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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The First General Assembly of the Communion of Churches in India (CCI) held at Santhigiri, Aluva, from March 7-10, was a significant event in the history of ecumenism in India. It marked the beginning of a new development of church relationship and common action among the CNI, the CSI, and the Mar Thoma Church . About seventy representatives from the three Churches including their heads and chief office bearers came together to affirm their preparedness to explore new ways of growing in mutual understanding, and a deepening of their experience of oneness in Christ.
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The Massachusetts Council of Churches executive director Diane Kessler “stunned” the Council with her announcement of retirement at the end of June 2007. What was more stunning was the legacy she has left after thirty-two years of service.

As Director of the Council, Kessler was responsible for direction and public presentation of the Council’s work in areas such as education and evangelism for Christian unity, ecumenical worship, cooperation with local councils of churches, ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, and social mission and prophetic witness.

Kessler, an Andover Newton graduate and ordained United Church of Christ minister, started with the Council in 1975 as an associate director, and became director in 1988. In those three decades she was able to help the 17 member denominations take ideas and transfer them into action, for example, by fostering an atmosphere of openness in ecumenical and interfaith relations, by developing a legislative campaign against casino gambling, and by founding the Ecumenical Institute of New England which has currently educated 500 people. She has done this while ensuring responsible stewardship of the Council’s resources, which come primarily from its member denominations. Kessler served as diplomatic liaison among religious leaders and denominations. “I have always thought it important to treat all churches with appreciation and respect,” she said. “Their diverse spiritual traditions enrich all of us.”
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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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When Pope Benedict XVI was elected to replace the inimitable Pope John Paul II, he promised to carry on his beloved successor’s work, particularly that related to ecumenism. As is often the case, the press of events can overtake the best laid plans and so ecumenism has often appeared to play second fiddle to other issues.

Yet it remains deeply and ineradicably imbedded in the church’s teaching, thanks to the Second Vatican Council and the post-council popes.

As we celebrate the 2007 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 21-28), we would do well to recall some initiatives of the last year that did not produce the kind of documents we usually associate with ecumenical dialogue, but represent progress in a way that cannot be summed up in precise theological language.
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Rev. Bernard de Margerie was a young priest, newly ordained, when Pope John XXIII put out a call for Vatican II in 1959. “Pope John was supposed to be a caretaker pope,” de Margerie recalls. “Nobody expected him to do anything remarkable.” In fact, Pope John called a general council of the Roman Catholic Church
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by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali for The Tablet. Pope John Paul II has invited leaders and theologians of other Churches to help him in seeking new forms for the papal ministry. In this article the Bishop of Rochester makes a contribution from the Anglican Communion’s point of view. As I write, conversations are taking place in
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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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When Catholics hold interfaith dialogue with Muslims, one of the first topics to be discussed is the veneration given to the Virgin Mary in the two traditions. Teaching about Mary is seen as something that unites, rather than divides Catholicism and Islam; yet among Christians, the practices of Marian doctrine and devotion have generally been read as clear indicators of the differences between Catholics and Protestants. They have also, on occasion, signified the differences even between Catholics and Orthodox.

It is only fairly recently, therefore, that ecumenical dialogue groups have arrived at this touchy subject. The most recent statement from the ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission), “Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ” – which was ready many months ago, but had been awaiting approval from Rome before it could be published – has therefore been anticipated with bated breath.
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During Holy Weeek, one Anglican member of ARCIC sent the rest of us the poem, “Good Friday Falls on Lady Day” via email. The poet, G. Studdert Kennedy, also an Anglican, wrote:

She claims no crown from Christ apart
Who gave God life and limb
She only claims a broken heart
Because of Him.

I knew that the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord would coincide with Good Friday this year, but I did not know the poem, and I was touched to receive it. In a way, this captures something special about the process of producing “Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ”.
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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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Small writ large, large writ small

When we lived in Cork I had someone come one day to install a Burglar Alarm System. With an intonation in his voice all of his own, which it would be both impertinent and impossible to imitate, he said to me: Twenty years ago, people wanted an Alarm installed because they were out of the house a lot; today they want one installed because they are in the house a lot. Not only had circumstances changed but perspectives had also changed, as indeed had priorities. We too are about such a shift in emphasis and expectation here in the CTBI Assembly. We seek a perspective on the past in order to help to illuminate the priorities of the future. If we are not to become rooted once again in present structures this will require some thinking on our part ‘outside of the box.’ This is all the more necessary as the Assembly seeks a sense of fresh direction.
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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 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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National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar welcomed the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ decision Nov. 17 to join Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. (CCT), an effort to bring Catholics, evangelical and mainline Protestants, and Orthodox Christians around a common table for the first time.
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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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This Report could be a wonderfully helpful instrument for Mennonites and Roman Catholics on the local level. If, with proper guidance, small groups dare to tackle the Report, they will find it a treasury of new understanding and wisdom that will help them “grow together” as sisters and brothers in Christ.
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Next week Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, is due to travel to Russia to meet the Patriarch in the highest-level visit by Vatican officials in four years. The aim of the five-day trip (due to start on Monday) is to improve relations between Rome and Moscow, which are at their lowest point since before the Second Vatican Council. Two years ago a visit by the cardinal was cancelled by the Moscow Patriarchate, outraged by what it described as aggressive Catholic missionary activity in its “canonical territory”.
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«Je suis la vigne, vous êtes les sarments: celui qui demeure en moi et en qui je demeure, celui-là portera du fruit en abondance… Ce que je vous demande c’est de vous aimer les uns les autres.» (Jean 15, 5 et 17)

Bienvenue à notre nouveau site web intitulé «œcuménisme au Canada».

Ce site est développé conjointement par les deux centres au Canada qui s’occupent des relations interchrétiennes et interreligieuses, le Centre canadien d’œcuménisme et le Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. Il vise à montrer les fruits nombreux que portent les différentes Églises au Canada.
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“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit… I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” (John 15:5 and 17)

Welcome to our new website entitled “Ecumenism in Canada.”

This site was developed jointly by the only two Canadian centres working in the area of interchurch and interfaith relations: the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, Saskatoon, and the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, Montreal. It aims to show the many fruits produced by the Christian Church in Canada.
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I. When Jesus uttered the words ‘may they all be one’, they by no means represented a vision or a dream. Jesus said these words on the eve of his death. This was not the time for triumphal utopias. The Galilean spring, when the enthusiastic crowds overwhelmed him, was over. They no longer cried ‘Hosanna!’ but ‘Crucify him!’. Jesus was well aware of this, and predicted also that his disciples would not be one, and that they would be dispersed. What else could he do in this situation than to leave the future of his work in the hands of his Father? Thus, the words ‘may they all be one’ are a prayer, a prayer in a humanly perceived hopeless situation.
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A vision for the most inclusive Christian organization ever in the United States advanced dramatically when a diverse group of 46 national church leaders agreed Jan. 29, 2003, on a concrete proposal to take back to their church bodies for consideration.
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A flurry of new acronyms is appearing on the ecumenical stage: ACR (The Association for Church Renewal); CCT (Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A.); FCFONA (Foundation for a Conference on Faith and Order in North America); GCF (Global Christian Forum). All affect evangelicals.

These acronyms represent attempts to transcend and to some extent replace, redefine, or reconfigure the older acronyms of the NCC (National Council of Churches) and the WCC (World Council of Churches), the carriers of ecumenical vitalities and viruses during their last 50 years.
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We are gathered here today in the spirit of peace for the good of all human beings and for the care of creation. At this moment in history, at the beginning of the third millennium, we are saddened to see the daily suffering of a great number of people from violence, starvation, poverty and disease. We are also concerned about the negative consequences for humanity and for all creation resulting from the degradation of some basic natural resources such as water, air and land, brought about by an economic and technological progress which does not recognize and take into account its limits.
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Amsterdam – May 23, 2002: Delegates of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches met with representatives and leaders of some classical Pentecostal churches in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 16-23, 2002. This meeting started what is expected to be the second cycle of dialogue to which both groups have committed themselves in order to build upon areas of common faith and witness while seeking to overcome tensions in other aspects of church life. The report of the first round was published under the title “Word and Spirit, Church and World”, the theme of this cycle is “Experience in Christian Faith and Life”.
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“Hope, Good Will” Mark Exploration of Broader Christian Unity, Lead to Formation of Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. “A good deal of hope and common good will” mark explorations by church leaders of a broader expression of Christian unity in the United States, reported National Council of Churches President Elenie Huszagh to the NCC’s
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Ecumenism at work: Nutana Park churches put theological concept into practice It started with one couple who wanted to practise grassroots ecumenism; today it is a grouping of nine churches of different denominations actively sharing worship experiences and learning what elements of the Christian faith they have in common. The group is the Nutana Park
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One of the subtleties of Shakespeare’s As You Like It is the existence of layers of sexual ambiguity implied in its original performance: a boy-actor played the part of a young woman disguised as a young man who at one point is pretending to be a girl. I was put in mind of these layers of meaning when I read The Eucharist: sacrament of unity (ESU), the Church of England’s highly courteous and careful response to the British and Irish bishops’ 1998 teaching document on eucharistic doctrine and sharing entitled One Bread One Body (OBOB). There is of course one vitally important difference: whereas the play’s layers form the stages in a dialectic, i.e. an interactive process, of ambiguity, the theological document offers a dialectic of clarification, which provides a model of what is involved in ecumenical reception.
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[ACNS 2417]By Charles Sherlock The first permanent Commission of the Anglican Communion met for the first time in early December 2000 – the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (IASCER). The diverse group of sixteen people – men and women, lay and ordained, parish clergy, theologians and bishops, from ten nations and five continents –
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If you ever go to the Vine, bring your Bible, some business cards, and a good pair of walking shoes. But, most importantly, bring your voice, because those who attend this conference—mostly Gen-Xers—like to talk. They talk in the hallways, they talk over lunch, and they talk in panel discussions that cover topics from “Glorifying God in the Arts” to “The Soul of the Internet.” Everyone serves as panelist, commentator, or moderator for at least one panel discussion. At last year’s event, one especially lively panel explored “The Silent Priests: Media and Culture.” A Princeton seminarian held forth about popular Christian icons, and a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago explained why evangelicals make such lousy movies. Carlos Aguilar, a performance artist-cum-Talbot School of Theology student, explained “What Aristotle and Snoop Doggy Dogg Can Teach Our Youth.”
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In the movement for Christian unity, does dialogue just lead to more dialogue, or at some point does concrete action toward unity actually come from it? You be the judge.

Canadian Anglicans and Evangelical Lutherans:
The Waterloo Declaration, prepared in 1997 between the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (ELCIC), has been widely circulated in synods in both churches in Canada and around the world, and to ecumenical partners. In the light of responses to it, a slightly revised version of the declaration has been prepared by the Joint Working Group.

American Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Churches:
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the Presbyterian Church USA are now in full communion with each other.
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The Rev. Dr. Bernard Wilson used his own family as a metaphor for the ecumenical movement in his address to the National Council of Churches General Assembly today, “A Pentecostal Vision for the Future of the Ecumenical Movement.”

“My eight siblings and I have established a scholarship fund that gives nine scholarships a year,” said Dr. Wilson, a minister of the Church of God in Christ, “but getting the nine of us to the same table, on the same day and at the same time, for our monthly board meetings is a challenge. Sometimes one is mad at another and submits a letter of resignation. What they really want is to resign from the family. They can’t, so they take it out on the board.”

Similarly, he said, Christians: mainline Protestant, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Roman Catholic and so forth — make up one family, as divided as we are. And as much as we’d like to sometimes, we can’t “resign” from our family, he said.
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In an address that emphasized the personal, heart-felt dimensions of the movement for Christian unity, the Rev. John T. Ford, C.S.C., Professor of Theology and Coordinator of Hispanic/Latino Studies at The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., offered the image of a “family reunion” as “a possible model for expanding the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church and the National Council of Churches.”

A renowned Catholic theologian, Ford has, for 20 years, been a member of the NCC’s Faith and Order Commission, a body that focuses on the theological underpinnings of the ecumenical movement. “Faith and Order here in the United States provides a venue where Christians can meet and share their faith: both their commonalities and their differences,” he said. Where else can one participate in a theological conversation that includes Quakers and Orthodox, Pentecostals and mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics?”

“Faith and Order has been like a family reunion where long-lost cousins finally meet,” he said.
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During the summer of 2000, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a declaration entitled “Dominus Iesus: On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church”. In an interview published on 22 September 2000, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung invited Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to respond to the principal objections raised against the Declaration Dominus Iesus. The daily edition of L’Osservatore Romano subsequently published an Italian translation of the interview, omitting the parts that only concern the German situation. Here is a translation from the Italian version of the interview.
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The declaration entitled Dominus Iesus released on Sept. 5 by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has given rise to a firestorm of mixed reaction. Its context is the relatively new situation of religious pluralism that now marks the western world.

A lively debate has been under way among Christian theologians; it was inevitable that Christians in general, and not just theologians, stop and reflect on what this new awareness of religious diversity means for their own religion.

The Vatican declaration has provided that occasion. At issue in this debate is nothing less than what we as Christian believers should think about other world religions and their adherents, our new neighbours. The question at the bottom of it is an old one: “Who do you say that I am?”
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The United Church has dropped an attempt to substitute gender-neutral language for “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” in the baptism rite — a proposed change that caused concern among the church’s ecumenical partners, including the Anglican Church. About 100 groups and congregations last fall were asked their opinions of various new forms of the rite, said Fred Graham, liturgical officer for the United Church. The church is developing a new worship book, Celebrate God’s Presence. Conservatives, however, did not care for the changes — as Mr. Graham put it, “that sector in our church rose up” against alternate wording. Others felt, he said, that inclusive language was to be encouraged. At the same time, the United Church’s General Council Executive, which rules on matters of doctrine and faith, decided that such a fundamental change would need to be put to a church-wide vote.
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A week after publishing a document which casts doubt on the validity of Protestant Christianity and asserts Roman Catholic superiority over all other churches, the Vatican continues to draw criticism both from other churches and from within its own ranks.

The general secretaries of two organizations representing major wings of Protestantism have publicly lamented the harm done to ecumenism by Dominus Iesus, on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church, published on Sept. 5 by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The document declares that churches that do not have a “valid Episcopate [bishops] and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery are not churches in the proper sense.”

Another document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published in an Italian magazine this month orders Catholic bishops not to use the term “sister church” in reference to Protestant churches. This too has also caused dismay in ecumenical circles.
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CHICAGO (ELCA) — The general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) said Sept. 8 that he is “disappointed” that 35 years of ecumenical dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics apparently were not considered when the Vatican issued a document earlier this week and sent a letter in June to presidents of Roman Catholic Bishops’
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Statement by Dr Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, on the Vatican document “Dominus Iesus” The Lutheran World Federation has received news of the document, “Dominus Iesus” – On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the
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Statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Roman Catholic document ‘Dominus Iesus’ [ACNS 2219 – Lambeth Palace, 5 September 2000] By restating the long-held view of the Roman Catholic Church on the position of other Christian churches, this document breaks no new ground. But neither does it fully reflect the deeper understanding that has
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“Evangelization” was the major focus of a May 18-24 meeting of the 16-member Disciples of Christ-Roman Catholic International Dialogue Commission which gathered at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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It was a Valentine in the form of a covenant signed by a Roman Catholic bishop, a United Church Presbytery chair, two local pastors and members of their congregations on the eve of Feb. 14.

The covenant was the formalization of a long friendship between McClure United Church and Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Parish. The covenant was written, according to the document itself “in response to the call of Jesus, “that they may all be one and that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21-23).

“You must have been listening to the Spirit,” said Sister Anne Keffer, director of Saskatoon’s Centre for Ecumenism, where the official document signing took place.

“On behalf of the whole church, I thank you. I thank God.”

In total, some 40 members from the two congregations were present for the signing ceremony which involved joint prayer and reflections on healing and reconciliation.

Rev. Bernard de Margerie of Holy Spirit Parish, a past director of the Centre for Ecumenism, said the stages of the relationship between the churches were like any other. It first involved a courtship, which built into a relationship. The covenant itself was a gesture of solidarity, followed by the joint celebration of the formal covenant on Sunday. The last step will be ongoing faithfulness.
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It was more than 30 years in the making but on Sunday, parishioners from Holy Spirit Roman Catholic and McClure United parishes stood side by side.

Old and young sang beautifully together. They taught their children together, hugged, prayed and worshipped as brothers and sisters in Christ at Holy Spirit Parish. Afterward, they walked together through the streets of Saskatoon to break bread together at a community lunch at McClure United.

This was done to mark the signing of a new covenant between the parishes which has been discussed since 1966 and which both pastors hope will mark the beginning of an even better relationship.

“I believe this to be the will and the work of the Holy Spirit that has brought us to this moment. It is not merely our efforts or our decisions,” said McClure’s Rev. Ron McConnell.

Holy Spirit pastor, Rev. Bernard de Margerie, agreed. He said the covenant means that the two congregations pledge to grow together to “help create a more stable relationship that is more worthy of life within the Body of Christ.”

In his portion of the joint sermon, McConnell compared the covenant relationship to a marriage.

“The questions people most often ask about the covenant include: ‘Does this mean you’re exactly the same now? Do you now see everything the same way? There are no more differences?” The answer is — are you kidding? Does that sound like any marriage you have ever known?’ ” he said.
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Good neighbours: McClure United and Holy Spirit congregations have always been close; now they’ve put it in writing If Covenant 2000 were a play, Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church and McClure United Church would be well into the second act. The two churches recently signed a formal ecumenical covenant, committing themselves to breaking down barriers
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“How are we saved?” This was the central question of the Protestant Reformation. Or, as Martin Luther phrased it: “How are we, as sinners, found righteous in the sight of a just God?” This is a question that has challenged Christians throughout our history, and has challenged our Hebrew brothers and sisters for even longer. The fact that we believe we will be saved is evident in our decision to come here today, for we all believe that God has offered us salvation. But why are we saved? Because we come here? Because we do our homework, say our prayers and try not to pick on our little brother?
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) warmly welcomes the forthcoming signing of the Joint Declaration on the doctrine of justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. The signing will take place on 31 October, in Augsburg, Germany. According to the Rev. Dr Dagmar Heller, WCC Faith and Order, bilateral relations and
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Dear Cardinal Cassidy and Dr Noko,

The signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine Of Justification between the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church is an event which encourages Christians of all traditions and is a cause of rejoicing for all who pray and work for the unity of Christ’s Church.

The significance of this agreement cannot be underestimated, dealing as it does with a question right at the heart of Christian faith and theology, the question of how we are saved. As we all are aware, this was a primary point of conflict during the Reformation period, which led not only to bitter theological disputes but even wars and Persecutions and created divisions that were exported beyond the shores of Europe through the missionary expansion of the Church.
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GENEVA – The ecumenical movement of the 21st century must focus less on church institutions and more on the church as “the whole people of God,” the moderator of the World Council of Churches‘ (WCC) central committee said on August 26. At a press conference following his report to the 158 members of the central
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