship. The four Conventions will come together daily for joint sessions and activities, in addition to holding separate meetings. This is the second gathering of the four Conventions, and as agreed upon by each Convention president during the groundbreaking 2005 gathering in Nashville, TN, it will continue to be a regularly scheduled meeting held every three to four years.
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A hundred years on from the establishing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, how much further forward are we? And what exactly are we praying for during this week of prayer? On the whole, it’s become a fixture for most “mainstream” denominations, a few days when the more enthusiastic or more biddable members of the congregation turn up to someone else’s church for a well-mannered but often rather lukewarm joint service or two, or perhaps for a talk by a prominent local leader.

The aspiration that we end up relating better with each other, or even that we end up more willing to engage in witness and work together is entirely worthy, and is probably widely fulfilled. But are we praying for anything more than this?

For some people, the answer is clearly “no”. To look beyond this fostering of local goodwill, they would say, is always in danger of slipping towards the yearning for some universal institution with clear central control – at worst, a Pullmanesque Magisterium, some people’s nightmare of Roman Catholicism.
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When I teach my students about the ecumenical movement, I tell them that the establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948 is an historic achievement. It is historic because the WCC is the principal instrument of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century. It is historic because it sets a benchmark in church history for the commitment of the churches to walk together. It is an achievement of unparalleled importance because it brought together the historic churches of the Reformation together with the Eastern churches in a commitment to seek visible unity and common witness. However, even in 1948 there was an awareness that there were essential voices missing from the ecumenical table.
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We hear complaints these days decrying much that is wrong with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): ministers with questionable theology, regrettable statements from denominational officials, and misguided decisions by judicatories at all levels. One effect of these recitations surely is to leave under a cloud Presbyterians who profess continuing loyalty to the denomination. We who remain affiliated with the denomination are often portrayed by separation-minded colleagues as sell-outs, as compromisers, as “lukewarm Laodiceans” who have sacrificed theological and biblical integrity for the sake of unity-at-any-price.

We reject these portrayals and intend now to declare the biblical and confessional faith that leads us to keep faith with our brothers and sisters within the PC(USA). We contend that the decision to remain within the fellowship involves neither a softening of confessional commitments nor a sentimental minimizing of the problems afflicting the denomination. Rather, our commitment to hold firm in common life with our fellow Presbyterians is grounded in the recognition that the hope of the church lies nowhere else than in the saving Lordship of Jesus Christ its Head.

The corollary to this affirmation is the recognition that the decision to leave is questionable as an act of Christian faithfulness. While we do not doubt the godly intentions of many who have left or are considering leaving, we suggest that the path of separation tends to reflect a certain kind of despairing unbelief regarding Christ’s presence in and with the church, an abandonment of hope in a living, acting, and reigning Lord Jesus. Such a position stands in contradiction to the Gospel.
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An agreed statement entitled “Growing Together in Unity & Mission” was released today by the Anglican Communion Office and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The statement attempts to foster discussion and reflection on the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) over the past 40 years. However, the statement insists, “it is more than this: it is a call for action, based upon an honest appraisal of what has been achieved in our dialogue. Despite our present ‘imperfect communion’, there is, we feel, enough common ground to take seriously how we work together.”
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This past summer, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a statement entitled “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.” This document immediately attracted attention, comment, spin, appreciation, and criticism from around the world. The document contains five questions and the responses of the CDF, with very little additional comment. The focus of the questions is the meaning of the word “subsists” as it appears in Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), article 8. The council declared that the one Church of Christ “constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.”

Much of the criticism of the document has come from within the Catholic community, although notable critiques have also been issued by ecumenical partners. The criticism has addressed the exclusivity with which the new CDF document interprets the word “subsists”, and the insistence of the CDF that other churches are thereby deficient. The responses to the document were more careful and nuanced than those made in 2000 to Dominus Iesus, but many observers connected the two documents, seeing the new text as little more than a re-articulation of the earlier problematic statements.

After considerable thought about whether there was anything further productive to say about the document and the controversy stirred up this summer, I have decided to share some of my initial reflections in the days following the publication of the “responsa.” There are numerous additional perspectives that could be offered, many of which are available online.
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The 2007 Summer Ecumenical Institute entitled “Making Peace in the Household of God” is scheduled for June 26 to 29 in Saskatoon. As final preparations are underway, the final timetable has been released along with a list of optional workshops. The conference begins on Tuesday evening with an ecumenical worship service at St. Paul’s Cathedral at 7 p.m. Dr. David Brubaker, one of our keynote speakers, will preach the sermon. The general public is invited to attend this service.
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The early bird registration deadline for the 2007 Summer Ecumenical Institute is March 15. Please register soon. A conference brochure and registration form are available online at ecumenism.net/sei/2007_sei_brochure.pdf
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The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism is pleased to announce that its Summer Ecumenical Institute for 2007 will take place in Saskatoon June 26-29. The theme of the conference is conflict resolution and transformation within and among churches, under the working title “Making Peace in the Household of God.”

Many Canadian churches appear to be experiencing conflict, often more within than between denominations. Liberals and conservatives in many churches are in tension over issues such as human sexuality and the interpretation of scripture, and the ‘heat’ seems to be rising. The skills of courtesy, listening and dialogue, which ecumenically-minded people have been developing over the years, are today needed just as much within our churches as between them.
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Church unity hasn’t happened yet, but Catholics and Anglicans have a new list of concrete suggestions for ways to bring the two churches closer. A joint commission of Catholic and Anglican bishops has produced a 42-page report which aims “to bridge the gap between the elements of faith we hold in common and the tangible expression of that shared belief in our ecclesial lives.” The result of work by theologians and bishops in North America, Europe and Australia, Growing Together in Unity and Mission summarizes the agreements reached in 40 years of Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue, setting out common belief in the Trinity, the church as communion in mission, Scripture, Baptism, Eucharist, ministry, authority in the church, discipleship and holiness, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. It also sets out in eight boxed sections areas of disagreement. The disagreements take up 15 of the 126 numbered paragraphs in the document.
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When Catholic cardinals meet in conclave they tend to do so under the stern eye of God in the Sistine Chapel. Anglican primates are different; this past week they have been meeting privately in the agreeable surroundings of a beach-front hotel overlooking the shimmering Indian Ocean just outside Dar es Salaam. Where the cardinals have Swiss Guards to protect them, the Anglicans have enjoyed what we journalists took to calling satirically the ring of steel: a group of young askari cadets, dressed in white shirts and black berets, who nervously fingered their truncheons when anyone approached.
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Rather than be split by a much-trumpeted schism,the Anglican Communion emerged from its meeting in Tanzania this week as a new kind of twenty-first century Church, reflecting changes in ecclesial and geopolitical power

Will the Anglican Communion survive? Before the Primates’ Meeting in Africa this week there was much discussion of schism, and an atmosphere of crisis prevailed. At the heart of the problem is how Anglicans reconcile the value they place on diocesan and provincial structure of autonomy at the national level with the legitimacy given to a comprehensive range of practices and positions with the bonds of ecclesial communion that allow the Communion coherence as one effective, united, interdependent worldwide body of Christians. Given that, what does the Anglican Communion mean? Is it a fellowship of independent national churches with historical roots in the Church of England that worship through a provincial expression of the Book of Common Prayer, or is it a hierarchical system with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the top as a sort of mini-Pope?
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It is with great sadness that “Ecumenism in Canada” notes the passing of Dr. George Vandervelde, an ecumenist widely known and respected in Canada, the United States and around the world. Vandervelde was emeritus professor at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto since his retirement in 2004, and lecturer at Wycliffe College in the Toronto School of Theology. A lifelong member of the Christian Reformed Church, he was for many years an active participant in the Canadian Council of Churches’ Faith and Witness Commission, and the U.S. National Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission. He was convenor of the World Evangelical Alliance’s Ecumenical Issues Taskforce and secretary of the WEA‘s dialogue with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Although it is an exaggeration to credit him with single-handedly establishing the Evangelical-Roman Catholic dialogue, his passion for this important work marked his entire career.
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Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. Yet in the churches there is a fear of conflict, and a tendency to go for peace at any price, sweeping conflict under the carpet until it cannot be contained. The 2007 Summer Ecumenical Institute aims to help church people build a vision of how conflict can become a force for good in our communities, and to equip participants with the basic skills they need to become active peace-builders in their own settings.

The Summer Ecumenical Institute (SEI) — scheduled for June 26 to 29 in Saskatoon — is sponsored by the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
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The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) has agreed to reconcile with the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The schism developed following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and has led to the establishment of parallel jurisdictions of Russian Orthodoxy in the diaspora. The talks between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate began in 2001. The reconciliation between the two church bodies is expected to occur in May 2007 when the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate adopts the “Act of Canonical Communion” already approved by the ROCOR Synod of Bishops. The two church bodies express the hope that: “The reestablishment of canonical communion will serve, God willing, towards the strengthening of the unity of the Church of Christ, of her witness in the contemporary world, promoting the fulfillment of the will of the Lord to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:52).
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The 2007 edition of Growing Together is now available for pre-order at the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. Growing Together is a series of Sunday bulletin inserts prepared by a special writing team for the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. Produced annually since 1985, GT consists of a set of 5 inserts normally distributed in church bulletins from January to May.

The 2007 GT series is:

1. Hear the Word of the Lord – Prophetic Voices for God
2. The Power of Words
3. When We Disagree: Living with Difference in our Congregations
4. A Muslim Friend I Would Like To Have Known
5. The Spirituality of Travel
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The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism’s Fall Workshop for Ecumenical Contacts will be held on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at St. Francis RC Church, Saskatoon (Willow St. & Melrose Ave.) from 9:00 a.m. – noon. Our theme is “After you say hello: going deeper in inter-church dialogue.”
Lots of people can generate some enthusiasm for ‘surface’ ecumenism (occasional potlucks, an annual joint service, etc.), but how do you move yourself and your church from polite greetings to meaningful, lasting engagement? This can be particularly challenging for lay people who operate at varying distances from the centres of power in their churches. Sharing enthusiasm and tested ideas with us will be the Rev. Dr. Jim Halmarson, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, who is serving with the Anglican parish of Christ Church, Saskatoon, and who also teaches at the Lutheran Theological Seminary.
The workshop forms part of the ongoing training and development of Ecumenical Contacts – people in parishes and congregations who accept the call to work for Christian unity and reconciliation – but it is open to anyone who is interested in the subject. Registration is from 8:30 am. There is no charge for the workshop (donations welcome). For further information call the PCE at 306-653-1633 or email pce [at] ecumenism [dot] net.
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A new statement has been published by Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an ad-hoc group of theologians and church leaders headed by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus. This text, entitled “That They May Have Life,” is the sixth statement issued by ECT since 1994. In their most recent offering, ECT returns its focus to public policy, morality, and the so-called “culture wars.” Seeking to promote dialogue within the US on the “culture of life,” the group affirms that they share common interests and concerns with those who oppose them. These include a common interest in the American experiment and a common humanity with its God-given capacity for reason. The text, which has the tone of a pastoral letter, appears to be interested in a dialogue between secular culture and Christians.

While this latest document is to be welcomed for its clear articulation of certain aspects of the “culture of life,” and for the continuing efforts of Evangelicals and Roman Catholics to speak together on issues of shared concern, it is disappointing for many of the same reasons that the first ECT statement was criticized. There is very little contribution made here to the ecumenical rapprochement between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics. Many of the issues that the participants agreed upon in this statement will divide them from others within their own churches. This statement will likely be received as just another contribution to the abortion debate by the Religious Right. To me, it seems like like they weren’t reaching high enough.
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The Anglican Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada invites you to attend a forum on the ARCIC Agreed Statement “Mary, Grace and Hope in Christ” on Thursday, September 28, 2006, 7:30 pm at Montreal Diocesan College, 3473 University St., Montreal. Presentations and responses will be given by two members of the dialogue: Dr. Catherine Clifford, Professor of Theology, St. Paul University, Ottawa and the Rev’d Canon Kevin Flynn, Director of Anglican Studies, St. Paul University, Ottawa. Discussion and refreshments to follow with presenters and other members of the Anglican Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada.
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During the summer months ecumenical news dries up as church leaders, pastors, and theologians head off on their holiday plans. However, this year a very significant event occurred while we were all at the lake. Since 2001, Methodists have expressed appreciation for the Lutheran-Roman Catholic “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (JDDJ). Not long after the formal affirmation of the JDDJ, representatives of the Methodist World Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches gathered with the two signatories to discuss the possibilities of expanding the consensus to include their constituencies. This summer, on July 23, the World Methodist Conference, a gathering of 76 churches in the Methodist tradition, affirmed the Joint Declaration in a signing ceremony together with Lutheran and Roman Catholic representatives.
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The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism is pleased to announce that its Summer Ecumenical Institute for 2007 will take place in Saskatoon June 26-29. The theme of the conference is conflict resolution and transformation within and among churches, under the working title “Making Peace in the Household of God.”

Many Canadian churches appear to be experiencing conflict, often more within than between denominations. Liberals and conservatives in many churches are in tension over issues such as human sexuality and the interpretation of scripture, and the ‘heat’ seems to be rising. The skills of courtesy, listening and dialogue, which ecumenically-minded people have been developing over the years, are today needed just as much within our churches as between them.
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By Nicholas Jesson In his address to a gathering of ecumenical leaders in Warsaw on May 25, Pope Benedict XVI has expressed strong support for pastoral care of interchurch families. Speaking to the Polish Council for Ecumenism and leaders of other religious groups, Benedict encouraged the work of a bilateral commission of the Catholic bishops’ conference
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Nidus is a festival for people from all streams of Christian faith with music, arts, keynotes, worship, dialogue, drama & dance. Several thousand youth, young adults, families and others will gather in Kitchener, Ontario from August 4th to 6th. It will be a unique opportunity for people to come together to express faith, celebrate through
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A workshop for ecumenical contacts and leaders entitled “God in Your grace, Transform the World: An eyewitness report from the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches” will be held April 22 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Saskatoon.
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The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism will be hosting a very special retreat this summer, perhaps a unique event in Canada. Pastors and members of three very different church traditions – the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Mennonite Church Saskatchewan and the Foursquare Gospel Church – will spend three days together sharing their treasures of corporate worship and private devotion. Each worship session will be led by a member of the tradition to which it belongs, with explanations of the service’s meaning and time for questions. In addition we will be introduced to ways of private prayer and devotion characteristic of these traditions, with explanations and private time in which to ‘try out’ different types of prayer for ourselves.

Thursday May 25 to Saturday May 27, 2006 at Queen’s House of Retreats (601 Taylor St. West, Saskatoon)

Costs: $175 live-in, $150 commuters. Please register with Queen’s House directly (tel. 306-242-1916) by May 10 to ensure the viability of this event. If you would like more information about the retreat, contact the PCE at (306) 653-1633. This event will be held in lieu of the 2006 Summer Ecumenical Institute.
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The World Council of Churches ended its once every seven years assembly held in Brazil with calls to reach out to Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Evangelical churches that do not belong to the Geneva-based grouping.
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1. We, the delegates to the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, give thanks to the Triune God, Father; Son and Holy Spirit, who has brought our churches into living contact and dialogue. By God’s grace we have been enabled to remain together, even when this has not been easy. Considerable efforts have been made to overcome divisions. We are “a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”.3 We reaffirm that “the primary purpose of the fellowship of churches in the World Council of Churches is to call one another to visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship expressed in worship and in common life in Christ, through witness and service to the world, and to advance towards that unity in order that the world may believe”.4 Our continuing divisions are real wounds to the body of Christ, and God’s mission in the world suffers.

2. Churches in the fellowship of the WCC remain committed to one another on the way towards full visible unity. This commitment is a gift from our gracious Lord. Unity is both a divine gift and calling. Our churches have affirmed that the unity for which we pray, hope, and work is “a koinonia given and expressed in the common confession of the apostolic faith; a common sacramental life entered by the one baptism and celebrated together in one eucharistic fellowship; a common life in which members and ministries are mutually recognised and reconciled; and a common mission witnessing to the gospel of God’s grace to all people and serving the whole of creation”.5 Such koinonia is to be expressed in each place, and through a conciliar relationship of churches in different places. We have much work ahead of us as together we seek to understand the meaning of unity and catholicity, and the significance of baptism.
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“Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matt. 18:20). The 2006 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be observed January 22 to 29, 2006 in many parts of Canada. An international resource kit prepared by the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian
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The 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches will meet in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 14 – 23 February 2006, addressing the theme “God, in your grace, transform the world.” The assembly will be a time of encounter, prayer, celebration and deliberation for thousands of Christian women and men from around the world. The World
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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2006 18-25 January The theme of this coming Week of Prayer for Christian Unity sets before us a promise of Jesus: “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18, 20). Being as receptive as possible to the presence of Jesus in
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Orders are now being taken for the 2006 series of the Growing Together bulletin inserts. The inserts are distributed as a camera-ready black and white master copy. This allows congregations/parishes to copy as many as needed for their church bulletins or other purposes. Growing Together is great for use during Lent. Call the PCE now
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The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism’s 21st birthday party will be celebrated with an open house on November 17 at 4 p.m. Come and join us for tea and cake. In addition we will be dedicating our new photocopier!

Fifteen years ago, Carol Pek felt an urgent desire to meet and talk with Christians outside her own Holy Spirit Catholic Church. That urgency would eventually spawn SESIG (South East Saskatoon Interchurch Group), sole purpose of which is to create understanding and unity among Christian churches. Ecumenism is no stretch for Pek, who was raised
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To promote and recognize Grass-roots Ecumenical Leadership on the local or regional level, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism confers an annual Ecumenical Leadership Award. The recipient will be announced in the December 2005 issue of Ecumenism. We invite our readers to submit the names of the candidates with a brief description of why they are
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Some of the liveliest debates at ARCIC meetings have been over titles. We worked together for five years on the “Mary document”, so we all have strong feelings about the progress we made and the best way to present it. “Put Mary in the title”, said one member, “and it will fly off the shelves.” “Put grace and hope in the title”, said another, “because that’s how we have approached the two Marian dogmas.” “Put Christ in the title,” we all agreed, because again and again we reminded each other that the Church is interested in Mary because she is the mother of the Lord.

ARCIC does not set its own agenda. We worked on Mary because we were asked for “a study of Mary in the life and doctrine of the Church” and because of the acknowledged differences between our two communions over Mariological teaching.
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[ACNS 3978a | ACO | 16 MAY 2005] The Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) has released its latest document in its continuing dialogue. Also called ‘The Seattle Statement’, the ARCIC Co-Chairs, Archbishop Alexander Brunett of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, and Archbishop Peter Carnley, Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, were present
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Since taking over in January as director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, Jan Bigland-Pritchard has been kept busy. The centre has just been host to a shared ministry conference that she describes as “a wonderful event, and extremely gratifying in terms of the number that attended.” This has been a homecoming for Bigland-Pritchard, who
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Communion is sign of unity, but often it leaves people feeling excluded, on the outside of the community of the faithful. In the fifth of our series, a Benedictine monk seeks a theological basis for a pastoral re-examination of the problem
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“Ministering together when we are small and scattered…” That is how retired Presbyterian minister Jim McKay paraphrased the thrust of the upcoming Collaborative Ministries Conference being hosted by the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. Marie Klombies puts it this way: “The purpose of the conference is to bring together people in Christian ministry — ordained, lay
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Two churches examine shared ministries: Anglican dialogue with United Church began in 2003 by Solange De Santis, Anglican Journal Nearly 30 years after the Anglican and United churches broke off merger talks, the two denominations are again discussing closer ties – but a merger is not on the table. “It’s still in an exploratory phase,
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The churches in Slovakia have experienced more than a decade of renewal and growth after four decades of living in a political situation that, while allowing the churches to exist, attempted to impede their growth and limit their witness in society. The situation in which this year’s theme: “Christ, the one Foundation of the Church” was developed, is marked by new possibilities for church growth.
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The Christian Churches face a crisis in ecumenism. Before rapprochement with other faiths becomes possible, they must overcome their own differences

There are four areas which are crucial to Christianity within the next 20 years and which have to be faced by all Christians. They will certainly be among the main challenges facing the next pope.

The first is the de-christianisation of Europe. How extraordinary that in the space of 50 years the secularist culture of Europe should have gained such sway, especially at a time when, around the world, the Enlightenment prediction that religion would become merely a private affair seems to have been so misplaced. The rise of an assertive Islam, with all its huge challenges, speaks for itself, as does the new popularity of religious practice in the former Soviet Union. The crucial 2 per cent or 3 per cent margin which handed victory to President Bush is being attributed to the newly galvanised ranks of evangelical Christians in the United States. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Churches are expanding fast. Even in our old, tired Europe, religious belief is exerting a new fascination among the young, as is evident in the increased take-up of RE at A-level and theology at university.
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by Jana G. Pruden, Regina Leader Post [Lumsden, SK] On a day that celebrates the life of St. Francis of Assisi, four Christian church groups came together in an agreement that would have made him proud. Representatives of the Anglican Church, Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church and Franciscan Friars met Monday on St. Francis’s
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Voici le texte intégral de la Déclaration commune signée par le pape Jean-Paul II et le patriarche œcuménique Bartholomaios Ier au terme de la visite de celui-ci au Vatican.
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Here is a translation of the Joint Declaration signed by John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and published today.
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