The fifth meeting of Phase III of the international dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the Catholic Church took place 12-16 December 2022 in Rome, hosted by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU). … Read more »… lire la suite »
Two parallel dialogues were established with the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Malankara (Jacobite) Syrian Orthodox Church, respectively in 1989 and 1990, and were maintained even after the foundation in 2003 of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. … Read more »… lire la suite »
From 25 to 28 November 2022 representatives of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and of the Office for International Ecumenical Relations of the Salvation Army met in London at the William Booth Training College, in the first of a new series of Conversations, on the theme: “Discipleship for Mission”. … Read more »… lire la suite »
“If there is no resurrection of the dead, neither is Christ risen! But if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, your faith also empty “(1 Cor 15:13 ff). With these words, the apostle Paul affirms with absolute clarity that the Christian faith stands or falls with the paschal mystery. The early Church condensed this fundamental conviction in the formula: “Take away the resurrection and you will immediately destroy Christianity.” Given the central importance of the paschal mystery in the Christian faith, it is understandable that Christians wish to celebrate it on a common date. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Pope Francis has appointed an Irish Benedictine to lead the Vatican’s dialogue with the Anglican Communion. The Irish Catholic reports Fr. Martin Browne OSB, a monk at Glenstal Abbey in Murroe, County Limerick, Ireland will shortly take up the post in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. He succeeds Fr. Anthony Currer as the official for Methodist and Anglican Relations. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Mercredi 5 octobre, le Pape François a reçu en audience privée les membres de la Commission mixte internationale méthodiste-catholique (MERCIC). La Commission, inaugurée en 1967 et dont les rencontres se sont succédées depuis sans interruption, se trouve actuellement à Rome à la Casa Maria Immacolata pour la première réunion plénière de son douzième cycle de dialogue. À l’audience avec le Saint-Père, les participants étaient accompagnés du Cardinal Kurt Koch, Préfet du Dicastère pour la promotion de l’unité des chrétiens. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Pope Francis received members of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission (MERCIC) in a private audience on Wednesday 5 October. The Commission, which began work in 1967 and has met since without interruption, is currently meeting in Rome at the Casa Maria Immacolata for the first plenary meeting of its twelfth round of dialogue. The Commission was accompanied to the audience by Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) have issued a joint press release announcing the online publication of the report of the Fifth Phase of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity. The report is entitled Baptism and Growth in Communion. The new document, which has been in preparation for the past seven years, includes important impulses for ongoing theological and ecclesiological discussion and makes “a significant step in proposing a differentiating consensus on baptism.”
The report seeks to find a language for the ecclesial dimensions of growth in communion. It concludes with six commitments setting out a road map for the ongoing dialogue and for the growing cooperation at all levels between Lutherans and Catholics. It highlights particular events over recent years that have contributed to the journey ‘from conflict to communion’, notably the joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Lund, Sweden, the Declaration of Intent endorsing fuller collaboration between the LWF’s World Service arm and the Caritas Internationalis network, as well as local initiatives such as the visit of Pope Francis to the Lutheran parish in Rome in 2015. … Read more »… lire la suite »
In a joint letter of 28 October 2021, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Mario Grech, General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, addressed the Bishops responsible for ecumenism in their Episcopal Conferences and Synods of the Oriental Catholic Churches.
In the letter, the two Cardinals offer practical suggestions aimed at implementing the ecumenical dimension of the synodal process in Dioceses, Episcopal Conferences, and Synods. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Conseil pontifical pour la promotion de l’unité des chrétiens
Dans une lettre conjointe datée du 28 octobre 2021, le Cardinal Kurt Koch, Président du Conseil pontifical pour la promotion de l’unité des chrétiens, et le Cardinal Mario Grech, Secrétaire général du Synode des évêques, se sont adressés aux évêques responsables de l’œcuménisme des Conférences épiscopales et des Synodes des Églises orientales catholiques.
Par cette lettre, les deux cardinaux entendent offrir quelques suggestions pratiques pour assurer la dimension œcuménique du processus synodal dans les diocèses et les Conférences épiscopales et les Synodes des Églises orientales catholiques. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The final report on the Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Conversation has been published. The report summarizes five years of theological consultations between the three communions on the understanding and practice of baptism in light of contemporary pastoral and missional challenges facing all three Christian communities.
“The report shows that today these three churches agree that baptism is for discipleship,” says Mennonite delegation member Larry Miller. “It raises the question for each of these churches: are there ways of acknowledging our different practices of baptism that grow the unity for which Jesus prayed?”
Representatives of the Catholic Church (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and Mennonite World Conference (MWC) met from 2012–2017 to discuss understanding and practice of baptism. … Read more »… lire la suite »
On Friday, 22 November 2019, an ecumenical prayer service including a commemoration of common baptism was held in the basilica of the Sant’Anselmo Benedictine Abbey in Rome.
The event marked the 20th anniversary of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed on Reformation Day 1999 (31 October) by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church. A facsimile of the document was placed on a lectern in the apse of Sant ̍ Anselmo.
The Joint Declaration was subsequently approved by the World Methodist Council, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Anglican Communion.
The prayer service in Sant’Anselmo was conducted following the liturgical order drawn up by the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity for the international anniversary celebrations. … Read more »… lire la suite »
After five years of meetings by an international commission of Mennonites, Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the topic of baptism, John Rempel, the commission’s Mennonite representative, presented a trilateral report from that dialogue at an event called “One Baptism? A Symposium on Baptism and the Christian Life,” at Waterloo North Mennonite Church on Nov. 8.
Pastors, denominational leaders, professors and some students from Conrad Grebel University College attended the Anabaptist Learning Workshop event, sponsored by Grebel and Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.
Framed around scriptures emphasizing the image of the church as one body with one baptism, the symposium began and ended with times of worship. In between, Rempel summarized the report and then invited three people, one from each tradition, to respond. They formed a panel that fielded further comments and questions.
Mennonite World Conference (MWC) engaged in the trilateral dialogue because “Jesus Christ calls us to be one.” Participation was seen as a way to build on previous reconciliation efforts between the denominations, nurturing mutual understanding and cooperation. … Read more »… lire la suite »
Participants at a historic gathering of church leaders from five Christian World Communions have issued a statement recommitting themselves to communicating the biblical message of salvation in new ways to contemporary society. We “wish to make more visible our common witness, in worship and service, on our journey together towards visible unity, walking together, praying together and working together.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
The five Christian denominations closely associated with the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) are taking part in a private consultation and public events this week to discuss how to take the document further. The JDDJ was originally agreed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999. The significant ecumenical text has been described as resolving the doctrinal dispute at the heart of the Reformation; and has since been adopted or affirmed by the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the World Methodist Council and the Anglican Consultative Council. … Read more »… lire la suite »
It is not uncommon to read optimistic appraisals of how the cause of Christian unity is progressing. There are in fact undeniable signs of continuing progress in relations between the divided churches as set out, for example, in the study document From Conflict to Communion, describing the substantial advance of relations between Catholics and Lutherans in fifty years of dialogue.
But not all is plain sailing. To the careful observer there are also signs of frustration and even retrenchment. To not a few, the traditional ways of doing ecumenism seem no longer capable of meeting new challenges coming from developments both within the Catholic Church and within the other Churches, our ecumenical partners. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The second meeting of the third phase of international ecumenical conversations between the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity took place Dec. 10-14 in Rome at the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI. The Baptist delegation was led by co-chair Frank Rees, associate professor and chair of the academic board at the University of Divinity in Australia; the Catholic delegation was led by co-chair Bishop Arthur Serratelli, bishop of Paterson, New Jersey. The meeting took up the theme of the “Context of Common Witness.” This discussion reflected on the global cultural context in which common Christian witness is being conducted today in six continents of the world. … Read more »… lire la suite »
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) together with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), as well as the Methodist, the Reformed and the Anglican communion will start a consultation process to discuss spiritual and ecclesial implications of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.
“We have now five signatories of this ecumenical declaration,” says Kaisamari Hintikka, LWF Assistant General Secretary for Ecumenical Relations. “We feel we are called to ask together what kind of spiritual and ecclesiastical consequences the JDDJ might have for our churches.” … Read more »… lire la suite »
During a special service to commemorate 500 years of the Reformation at the Westminster Abbey today, representatives of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Roman Catholic Church received the Anglican Communion’s affirmation of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ).
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby presented LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge and the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) Bishop Dr Brian Farrell with the 2016 Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) resolution “welcoming and affirming the substance of the JDDJ.”
The event was witnessed by the General Secretaries of the World Methodist Council (WMC) and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) Rev. Ivan Abrahams and Rev. Dr Chris Ferguson respectively.
Addressing the congregation, Archbishop Welby said, “When the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999, you resolved the underlying theological question of 1517, in a decisive moment for all churches in the search for unity and reconciliation.” The ACC resolution, he said, “welcomed and affirmed the substance of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, noting its profound convergences with our own dialogues with Lutherans and Catholics.”
Receiving the Anglican action on the JDDJ, General Secretary Junge said its public presentation on Reformation Day itself was significant on the journey toward church unity. “We are grateful to God that together with Catholic, Methodist and Reformed sisters and brothers, we are witnessing today the affirmation of the substance of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Anglican Communion. May this moment serve as an important witness on the way of growing unity among our churches,” he said. … Read more »… lire la suite »
A five-year discussion of baptism among Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans has yielded new insights.
Representatives of the Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Lutheran World Federation, and the Mennonite World Conference gathered Feb. 9-14 in Augsburg, Germany for the fifth and final meeting of the Trilateral Dialogue Commission on Baptism.
John Rempel of Canada said reflecting on each group’s practice of baptism helped participants learn to respect, trust and challenge each other.
“From the Lutherans, I have seen more clearly that their concern about justification by grace through faith is not that discipleship is a secondary matter,” said Rempel, who is professor emeritus of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., and the Toronto School of Theology. “Their concern is that following Christ be a lifestyle of gratitude for God’s grace and not good works to earn God’s favour.
“From the Catholics, I have learned that the sacrament of baptism does not have an automatic role in salvation. If someone persistently lives life against the Spirit of Christ, baptism will not save them.” … Read more »… lire la suite »