Two Dutch Faiths in Baptism Pact

The Roman Catholic Church of the Netherlands and the Dutch Reformed Church, oldest of the Dutch Protestant churches, with roots in the Reformation of the 16th century, announced today that they had agreed to recognize each other’s baptism.

This latest step toward church unity in the Netherlands was announced by Bernard Cardinal Alfrink, leader of the Dutch Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the Rev. Dr. Gerit de Ru, president of the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, at a news conference here.
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Posted: July 21, 1967 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6482
Categories: News • In this article: baptism, Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, Reformed churches Transmis : 21 juillet 1967 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6482
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : baptism, Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, Reformed churches

Excerpts from letter of Pope John Paul II on Martin Luther

Following are excerpts from Pope John Paul II’s letter on Martin Luther, dated Oct. 31, and addressed to Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, Archbishop of Utrecht. The letter, which was written in German, was translated by The Associated Press from a text in Italian released today by the Vatican.

November 10, 1983, is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Doctor Martin Luther of Eisleben. On this occasion, numerous Christians, especially of the Lutheran-Evangelical confession, remember that theologian who contributed in a substantial manner to the radical change of ecclesiastical and secular reality in the West. Our world still experiences his great impact on history.

For the Catholic Church the name of Martin Luther has through the centuries been tied to a painful period in history, in particular to the experience of profound ecclesiastical divisions.

For this reason, the 500th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther must be for us an occasion to meditate, in Christian truth and charity, on that event engraved in history that was the epoch of the Reformation. It is time that we distance ourselves from historic events and assure that they are often better understood and evoked.
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Posted: November 5, 1983 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=9650
Categories: News • In this article: dialogue, John Paul II, Martin Luther Transmis : 5 novembre 1983 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=9650
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : dialogue, John Paul II, Martin Luther

Pope, on his birthday, urges Christian unity

by E. J. Dionne, New York Times Pope John Paul II celebrated his 65th birthday today before cheering crowds with talk of Christian unity and a stern warning to youth against the exploitation ”of our weaknesses and our passions.” John Paul, who has been criticized by some Protestant leaders for slowing ecumenical dialogue, called on
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Posted: May 19, 1985 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6374
Categories: News • In this article: Christian unity, dialogue, John Paul II Transmis : 19 mai 1985 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6374
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Christian unity, dialogue, John Paul II

‘Unprecedented’ Letter From Pope Hails Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue

In a letter described by religious leaders as “unprecedented,” Pope John Paul II told the presiding bishop of the Lutheran Church in America that Christian unity “continues as a priority in the Catholic Church today” and praised the agreements by joint Lutheran-Catholic theological commissions over the last two decades. The Pope’s letter came in response to a letter from Bishop James R. Crumley Jr. of New York, who wrote the pontiff May 22 asking him to encourage U.S. Roman Catholics to study the last report issued by the joint commission, a 21,000-word study on “justification by faith,” a key doctrine of the Protestant Reformation.
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Posted: September 28, 1985 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6434
Categories: News • In this article: Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, John Paul II, Lutheran Transmis : 28 septembre 1985 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6434
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, John Paul II, Lutheran

Rome may recognize Anglican priests

A top Vatican official has told members of a joint Anglican-Roman Catholic commission that his church could recognize the validity of Anglican priesthood if the Anglican Church officially adopts statements agreed to by an earlier joint commission on priesthood and the Eucharist. Cardinal Johannes Willebrands of the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity raised the possibility in a letter to the commission, representatives of the panel told a news conference in London. The new Vatican approach could be a major development in ending the 450-year-old rift between Rome and Canterbury. Bishop Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Bishop Mark Santer, the Catholic and Anglican chairmen of the commission, said they hoped shared communion would result from the changes as soon as the end of the century.
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Posted: March 15, 1986 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6441
Categories: News • In this article: Anglican, Catholic, church union, dialogue, ordination Transmis : 15 mars 1986 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6441
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Anglican, Catholic, church union, dialogue, ordination

Pope warns Anglicans on ordaining women

[Reuters] Pope John Paul II has told the Archbishop of Canterbury the ordination of women priests in some Anglican churches poses an “increasingly serious obstacle” to progress toward eventual reunion with Rome, the Vatican said Monday. The Vatican released an exchange of letters between the Pope and Archbishop Robert Runcie, and between Runcie and Johannes
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Posted: July 1, 1986 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6407
Categories: News • In this article: Anglican, dialogue, John Paul II, ordination, Robert Runcie, women Transmis : 1 juillet 1986 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6407
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Anglican, dialogue, John Paul II, ordination, Robert Runcie, women

Movement for Christian Unity Reaches ‘Ecumenical Crossroads’

by George W. Cornell Working for Christian unity has become thoroughly institutionalized, a part of the organizational machinery of virtually every major church body and of liaison units among them. But as the special week, Jan. 18-25, approaches when Christians around the world pray, as Jesus did, “that they may all be one … so
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Posted: January 17, 1987 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6362
Categories: News • In this article: Christian unity, Consultation on Church Union, dialogue Transmis : 17 janvier 1987 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6362
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Christian unity, Consultation on Church Union, dialogue

Anglicans and Catholics have taken first steps on road to reunion

The Catholic and Anglican churches have been conducting joint studies of doctrine for the past 17 years. The purpose is to explore the essential teachings of each church to see if there is enough common ground for an eventual reunion. Both churches were once united in one western Christian church for 15 centuries. Their history of separation dates back four centuries to the time of the Reformation. The joint studies began in 1970 and involved nine Roman Catholic scholars and nine from the Anglican communion. The joint panel was called the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, or the ARCIC. After 11 years of study, it published papers on three major topics of mutual and central concern; Eucharist, Ministry and Ordination as well as on Authority in the Church.
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Posted: September 19, 1987 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6438
Categories: News • In this article: Anglican, Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism Transmis : 19 septembre 1987 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6438
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Anglican, Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism

Christian unity seems on the mend

by Patrick O’Driscoll, USA Today Young revelers rock the ballroom in a New Year’s Eve countdown. At midnight Thursday, the cheer goes up: “Happy New CHURCH!” How’s that again? While millions of us sing choruses of Auld Lang Syne to welcome 1988, some 1,600 Lutheran teens in Anaheim, Calif., will hum a hymn – on
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Posted: December 30, 1987 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6364
Categories: News • In this article: Christian unity, church union, dialogue, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran Transmis : 30 décembre 1987 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6364
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Christian unity, church union, dialogue, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran

Anglicans, Lutherans embrace relationship

by Paul de Groot, Edmonton Journal [SASKATOON] Bishops of the Anglican and Lutheran churches embraced here Friday, symbolizing a new, closer relationship between their churches. “This is a thrilling and a tremendous time,” said Anglican bishop Walter Jones of Winnipeg, moments after the biennial convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada approved a new
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Posted: July 15, 1989 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6196
Categories: News • In this article: Anglican Church of Canada, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Lutheran Transmis : 15 juillet 1989 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6196
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Anglican Church of Canada, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Lutheran

Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

The Commission for dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church met at the Spirituality Center of the Syro-Malabar Church at Kottayam (Kerala, South India) December 5-8, 1994. All Commission members were present.

1. The principal subject was the study on the role of the Episcopate in guaranteeing the Unity of the Church. After taking up again the text on “Synodal Structure and Practice” (P.M.O. John) two other documents were presented: “Koinonia in the Church” (Mar Severios) and “Ecclesial Communion: A biblical-theological perspective” (P.M. Vellanickal). The sub-commission has begun to draft a first synthesis on “the Church as Communion (Koinonia)” which has been discussed by the assembly.

These progressive studies, which have not led immediately to concrete decisions, have engaged the commission in a process of successive approaches to the mystery of the Church and more precisely of its sacramental structure which is common to the two Churches. These approaches also permit us to perceive the links between this structure and the exercise of authority in the Church. It has therefore asked a sub-commission to explore more deeply the notions of authority (exousia) and of service (diakonia in the Church understood as communion (koinonia).
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Posted: December 8, 1994 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=8540
Categories: Communiqué • In this article: Catholic, dialogue, India, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Transmis : 8 décembre 1994 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=8540
Catégorie : Communiqué • Dans cet article : Catholic, dialogue, India, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church

The Commission for dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church met at the Spirituality Center of the Syro-Malabar Church at Kottayam (Kerala, South India) December 9, 1994. All Commission members were present.

1. In the course of this fourth meeting, the Commission spent the greater part of its time on the issue of the reception, in each Church, of the agreement on mixed marriages published January 25, 1994. On each side it has been welcomed in a very positive way. The faithful have experienced the new attitudes as a liberation because they respect and enlarge the freedom of choice of these minorities in regard to marriage and family life. If some difficulties have arisen on certain points, it has been because of of the lack of awareness among the clergy more of the Agreement itself than of the Pastoral Directives which accompanied it. It seems indispensable to foresee in each diocese a small committee or a diocesan delegate with the responsibility to resolve the more urgent problems.
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Posted: December 9, 1994 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=8546
Categories: Communiqué • In this article: Catholic, dialogue, Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church Transmis : 9 décembre 1994 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=8546
Catégorie : Communiqué • Dans cet article : Catholic, dialogue, Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church

What is truth?

by Paul Hanley, for “Urban Banter” in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix What is truth? The question has been around for a long time, but finding an answer isn’t getting any easier. The question, which was put to several speakers at an interfaith symposium at the University last Saturday, becomes more difficult to answer as society
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Posted: October 10, 1996 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6193
Categories: Opinion • In this article: dialogue, interfaith, truth Transmis : 10 octobre 1996 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6193
Catégorie : Opinion • Dans cet article : dialogue, interfaith, truth

The wound that will not heal

When Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople made a month-long tour of 16 cities in the United States in October and November, he was feted with honours at Washington’s Jesuit-run Georgetown University and greeted with splendour in Baltimore’s Catholic cathedral. As so often in inter-Church relations, however, the conciliatory declarations belied bitter realities.

Ironically, the sharp downturn in Catholic-Orthodox relations during the past six months came into the open after one of the Pope’s most impassioned appeals for Christian unity. The occasion John Paul II picked was a Eucharistic Congress held in May at Wroclaw in Poland. “In this our second millennium, when the unity of Christ’s disciples has suffered tragic divisions between East and West, prayer for the rediscovery of full unity is a special obligation”, the Pope said. “Can we bear joint and effective witness to Christ if we are not reconciled with one another? Can we be reconciled with one another without forgiving one another?”
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Posted: December 6, 1997 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6598
Categories: The Tablet • In this article: Catholic, dialogue, ecumenism, Orthodox Transmis : 6 décembre 1997 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6598
Catégorie : The Tablet • Dans cet article : Catholic, dialogue, ecumenism, Orthodox

Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism

More than 25 years ago in Northern India I first met Fr Dupuis. That meeting prefigured my contact with his remarkable book, and was also thoroughly physical. As he gunned his Yugoslavian motorcycle along narrow roads in the foothills of the Himalayas, I clung to him for dear life and prayed not to fall into the cavernous valleys that flanked our route to a high-altitude Buddhist monastery. After visiting the monks Dupuis roared off down another road to a self-help Tibetan refugee camp directed by the Dalai Lama’s sister-in-law and then to a mountaineering school run by the Sherpa Tensing who had conquered Mount Everest in 1953 with Sir Edmund Hillary. These visits shaped my first impressions of Jacques Dupuis as someone who wanted direct contact with other religious traditions and was certainly not content to learn about them simply by reading texts at his desk.
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Posted: January 24, 1998 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6701
Categories: The Tablet • In this article: dialogue, interfaith, salvation, theology Transmis : 24 janvier 1998 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6701
Catégorie : The Tablet • Dans cet article : dialogue, interfaith, salvation, theology

Book Review: Margaret O’Gara, The Ecumenical Gift Exchange

I remember, as an MA student, reading one of Margaret O’Gara’s essays in Grail on petrine ministry and what she called “the ecumenical gift exchange.” Drawing a comparison to the exchange of gifts in a large family at Christmas, O’Gara says that “in ecumenical dialogue, each Christian communion brings one or many gifts to the dialogue table, and each receives riches from their dialogue partners as well. But in the ecumenical gift exchange, the gift-giving enriches all of the partners, since we do not lose our gifts by sharing them with others.” Throughout my own research and the past four years of ecumenical ministry I have kept this concept close at hand.

O’Gara’s new book The Ecumenical Gift Exchange collects her own essays exploring issues of contemporary ecumenical dialogue, particularly: petrine ministry; infallibility; authority and dissent; feminism, and of utmost importance: the process of reception itself. How does one church receive the gifts of another? What level of agreement is necessary? When does the dialogue move from talking to acting? How does dialogue lead to repentance and then to reception?

She points out, “In a sense, the entire ecumenical movement rests on the recognition of the need for repentance, a willingness to ask whether we have a beam in our own eye before we concern ourselves with the mote in the eye of the other.”
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Posted: November 15, 1998 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6328
Categories: Catholic Register, Opinion • In this article: books, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, exchange of gifts Transmis : 15 novembre 1998 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6328
Catégorie : Catholic Register, Opinion • Dans cet article : books, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, exchange of gifts

Mennonites and Catholics sit down to talk

For five days in October, seven Mennonites sat face-to-face with six Roman Catholics to discuss reasons for the centuries-long separation between the two churches. The meeting here on October 14-18 was held to promote better understanding of each others’ faith and to overcome long-standing prejudices.

This international consultation was sponsored by the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (Vatican City). Helmut Harder (Canada) and Joseph Martino (United States) chaired the meeting.
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Posted: December 7, 1998 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=6476
Categories: News • In this article: Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, Mennonite, Mennonite World Conference Transmis : 7 décembre 1998 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=6476
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Catholic, Christian unity, dialogue, ecumenism, Mennonite, Mennonite World Conference

Methodists plan ‘conversation’ with Holiness churches

by United Methodist News Service United Methodists will meet in conversation with representatives of some churches within the Wesleyan Holiness tradition Feb. 18-20 in Dallas. Organized by the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, the meeting will take place on the Perkins School of Theology campus and at Highland Park United Methodist
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Posted: January 8, 1999 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=4940
Categories: UMC News • In this article: dialogue, Holiness churches, Methodist Transmis : 8 janvier 1999 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=4940
Catégorie : UMC News • Dans cet article : dialogue, Holiness churches, Methodist

ARCIC II issues statement on authority

[ACNS 1843] At a press briefing in Westminster Abbey, London, today, the co-chairmen of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), the Rt Revd Mark Santer (Anglican) and the Rt Revd Cormac Murphy-O’Connor (Roman Catholic), launched the document “The Gift of Authority“, the latest in study documents issued by 18 members of the Commission. This
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Posted: January 12, 1999 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=3
Categories: News • In this article: Anglican, ARCIC, Catholic, dialogue Transmis : 12 janvier 1999 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=3
Catégorie : News • Dans cet article : Anglican, ARCIC, Catholic, dialogue

Lutheran-Orthodox Dialogue Issues ‘Common Statement’

[CHICAGO | ELCA News] Talks between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas have arrived at “A Lutheran-Orthodox Common Statement on Faith in the Holy Trinity.” The 13-paragraph communique explains the emphasis of both traditions on the Nicene Creed and draws attention to a
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Posted: February 19, 1999 • Permanent link: ecu.net/?p=4980
Categories: Communiqué, ELCA News • In this article: dialogue, Lutheran, Orthodox Transmis : 19 février 1999 • Lien permanente : ecu.net/?p=4980
Catégorie : Communiqué, ELCA News • Dans cet article : dialogue, Lutheran, Orthodox