The Evangelical-Roman Catholic Dialogue in Saskatoon has recently issued a draft “Common Statement of Faith” after three years of study. The text is offered to our sponsoring churches for study and discernment, with the prayer that this text might be adopted as a sufficient statement for further dialogue and common mission.

The dialogue is sponsored by the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers’ Fellowship (SEMF) and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon. The group was established in 2011 to build upon earlier efforts to draw our churches together. The twenty members of the dialogue are drawn from across the Evangelical and Catholic communities with both clergy and lay people well represented. The dialogue spent two years exploring issues that have historically divided Catholics and Evangelicals before concluding that a statement of the faith we share in common would assist in promoting the growing relationship between our churches. Over a year in drafting and revision, the statement offered to our church at this time is not intended to be a final or complete exposition of these doctrinal matters or of all of the matters essential to Christian faith. We intend to give an account of the hope that we share for the visible witness of Jesus Christ by his followers in Saskatoon.
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Pope Francis has given his blessing to the Vatican’s international cricket team as it prepares to take on the Church of England. The side of Catholic priests are preparing for their first tour to England, which will include a match with the Church of England XI in Canterbury. Pope Francis, who is a supporter of Buenos Aires football side San Lorenzo, put on a cricket cap and signed a bat that the team will take with them during their tour of England, which begins on Friday. After the tour the bat will be auctioned in order to raise money for a joint Catholic and Anglican campaign against modern-day slavery and indentured labour, the Global Freedom Network, the Vatican said. The papal XI will play matches against chaplains of the British armed forces at Aldershot and the Royal Household Cricket Club at Windsor Castle, as well as two other games. Then in Canterbury on September 19 the team will take on the Anglican XI.
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Pope Francis’ friend Bishop Tony Palmer of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC) died in England July 20 after his motorcycle collided with another vehicle.

According to e-mail reports obtained from The Ark Community he founded, three teams of surgeons tried to save Bishop Palmer’s life but he passed away in the evening, leaving behind his wife Emiliana and two teenaged children. Bishop Palmer was in his early 50s, and grew up in South Africa, though recently he had been living in England.

The bishop recently facilitated an historic private meeting of evangelical and charismatic leaders June 24 with Pope Francis at the Holy Father’s residence inside the Vatican. The two had become friends when Palmer was doing ecumenical work with charismatic Catholics in Buenos Aires.

World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) global ambassador Brian Stiller was among the leaders present at the June meeting with Pope Francis.

“Tony was a most remarkable young man,” he said in an e-mail. “I so well remember his gracious and active leadership in bringing members of the World Evangelical Alliance together in conversation with Pope Francis late June.

“However, with his life and witness still fresh in our memory, I believe it is important that we carry on, as he would have desired, finding ways for our major Christian bodies to have friendship and to understand our respective communions,” said Stiller, who headed the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada for 16 years.
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Anglican and Roman Catholic First XIs will face each other in Canterbury on 19 September in a historic match to raise awareness of slavery and human trafficking.

Details of a historic cricket match between Anglicans and Roman Catholics to raise awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking have been announced today.

The Twenty20 match, which will be played at Kent County Cricket Club in the shadow of Canterbury Cathedral on 19 September at 4pm, will raise funds for the Global Freedom Network, the joint Anglican-Roman Catholic anti-trafficking initiative launched in March.

Entrance will be free but there will be a bucket collection during the match, which will be followed by a gala dinner to raise further funds.
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An international conference of ecumenists concluded at Fairfield University in the U.S. on Thursday with the signing of a covenant committing participants to the continued search for unity and reconciliation between all the Christian churches. Philippa Hitchen was at the conference and sent this report.
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A husband and wife each active in their own Christian community can be models of an important step in the movement toward Christian unity: not just recognizing their diversity, but loving it despite the pain it sometimes can bring, said couples at a conference on ecumenism.

“The churches need to work at their unity the way married couples have to work at theirs,” said Ray Temmerman, an active and involved Canadian Catholic married to an active and involved Anglican, Fenella.

“It is important that our churches begin to recognize that it is not only what they have to offer each other that is important; their capacity to receive and love the other … will also be the key element in calling both churches to become what God calls them to become,” Temmerman told the International Receptive Ecumenism conference June 10 at Fairfield University.
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During the conference’s opening liturgy on Monday, the former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the US, Frank Griswold, spoke about the challenging task facing each one of our churches to open our minds and examine our hearts, as we try to fathom God’s will and rediscover the unity of the broken Body of Christ. Our job, he said, is not to create something new, but to clear away the obstacles that block our vision of unity, rather like clearing away dead leaves and debris that can block up a freely flowing stream.
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An international conference on Receptive Ecumenism is taking place this week at the Jesuit-run Fairfield University in Connecticut in the United States. Running from June 9th to 12th the meeting brings together experts in ecumenical theories and practise from across the different Christian denominations, including past and present officials from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Philippa Hitchen is following the conference and before her departure she spoke with one of the participants, Archbishop David Moxon who is the director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See. He explains what the term Receptive Ecumenism really means and how he was able to put it into practise with his Catholic counterpart in his native New Zealand…
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Addressing the urgency of witnessing to the gospel in current ecumenical and multi-religious situations, the World Council of Churches (WCC) will develop materials to assist churches engaged in both ecumenical dialogue and inter-religious dialogue.

Ecumenical dialogue is about conversations between different Christian churches while inter-religious dialogue is concerned with the conversations between different world religions.

The agreement to produce these materials were an outcome of vigorous conversations in a recent meeting, organized by the WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order and the WCC’s programme for inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, from 12 to14 May at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland.

Questions related to the relationship between ecumenical and inter-religious dialogues, their commonalities and distinctive features, were in focus at the meeting.
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More than 400 representatives of German ecumenical groups attending an assembly in Mainz, Germany have affirmed their commitment to move forward in a “pilgrimage of justice and peace” – a call from the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Busan assembly. The ecumenical assembly in Mainz, held from 30 April to 4 May, addressed the theme “The future we desire – Life not destruction”. The event was organized by a network of ecumenical groups in Germany, encouraging actions from the churches inspired by the call for a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”. Featuring vibrant discussions on political, social, economic and ecological issues, as well as theological reflections, the Mainz assembly focused on themes such as “earth as our home”, ecumenical spirituality, economy of life, climate justice and “just peace”. The sessions at the assembly were attended by local visitors along with the registered participants. Some 151 workshops were organized at the assembly addressing a number of themes, including seminars on transformative spirituality.
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Theologians from the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) met together 6-12 April at Coatbridge, Scotland, for their fourth session in the fourth phase of the International Reformed-Catholic Dialogue.

The theme designated for this current phase of the dialogue, which is slated to conclude in 2017, is “Justification and Sacramentality: The Christian Community as an Agent for Justice.”

The two teams discussed several papers on topics related to the theme of justice. Marina Behara presented a paper titled “Sanctification: The middle term between justification and justice.” Jorge Scampini presented a paper on “The relationship between the Eucharist and justice from a Catholic perspective.” George Hunsinger addressed the topic “The Eucharist and social ethics.” Peter De Mey offered a paper on “Justification and the universal call to holiness.”
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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has underscored the value of continuing ecumenical dialogue at a “passionate theological level” while at the same time having “a closer relationship of action” that addresses the needs of the world in such areas as poverty and social justice. Ecumenism must be “something that is our burning desire,” Welby told a gathering of ecumenical guests at a reception at Toronto’s St. James’ Cathedral Centre, during his “personal, pastoral visit” to the Anglican Church of Canada April 8 to 9. “In the last seven verses of John: 17, Jesus prays with extraordinary passion and extraordinary directness about the absolute necessity of the visible unity of the church… Love one another…” In a divided and diverse world, Welby said the church could demonstrate “how humanity can overcome its cultural divisions and truly be… a holy nation of God’s people.” In different parts of the world, there has been “a new movement of the spirit,” said Welby. He cited a decision by Chemin Neuf, a Jesuit-founded French Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation, to accept his invitation to take up residence in Lambeth Palace. Last January, four members set up “a fraternity” in Lambeth Palace. “We hope that is something that will grow and develop,” said Welby, adding that he and his wife, Caroline, got to know the community over the last seven years. (The archbishop’s spiritual director is a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Nicholas Buttet.) The Guardian newspaper has noted that the move breaks five centuries of Anglican tradition and ushers “a further rapprochement between the churches of England and Rome.”
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An international group of eight Anglican and eight Catholic theologians representing nine countries and four Anglican provinces, met from March 30 to April 3 in Canterbury. Called “The Malines Conversations Group,” participants continued their deliberations on various aspects of Anglican-Catholic liturgical and sacramental theology which they had begun last year at the Benedictine Monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium. Like the original Malines Conversations of the 1920s hosted by the then Archbishop of Malines-Bruxelles Cardinal Mercier, this is an informal dialogue and not officially sponsored by the Anglican and Catholic Churches, though it has been organized in consultation with and has received the blessing of both the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and Lambeth Palace.
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The motto and logo of Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land

Ut unum sint is the motto chosen for Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land. The website theholylandreview.net announced this following the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land which was held in Tiberias on 11-12 March. There the heads of the Catholic communities in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus presented the logo and motto for the Pope’s pilgrimage scheduled for 24-26 May.

The motto of the pilgrimage, according to the website, “is at the very core of his trip to the Holy Land”. Francis and Bartolomaios are scheduled to meet in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre to commemorate and renew the desire and longing for unity among Christians, expressed by Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras 50 years ago in Jerusalem. In addition, the logo depicts the embrace between the two brothers, Apostles Peter and Andrew: the first two disciples called by Jesus in Galilee, patrons respectively of the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople.
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The National Council of Churches first “Christian Unity Gathering” of leaders from member communions and other partners will be held May 18-20, 2014, in the Hilton Washington, Dulles, Herndon, Va.

“We are getting together to celebrate ecumenism and energize our journey toward the visible unity of all the Christian churches,” said Jim Winkler, President and General Secretary of the NCC.

The Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, NCC Interim Associate General Secretary for Joint Action and Advocacy, said the program “will include ample opportunity for all attendees to engage with one another through group discussion, input from expert resource people to help inform our discussion, and celebratory service with words from interfaith guests and an address from Jim Winkler.”
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Representatives of the Baptist World Alliance and the World Methodist Council met January 30-February 5 at the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. The meeting was the opening round of conversations in the first international dialogue between Methodists and Baptists. The overall theme of the dialogue is faith working through love. The delegations were welcomed by the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University, Dr. J. Bradley Creed, as well as Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and Rev. Dr. Mike McLemore, Director of Missions for the Birmingham Baptist Association.

Participants discussed presentations on the history, theology, and contemporary global situation of Methodists and Baptists. The dialogue is co-chaired by Rev. Dr. Tim Macquiban, Superintendent Minister of the Cambridge Methodist Circuit and minister of Wesley Methodist Church in Cambridge, England, and Rev. Dr. Curtis Freeman, Research Professor and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. Rev. Dr. Paul Chilcote, Dean of Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio, and Rev. Dr. Fausto Vasconcelos, BWA director of Mission, Evangelism, and Theological Reflection, serve as co-secretaries.
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This is a story that is classic Pope Francis: in late December he picked up the phone and called a Pentecostal bishop, Tony Palmer, to invite him to visit. By all accounts, they had been friends for a number of years already and this was just a social visit, so it wasn’t planned and facilitated by Vatican staff. When the Vatican’s daily news briefing on January 14 listed Bishop Palmer’s visit, the only detail given was that he is the ecumenical officer for the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, a Pentecostal group that identifies as Anglican, but is not affiliated with the Anglican Communion.

That generated considerable curiosity, particularly in ecumenical circles. Until now, the Vatican has not had any formal contacts with non-Communion Anglicans. No further details were available until this week when a video was posted on YouTube. During their visit in January, Pope Francis and Bishop Palmer recorded a video message on the bishop’s iPhone. The message was for a conference of leaders from Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a Pentecostal mega-church ministry. Palmer was scheduled to address the conference a few days later, so Francis offered to send greetings. They recorded the video on the spot, and there is no indication that the Vatican staff were aware of its existence until it appeared on YouTube two days ago.
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Pope Francis’ attitude of hospitality and humility towards Oriental Orthodox leaders has had a positive impact on the dialogue between Catholics and these ancient Orthodox Churches.

That‘s according to Fr Gabriel Quicke, who’s in charge of relations with the Oriental Orthodox Churches at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He came back this week from Kerala in India where he took part in the 11th meeting of the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between Catholics and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The two delegations at the meeting continued their ongoing discussions on the ways in which full communion was expressed in the first five centuries, before the divisions between the different Churches. Since the 5th century, these ancient communities of Christians have not been in communion with either the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox world, with the result that very little is known about their rich heritage and traditions outside the countries where they are based – Egypt, Armenia, Syria, India and Ethiopia.
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The Rev. Daniel Montoya, longtime professor at Seminario Evangelico Teologia (Evangelical Theological Seminary, or SET) here, calls his core class “Practical Theological Ecumenism.”

“In Cuba, Christians are a tiny minority, so they try to get together to know each other,” Montoya explains. “They are not so keen on institutional or ‘macro’ ecumenism, but on local or “base” ecumenism.”

In Cuba, as most everyplace else in the world, ecumenism at the national or interdenominational level is in crisis. “These institutional groups forget location,” Montoya says. “They forget the base.”

For example, he says, “people are neighbours, their children attend the same schools, they ride the same buses, they walk in the same streets ― they are friends. On the ground they don’t see any differences, just on Sundays when they go to different churches.”

Practical ecumenism for Montoya, then, means teaching seminary students how to involve people locally “so they have better understanding and don’t have prejudice.” His classes focus on ecumenical cooperation in local communities, not on the dogmatic or doctrinal differences between churches.

Practical ecumenism must also be theological “because all of our hope ― what it means to be the church ― is based on faith and confidence in God.”
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On Saturday, Pope Francis presided over evening Vespers at Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls Basilica where he was joined by members of the many different Christian Churches present here in Rome.

The celebration, which lands on the Feast of Saint Paul, marks the closing of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which has been exploring the theme, taken from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, “Has Christ been divided?”

Saturday’s celebrations coincide with the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.
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Preaching to Evangelicals at the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity didn’t phase Saskatoon Bishop Don Bolen — much.

“I’m always a bit nervous. I’m very mindful of my own shortcomings and inadequacies whenever I preach anywhere,” Bolen told The Catholic Register a few days after his Jan. 19 appearance at Saskatoon’s Circle Drive Alliance Church. “I did prepare more because they told me I had 30 minutes. Sweet, but it did require more preparation.”

Bolen preached on the story of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus’ ruling under the law that the one who has no sin should cast the first stone.

“He chose a beautiful text,” said Circle Drive Pastor Eldon Boldt. “Jesus showed grace and it was mercy upon mercy upon mercy. One girl wrote me (after the service) and said, ‘I don’t know why, but I found myself choking back tears as the bishop spoke.’ Well, that’s just the Holy Spirit.”

A Catholic bishop preaching in an Evangelical church is a rarity. As a member of the Evangelical-Roman Catholic International Consultation, Bolen hasn’t heard of other bishops preaching to Evangelicals. He plans to bring it up when the official international dialogue meets in March.
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Bishop Don Bolen of Saskatoon is Canada’s most ecumenically minded bishop.

He worked seven years for the Pontifical Commission for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome where he co-ordinated Vatican participation in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and watched and encouraged official dialogues between the Catholic Church and Anglicans and Methodists. Though now leading one of Western Canada’s most important dioceses, he remains a member of the Vatican’s ecumenical commission, co-chairs the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission, is a member of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, sits on the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada and is a member of the Evangelical-Roman Catholic International Consultation.
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Pope Francis dedicated the catechesis of this Wednesday’s general audience to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ends next Saturday, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. It is a spiritual initiative in which Christian communities have participated for over one hundred years, and is a time dedicated to prayer for the unity of all baptised persons, in accordance with Christ’s will “that they may all be one”. Every year an ecumenical group from one region in the world, under the guidance of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, suggests the theme and prepares the activities for the Prayer Week. This year the initiatives were prepared by the Churches and Ecclesiastical Communities of Canada, who have proposed the question posed by St. Paul to the Christians of Corinth: “Has Christ been divided?”
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Recently 30,000 young adults from all over Europe came together in Strasbourg, France. This gathering was the 36th European Meeting, an annual event prepared by our Taizé Community and held each time in a different European city.

By giving young people the opportunity to make personal contacts across borders, we want to help them acquire a true European awareness. The work of international institutions is essential, but unless there is a meeting of persons, Europe cannot be built.

If there is no longer a wall between East and West, there are still walls between our perceptions. The young people who came to Strasbourg want an open and inclusive Europe. They want solidarity between all European countries and solidarity with the poorest peoples of other continents.

They ask that a globalised economy be closely linked to a globalisation of solidarity. They expect rich nations to show greater generosity, both through investments in developing nations that truly offer justice and by a worthy and responsible welcome given to immigrants from these countries.
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Aptly released for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Anglican Communion Office has produced a study guide to the World Council of Churches (WCC) document The Church: Towards a Common Vision, the result of 20 years of study and dialogue among the council’s member churches, who represent most of the world’s churches.

The WCC published Towards a Common Vision in March 2013 and asked its members to study it and comment on it. According to the WCC’s introduction, the document asks and offers answers to the questions “What can we say together about the Church of the Triune God in order to grow in communion, to struggle together for justice and peace in the world, and to overcome together our past and present divisions?” It begins by addressing “the Church’s mission, unity, and its being in the Trinitarian life of God” and then looks at ecumenical “growth in communion – in apostolic faith, sacramental life, and ministry – as churches called to live in and for the world.”
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There are many reasons to be hopeful about the direction of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue but it is threatened by tensions emerging within the Orthodox Church. As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity gets under way today, a leading ecumenist gives his assessment.

In 1923, a schoolteacher priest of Lyons started devoting his spare time to helping the 10,000 refugees from Bolshevism camped and lodged around the city and its suburbs. It was his first encounter with a Christianity that was not Roman Catholic. Thus he learned the friendship of receiving as well as giving, finding great respect for the Orthodox clergy and people in their moment of destitution, as his heart opened to their faith and the beauty of their worship. He was astonished to find Catholics from the old Russian Empire who were not Latins, but Eastern Christians who maintained their unity with the Bishop of Rome with roots to before the Great Schism. Over the next decade, Paul Couturier became convinced of the need for Christian unity, and in 1935 he took hold of the Catholic Church Unity Octave, founded in 1908, and developed it into a “Universal Week of Prayer for the Unity of Christians in the charity and truth of Christ”. Inspired by the holiness of the Orthodox, beyond this world he imagined an “invisible monastery”, in which all could unite in prayer to God in Heaven, in the hope of seeing the same union realised in the Church here. He took for his motto the saying of Metropolitan Platon Gorodetsky of Kiev: “The walls of separation do not rise as far as Heaven.”
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The International Commission for Dialogue between Disciples of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church began its fifth round of dialogue on the theme for this phase, “Christians Formed and Transformed by the Eucharist.” This dialogue is co-sponsored by the Disciples Ecumenical Consultative Council and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Meeting at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville, Tennessee on January 8-12, 2014, the agenda focused upon two areas: (1) reviewing the previous four phases of dialogue (which have taken place from 1977 to 2009); and, (2) exploring the place of the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) in the life and practice of the Disciples and the Catholic traditions.
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Reverend Dennis Vavrek, OFM, Western Canada Provincial for the Franciscans, in a January 2 telephone interview confirmed that Franciscans are leaving St. Michael’s Retreat Ministries. “Like most religious communities in the Western world our numbers are declining and we have two retreat centres. At our chapter meeting in May 2013 the future was discussed and it was decided that we can no longer maintain two retreat centres, that we’d have to leave one and it was decided that we would leave St. Michael’s Retreat in Lumsden on or before the next Chapter meeting which will be in 2016.” St. Michael’s Retreat Ministries celebrated its 50th anniversary during 2013 and the community did not wish to discuss the issue until the end of the anniversary year. The other Retreat facility is Mount St. Francis in Cochrane, Alberta.

Retreat houses do not make money, said Vavrek. St. Michael’s income pays the operating bills but doesn’t make a profit and the Franciscan community, because it owns the building, pays all capital costs.

Vavrek said the ecumenical board of Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic faith traditions and representatives from the Franciscans and the Regina Archdiocese will continue to govern but other options are being considered. “Yes, we have sort of tested the waters to see what interest there might be but our number one priority is to find a way to continue as St. Michael’s Retreat Ministries,” said Vavrek.
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The heads of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have agreed to co-ordinate their responses to “events that transcend” their borders, such as natural disasters.

They could, for instance, issue a joint pastoral letter in response to a natural calamity and invite their members to contribute to relief and recovery efforts through one of their four relief agencies, said Archdeacon Bruce Myers, General Synod’s co-ordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations. Myers served as staff support at the meeting.

Leaders of the four churches reached this agreement when they met for a day and a half of informal talks last December in Winnipeg. Since 2010, the heads of these four churches have met for informal talks, “becoming colloquially known as the ‘Four-Way,’ ” said Myers.

The Anglican Church of Canada’s primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, ELCIC Bishop Susan Johnson and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori were joined in the meeting by the new presiding bishop of the ELCA, Elizabeth Eaton.
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Canadian Roman Catholics have expressed the hope that the Anglican Church of Canada would seek input from its ecumenical partners as it continues discussion concerning a resolution to amend the church’s marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage.

The marriage canon resolution was discussed at a joint meeting of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Bishops’ Dialogue (ARCB) and the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada (ARC Canada) held last December. Anglican Bishop Linda Nicholls, ARC Canada co-chair, reported on the Anglican-Lutheran Joint Assembly held last summer, which included an explanation of the said resolution passed by General Synod.

Nicholls assured her Catholic counterparts that since the resolution states that action taken on the marriage canon must demonstrate “broad consultation,” this could be interpreted to include consultation with the church’s ecumenical partners, including the Roman Catholic Church, said Archdeacon Bruce Myers, General Synod co-ordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations. who assisted the ARC meeting as staff. [On Jan. 6, the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada appointed Nicholls as a member of the commission on the marriage canon, which will conduct a broad consultation on the proposed change to the marriage canon.)

Catholic members stated that consultations were necessary since “any decision our church takes regarding our understanding of marriage will have implications for our relationships with other churches,” said Myers.
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After serving as the National Council of Churches’ executive leader for the briefest tenure in the Council’s history, Peg Birk can also look back on the most comprehensive restructuring and redirecting of the NCC since its founding in 1950.

Birk, a nationally known change management expert and Congregational laywoman, took office as Transitional General Secretary of the NCC in July 2012 with the understanding she would serve with the sole purpose of guiding an historic re-envisioning and restructuring of the financially beleaguered Council.

Now, with a new President and General Secretary about to take office and a new organizational structure in place, Birk is returning home to Minneapolis, Minn., on January 1.

The Rev. A. Roy Medley, Chair of the NCC Governing Board, said Birk has been “a tireless and resourceful leader for the Council at a critical point in its history.”

Birk “worked skillfully with board and staff to guide an essential reexamination of the Council’s ministries and resources,” Medley said, “and the NCC is in a far stronger position for mission than it was 18 months ago. We are grateful for her service.”

The NCC’s Past President, Kathryn Lohre, who worked closely with Birk during the transition, said, “The Council is deeply indebted to Peg Birk for leading this 18 month transition with grace, stamina, wisdom, and tenacity,”

“She has successfully implemented a complex plan for re-envisioning and restructuring the NCC under significant pressure for time, resources, and reserves,” Lohre said.
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Austria’s Vienna Archdiocese has defended its gifts of Catholic churches to Orthodox communities, as part of a current reorganization.

“Our own church is receding in Vienna, whereas other Christian confessions are on the rise because of immigration,” Michael Pruller, the archdiocese spokesman, told Catholic News Service Dec. 19.

“Many large churches were built in the 19th century for parishes numbering tens of thousands. As in other countries, we’re now having to get rid of churches, which can’t be maintained by their small congregations.”

He said the archdiocese had tried to find an “alternative Catholic use” for unwanted churches, to prevent them being turned into “supermarkets and cafes,” but would otherwise hand them over to other Christian denominations. No money is given as compensation, he said.
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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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James E. Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, has been elected General Secretary/President of the National Council of Churches by the NCC Governing Board meeting here.

Winkler will succeed Peg Birk, who has served as Transitional General Secretary of the Council since July 2012. Birk was named to lead the Council through a transitional period of reorganization following the resignation of General Secretary Michael Kinnamon in 2011 for health reasons.

The office of General Secretary/President, formerly General Secretary, is the leading staff position in the NCC.
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For more than two years, a group of Evangelical and Catholic Christians in Saskatoon have been meeting to talk about their common faith in Jesus Christ, discussing what is shared, as well as examining where their understandings and convictions differ.

Formally appointed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers Fellowship, the local dialogue group is now in the process of writing a joint statement, just as a second Catholic-Evangelical worship service is being planned for Saskatoon Nov. 14.

It was after the first shared worship service in March 2011 at St. Paul’s Catholic Cathedral that a small group of church and ecumenical leaders met to try and find ways for the two traditions to further engage in common prayer, common witness, common mission and common study. A dialogue group was subsequently launched, with the first meeting held in December 2011.

Rev. Harry Strauss, associate pastor at Forest Grove Community Church (left) and a member of the Saskatoon Evangelical Ministers Fellowship, and Nicholas Jesson, ecumenical officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, are part of the 20-member dialogue group, which includes 10 representatives from each tradition.

Both Strauss and Jesson are also serving on a four-member committee that is now drafting a joint statement emerging from two years of conversation, study and relationship building.

Strauss describes the joint statement: “We confess our common faith, we acknowledge our differences and we affirm our common mission.”

Although the joint statement is not finished, there are plans to introduce portions at the 7 p.m. Nov. 14 Evangelical-Catholic worship service being hosted by Circle Drive Alliance Church, led by Pastor Eldon Bolt.
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Brother Jeffrey Gros, 75, former director of Faith & Order for the National Council of Churches, died in Chicago August 12.

“Jeff Gros was passionately devoted to his church and to the quest for church unity,” said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC associate general secretary, Faith & Order and Interfaith Relations, who served as a Faith & Order intern from 1989 to 1990 during Gros’ tenure at the Council.

“He was a model for the Council’s commitment to ecumenical cooperation and a mentor both to his contemporaries and to future generations of ecumenists, including me,” Kireopoulos said Tuesday.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed condolences following the death of Brother Jeffrey Gros, recalling his significant contributions to Christian unity and ecumenical dialogue as a Catholic theologian.

“It is with deep sadness that we have received the news of Brother Jeffrey Gros’s passing away. We remember his profound contributions to Christian unity and his support of the WCC’s Commission on Faith and Order,” said the WCC general secretary.

“We thank God for the life and work of Brother Jeffrey Gros,” Tveit added.
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The President and Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism is pleased to announce that Dr. Adriana Bara has been appointed Executive Director of the CCE as of August 1st, 2013.

Originally from Romania, Adriana Bara with her husband and two children moved to Canada several years ago. With a degree in civil engineering, she worked for a few years in this field and then pursued studies in theology first in Romania and then in Montreal (M.A. Concordia and Ph.D. Université de Montréal). She has been teaching at Concordia University since 2009. Dr. Bara worked at the Centre for Research and Documentation of Saint Joseph’s Oratory and since 2008 as volunteer with the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies where she is Communications Officer and Editor of the e-Bulletin.

An active member of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Dr. Bara is fluent in three languages. From her youth, she has recognized the importance of respecting human rights and is convinced of the key role played by ecumenism and interreligious dialogue in our modern pluralistic society. This is one of the reasons she chose to settle in Canada. She attaches great importance to dialogue, openness and acceptance of others. These are also the values of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. The President and Board of Directors are confident that Dr. Bara will lead the Centre with intelligence and discernment in an environment increasingly multicultural and multireligious.
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“We have come a long way since the 1920s! There was no World Council of Churches back then and the important ecumenical energy of the Second Vatican Council was still forty years to come. And yet the ground breaking initiatives of the Malines Conversations continue to give us much to reflect upon. As I have moved about in ecumenical circles over the past year, talking to lay people and church leaders from all denominations, I have heard not a few of them worry that ecumenism really means absorption. There is an anxiety that traditions will be lost and identities erased in a ‘melting pot’ style of Christianity. This fear and the assumptions which fuel it is likely behind a noticeable movement away from the ecumenical project in favour of focusing on denominational identities. After all, it is said, in this Christian world of shrinking churches and diminishing returns it is necessary to focus on one’s own tradition and save what one can!
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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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Inspirés par l’exhortation de l’apôtre Pierre à défendre« l’espérance qui esten vous » (1 Pierre 3,15), les membres du Dialogue anglican et catholique romain du Canada (ARC du Canada) travaillent sur un projet visant à unir leurs voix pour rendre compte de cette foi.

En utilisant comme point de départ certaines des questions fondamentales qui préoccupent encore aujourd’hui pratiquants autant que non-pratiquants, les membres de l’ARC du Canada rédigeront divers articles, concis et intelligibles, offrant des réponses basées sur la tradition chrétienne commune partagée par les catholiques et les anglicans.

Parmi les questions qui seront abordées par le projet de Témoignage Commun on peut retrouver: Pourquoi croire? Pourquoi le monde est-il comme il est? Quelle est ma mission dans la vie? La science et la foi sont-elles compatibles? À quoi sert l’église? Est-ce souffrir sert à quelque chose? Est-ce tout ira bien?
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Inspired by the apostle Peter’s exhortation to offer “an account of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), members of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue of Canada (ARC Canada) are working on a project aimed at giving such an account with one voice.

Using as their starting point some of the fundamental questions that continue to be asked by people inside and outside the church, members of ARC Canada are composing short, accessible pieces of writing that offer responses rooted in the common Christian tradition shared by Catholics and Anglicans.

Among the questions being addressed by the Common Witness Project are: Why believe? Why is the world the way it is? What is my mission in life? Are science and faith compatible? What good is the church? Is suffering good for anything? Will it be okay?
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A couple of interesting ecumenical developments occurred of late regarding [Catholic] relations with the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion. First, His Holiness Tawadros II, the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, has been on an official visit to Rome (since the third century the Patriarchs of Alexandria have used the title “pope”). He arrived on May 9 and left May 13. The visit marked the first time that Pope Francis has received the head of another Christian church or ecclesial community since his installation in March, and it is also Pope Tawadros’ first trip outside Egypt since his election last November.
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Two member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from Reformed and Lutheran traditions have united to become the United Protestant Church of France (L’Église Protestante Unie de France). The merger of the Reformed Church of France (L’Église Réformée de France) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France (L’Église Évangélique Luthérienne de France) was celebrated at a joint national synod from 8 to 12 May in Lyon, France. The synod adopted revised texts for the constitution and rules of the new church. The revisions reflect inputs gathered from parishes in 2011. Public education and a communication campaign have been accompanying the merger process. WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, who attended the celebration in Lyon, praised the efforts of both churches in creating one transformative structure. He said that this undertaking “reminds us that the unity to which we are called in Christ can be hard work as well as joyful. For many of us in places far away from France your union gives hope that our own work may also bear fruit.”
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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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For the first time, Lutherans and Roman Catholics at the global level have worked together to tell the story of the Reformation as part of their commitment to deepen Christian unity.

The publication From Conflict to Communion will be published this month by the Lutheran – Roman Catholic Commission on Unity. The commission is mandated by The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) to facilitate the global ecumenical dialogue between the two Christian World Communions.

LWF Assistant General Secretary for Ecumenical Relations Rev. Dr Kaisamari Hintikka said the publication From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran–Roman Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017 contributes to strengthening the commitment to work for the visible unity of the Church. It will be presented to the LWF Council at its meeting this June.
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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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Emilio Castro, 85, pastor, ecumenist, and missionary statesman, April 6, 2013, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Castro grew up in Montevideo and studied at the theological faculty in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before serving Methodist congregations in Uruguay and Bolivia. In the 1960s he participated in ecumenical activities that paved the way for the formation of the Latin American Council of Churches in 1979. During the severe political and social unrest of the 1970s, he was involved in fostering dialogue between political groupings. Castro joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) as director of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism in 1973, and then from 1985 to 1992 he served as general secretary of the WCC and was editor of the Ecumenical Review. Castro received a doctorate from the University of Lausanne in 1984. His publications include Freedom in Mission: The Perspective of the Kingdom of God–an Ecumenical Inquiry (1985), When We Pray Together (1989), and, in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, “Liberation, Development, and Evangelism: Must We Choose Mission?” (2, no. 3 [1978]: 87-90), and part I of “Mission in the 1990s” (14, no. 4 [1990]: 146-49).
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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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