• Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity, Faith and Order - IASCUFO

Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity, Faith and Order - IASCUFO
Posted: July 1, 2009Transmis : 1 juillet, 2009

[ACNS 4638] The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion have announced the membership of an important new commission, following extensive consultation with the Provinces of the Communion around the world. The Chair is the Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi, Primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi.

IASCUFO will oversee the ecumenical life of the Anglican Communion, and will:

• promote the deepening of Communion between the Anglican Communion and other Christian Churches and traditions;
• advise the Provinces, the Primates, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, on all questions of ecumenical engagement, as well as on questions of Anglican Faith and Order;
• review developments in the areas of Faith, Order and Unity in the Anglican Communion and among ecumenical partners, and give advice upon them to the Churches of the Anglican Communion and to the Instruments of Communion;
• assist any Province with the assessment of new proposals in the areas of Unity, Faith and Order as requested.

The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) will start its work in December 2009 in Canterbury, England.

IASCUFO will take forward the work of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (IASCER), and the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission (IATDC).

Members of the Commission

The Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi, Burundi (Chair)
The Rt Revd Dr George Titre Ande, Congo
The Ven Professor Dapo Asaju, Lagos State University, Nigeria
The Revd Canon Dr Paul Avis, England
The Rt Revd Philip D Baji, Bishop of Tanga, Tanzania
The Revd Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan, Canada
The Revd Canon Dr John Gibaut, WCC Commission on Faith and Order
The Rt Revd Howard Gregory, Bishop of Montego Bay, West Indies
The Revd Dr Katherine Grieb, Virginia Theological Seminary, The Episcopal Church
The Revd Canon Clement Janda, Sudan
The Revd Dr Edison Muhindo Kalengyo, Uganda Christian University, Uganda
The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews, Bishop of Christchurch, Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia
The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Methuen, Oxford University, England
The Revd Dr Simon Oliver, University of Nottingham, England
The Rt Revd Professor Stephen Pickard, Assistant Bishop of Adelaide, Australia
Dr Andrew Pierce, Irish School of Ecumenics, Ireland
The Revd Canon Dr Michael Nai Chiu Poon, Trinity Theological College, Singapore, South East Asia
The Revd Sarah Rowland Jones, Southern Africa
The Revd Dr Jeremiah Yang, Sheng Gong Hui (Anglican) University, Korea
The Rt Revd Tito Zavala, Bishop of Chile, Southern Cone

The Secretary to the Commission will be the Director for Unity, Faith and Order, Anglican Communion Office.

• US Catholic-Jewish dialogue examines "Note on Covenant and Mission"

US Catholic-Jewish dialogue examines "Note on Covenant and Mission"
Posted: July 1, 2009Transmis : 1 juillet, 2009

[Washington • USCCB] Representatives of the U.S. Bishops and two Orthodox Jewish associations examined the recent Note on Covenant and Mission from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop (USCCB) during a June 25 meeting in New York. The discussion was part of the regular consultation of the USCCB-Rabbinical Council of America/Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

The bishops issued A Note on Ambiguities Contained in Reflections on Covenant and Mission, June 18, to clarify aspects of a 2002 statement by a group of Catholic and Jewish scholars associated with a standing dialogue between the USCCB and the National Council of Synagogues. Some Catholic leaders had felt the efforts in “Reflections” to recognize the validity of the Jewish covenant appeared to undercut Catholic responsibility to witness to the entirety of the Christian faith.

At the June 25 meeting, David Berger, Ph.D., head of the Jewish Studies Department at Yeshiva College, New York City, cited “grave” concerns of some in the Jewish community about the Note, which was prepared by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine and Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

Orthodox Jews can tolerate any Christian view on the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ as savior of all, but they cannot agree to participate in an interfaith dialogue that is a cover for proselytism, Berger said.

The Note, which was issued at the request of USCCB President Cardinal Francis George, affirmed that interreligious dialogue involves “a mutually enriching sharing of gifts,” but also asserted that giving witness to the following of Christ is implicit in every faithful encounter with persons of other religious convictions.

Berger and the other Jewish participants asked if the “implicit witnessing to Christ” means, in effect, a subtle attempt to convert Jews to Christianity, which would render interreligious dialogue with Catholics illegitimate and “dangerous” from an Orthodox Jewish standpoint. “We take apostasy very seriously,” he said, referring to the abandonment of Judaism for another religion.

Father James Massa, Executive Director for the Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the USCCB, assured participants that interreligious dialogue for the Catholic bishops is never about proselytism or any coercive methods that would lead a person to abandon his or her religious convictions.

“The important term in this discussion is ‘witness,’” Father Massa said. “As Catholics involved in a dialogue of truth, we cannot help but give witness to Christ, who, for us, is synonymous with truth. Without acknowledging our indebtedness to God’s revelation in Christ, we cannot sit at the table and speak as Christians about how we arrive at notions of justice, compassion and building up the common good—the very values our interreligious dialogues seek to foster.”

The consultation is co-chaired by Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Rabbi Fabian Schoenfeld of Young Israel Synagogue in Kew Gardens Hills, New York. The members also discussed local state issues of concern to both communities.

James Cultrara, Director for Education of the New York State Catholic Conference, updated members on efforts to expand tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools in New York. The issue of school choice brought the Orthodox Jewish and Catholic communities together in 2006, when the New York State Assembly passed a limited bill that provided tax relief for lower income families with children in private schools.

Participants also discussed state legislation that would have rolled back the statutes of limitation on civil lawsuits that could be brought for alleged sexual abuse of minors, regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred. The “Child Victims Act,” sponsored by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth), had the support of the Rabbinical Council of America, but was strongly opposed by the Catholic Church in New York for targeting private institutions.

Thomas Renker, General Counsel for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, reported that the State Catholic Conference endorsed an alternative proposal by Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) that would have included public schools, where cases of abuse of minors far exceed those in religious-based institutions. When the New York Assembly concluded its session on June 22, neither bill was put before the body.

Bishop Murphy said the Catholic Church has worked diligently in the past seven years to create safe environments for children and requires all church workers and volunteers to undergo training on how to detect signs of sexual abuse of minors. Eileen Puglisi, Rockville Centre’s Diocesan Director of the Office for the Protection of Children and Young People, distributed literature on the Rockville Centre Review Board and counseling opportunities for victims of abuse. She also fielded questions from the participants.

Co-founded in 1998, by the late Cardinal John O’Connor, the consultation meets to discuss moral and cultural issues that impact Catholic and Jewish life in the nation. Previous meetings have addressed anti-religious bias in the media and peace initiatives to resolve the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Other Catholic members of the dialogue included Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, Father Lawrence Frizzell, Seton Hall University; Father Lee Descoteaux, Diocese of Rockville Centre’s liaison to the Jewish community; and Father Dennis McManus, Georgetown University and Consultant to the USCCB on Jewish Affairs.

Jewish members included Howard Beigelman, Deputy Director of Public Policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; Rabbi Basil Herring, Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America; Rabbi Yonatan Kaganoff, Rabbinical Council of America; Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Executive Vice President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; and Betty Ehrenberg, Director of International and Communal Affairs for the Institute for Public Affairs (IPA) of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

• Orthodox-Catholic Consultation Studies Nature of Communion, Authority

Orthodox-Catholic Consultation Studies Nature of Communion, Authority
Posted: June 26, 2009Transmis : 26 juin, 2009

[Washington • USCCB] The seventy-sixth meeting of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation took place at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York, June 1 to 3. The session, hosted by the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), was co-chaired by Metropolitan Maximos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

At the meeting the Consultation continued its study of the 2007 agreed statement of the international Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, “Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church. Ecclesial Communion, Conciliarity and Authority.” The members heard analyses of the text, also known as “The Ravenna Document,” from a Catholic perspective prepared by Leavenworth Sister of Charity Susan Wood and Father John Galvin, and from an Orthodox perspective by Father Nicholas Apostola. These presentations will form the basis of a draft common response to the international document that will be considered at the next meeting.

The Consultation also heard two presentations of points of convergence that have emerged in its ongoing study of primacies and conciliarity in the Church. One text was prepared by Jesuit Father Brian Daley and Vito Nicastro, Ph.D., and a second one, from an Orthodox perspective, by Father James Dutko. The authors of these two studies will prepare a draft agreed statement on this theme for consideration at the fall 2009 meeting. In addition, Father Joseph Komonchak offered reflections on a presentation given in 2003 by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at a Catholic-Orthodox symposium in the Vatican on Petrine Ministry, “Introduction to the Theme and Catholic Hermeneutics of the Dogmas of the First Vatican Council.”

During the meeting, members of the Consultation informed one another about major events in the lives of their churches. These included the death of Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and the election of Patriarch Kirill, the international Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Dialogue, the Vatican delegation at the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the Feast of St. Andrew, the Commencement address of President Obama at the University of Notre Dame, recent events in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, the lifting of the excommunications of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X, recent events in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Holy Land, "The Leadership of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Significance of Canon 28 of Chalcedon: a Statement by the Faculty Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology,” the relationship between the two Romanian Orthodox jurisdictions in North America, the meeting in the Vatican of a group of Catholic Bishops and aboriginal leaders from Canada with Pope Benedict XVI, the situation of the Orthodox Church in America and the election of Metropolitan Jonah, and the establishment of the Archbishop Demetrios Chair at Fordham University.

Members gathered for a memorial service (Panachida) presided over by Metropolitan Maximos to commemorate the death forty days earlier of Rev. Protopresbyter Stephen Dutko, the father of Rev. James Dutko, an Orthodox member of the Consultation.

Archbishop Pilarczyk shared with the members of the Consultation that, with his imminent retirement, he intends to resign as Co-Chairman of the dialogue. Metropolitan Maximos expressed gratitude to the Archbishop for his seven years of service. The Consultation presented Archbishop Pilarczyk with a copy of the book, “The Rublev Trinity,” by Gabriel Bunge. Archbishop Wilton Gregory, the Chairman of the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, intends to name a new Catholic Co-Chairman of the Consultation in due course.

The seventy-seventh meeting of the Consultation is due to take place from October 22-24, at Saint Paul’s College in Washington.

In addition to the co-chairs, the Consultation include Orthodox representatives Father Thomas FitzGerald (Secretary), Father Nicholas Apostola, Father John Erickson, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Ph.D., Father James Dutko, Paul Meyendorff, Ph.D., Father Alexander Golitzin, Robert Haddad, Ph.D., Father Robert Stephanopoulos, Father Theodore Pulcini, and Father Mark Arey, General Secretary of SCOBA (staff).

Additional Catholic members are Jesuit Father Brian Daley (Secretary), Thomas Bird, Ph.D., Sylvain Destrempes, Ph.D., Father Peter Galadza, Chorbishop John D. Faris, Father John Galvin, Father Sidney Griffith, Father Joseph Komonchak, Father Paul McPartlan, Father David Petras, Sister Susan K. Wood, Vito Nicastro, Ph.D., and Paulist Father Ronald Roberson, who serves as staff.

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is sponsored jointly by the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since its establishment in 1965, the Consultation has issued 22 agreed statements on various topics. All these texts are now available on the USCCB Website at http://www.usccb.org/seia/orthodox_index.shtml and the SCOBA website at http://www.scoba.us/resources/orthodox-catholic.html

• SEI 2009: Prairie Centre hosts Summer Ecumenical Institute

SEI 2009: Prairie Centre hosts Summer Ecumenical Institute
Posted: June 25, 2009Transmis : 25 juin, 2009

TOAST — Retired Mennonnite pastor Vern Ratzlaff (right) led the toast to Prairie Centre for Ecumenism founder Rev. Bernard de Margerie during a banquet June 4, held in conjunction with a national Summer Ecumenical Institute in Saskatoon. (Photo: K. Yaworski)

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski

This article originally appeared in The Prairie Messenger, June 17, 2009. Reprinted with permission.

SASKATOON — A national Summer Ecumenical Institute was held June 2 - 5 in Saskatoon, with some 50 participants taking stock of the ecumenical movement, renewing their vision and commitment to reconciliation and unity among Christians.

Organized and hosted by the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, the event featured Rev. Tom Ryan, CSP, as facilitator. Ryan is the director of the Paulist Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, based in Washington, DC. A former director of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal, Ryan examined the past, present and future of the ecumenical movement in three keynote addresses. He also explored the question of inter-religious prayer in a workshop session June 3.

Workshop sessions included an overview of the recent Roman Catholic/Anglican document, Growing Together in Unity and Mission, presented by Rev. Don Bolen; an introduction to L’Arche, an ecumenical success story, by Rev. Amy Bunce; and a description of resources for revitalizing rural ministry presented by Dr. Cam Harder of the Lutheran seminary in Saskatoon.

Sister Judy Schachtel, SMS, of Earthcare Connections, led a session on the dignity of creation and ecological spirituality, while Rev. Sandra Beardsall of St. Andrew’s College discussed shared ministries. Trends in inter-faith dialogue were explored by Adèle Brodeur, associate director of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism.

Ecumenical perspectives on healing were explored in a panel discussion featuring parish nurse Deb Bauche, Rev. Cyrian Hutcheon, MD, pastor of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Saskatoon, and Rev. Larry Mitchell, an Anglican priest and North American director of the ecumenical Order of St. Luke the Physician.

The Summer Ecumenical Institute was a 25th anniversary event for the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism (PCE). The centre started in Saskatoon in 1984 under the leadership of Rev. Bernard de Margerie. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s call for the Second Vatican Council, which in turn sparked de Margerie’s own 50-year journey working for Christian reconciliation. PCE has acknowledged the three anniversaries throughout the past year.

De Margerie was recognized for his contributions at an anniversary banquet held June 4, in conjunction with the Summer Ecumenical Institute. Retired Mennonite pastor Vern Ratzlaff expressed appreciation for de Margerie’s years of work and vision. “You have shown us what our common baptism and Christian charism involve,” Ratzlaff said.

In response, de Margerie stressed the need to continue and intensify the work toward Christian reconciliation. “The journey to unity is seemingly devoid at this time of a clear and compelling goal,” he said.

“Let us encourage one another, learn to carry each other’s burdens and wash each other’s feet across denominational lines so that we may all be one for the credibility of our common mission in Christ, and for the glory of God in his reconciling grace.”

De Margerie concluded with a reflection from Ryan’s book, A Survival Guide for Ecumenically Minded Christians: “When God puts us back together again — with the aid of our willingness to co-operate — this great church will be marked by the dignity and scholarship of the Anglicans; the order and sacraments of the Roman Catholics; the warm fellowship of the Methodists; the Presbyterian desire for good preaching; and the Lutheran respect for sound theology. There will be the Baptist concern for individual salvation; the Congregational respect for the rights of the lay members; the Pentecostal reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit; and the Quaker appreciation for silence. We will find there the Mennonite sense of community; the social action of the Salvation Army; and the Reformed love of the Bible; all wrapped in the Orthodox reverence before the mystery of God.”

• SEI 2009: Crisis in ecumenism related to its success

SEI 2009: Crisis in ecumenism related to its success
Posted: June 25, 2009Transmis : 25 juin, 2009

By Kiply Lukan Yaworski

This article originally appeared in The Prairie Messenger, June 17, 2009. Reprinted with permission.

Rev. Tom Ryan, CSP (Photo: K. Yaworski)

SASKATOON — Christian unity has come a long way in the past 50 years, but there is still a long way to go in the face of many complex factors that are slowing progress, said Rev. Tom Ryan, CSP, director of the Paulist Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, based in Washington, D.C.

“During the past four decades, the rediscovery of our brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ, along with the result of several bilateral and multilateral dialogues, have presented an historical shift and a new situation,” he said during a keynote address June 4 at a Summer Ecumenical Institute held in Saskatoon. “There is a new situation emerging in which we can be said to be facing a crisis in the dual sense of the term: on the one hand danger, and on the other hand opportunity.”

Paradoxically, the crisis in today’s ecumenical movement is related to its success. “The closer we come to one another, the more we feel the differences that still exist,” Ryan said. “After resolving many misunderstandings and establishing a basic consensus concerning the essentials of our faith, we’ve now reached the inner core of our differences.”

Between the Catholic and the Orthodox churches, the differences centre on the role and office of the papacy. With the churches of the Reformation, they centre on the question of the apostolic succession in the episcopate.

Ecclesiology — the understanding of church — is critical to moving toward unity, he said. “In the big picture, ecclesiology is the most pressing question on the agenda,” he said.

“The problem of coming to a common understanding of what makes for a church is all the more serious when we consider that ecclesial communion is, for Catholics, the pre-supposition of eucharistic communion, and the absence of eucharistic communion carries major pastoral difficulties above all in the case of mixed couples and families.”

At the same time, Ryan cited a number of “huge and historical developments,” including joint statements, church unions, mergers and ecumenical alliances among a variety of denominations in both the United States and Canada as evidence that the ecumenical movement is far from dead.

Still, there are many factors contributing to an “ecumenical slowdown.” The decline in membership of mainline denominations and the limited time and resources of those in pastoral leadership often mean that ecumenism has been “shunted off the working priority action lists.”

Ryan pointed to the ongoing theological disagreement among Christians about how to respond to modernity. “The trip wire for this crisis turned out to be sexual morality, represented by passionate differences over chastity, marriage and homosexuality. Also at stake are issues of authority, divine revelation and our understanding of the church. These matters remain unresolved.”

Another challenge is that charismatic and pentecostal movements, which are expanding around the world, have for the most part not been part of ecumenical dialogue. “We’re going to have to rise to the challenge of moving out of what is secure and familiar for us in our own relationship with one another as mainline denominations,” he said.

Culture also creates challenges to ecumenism, including shifting cultural norms, indifference to religious truth, and an emphasis on “eclectic and individualistic” spirituality. “All of this makes for a highly complex society, where communal life at any level becomes more difficult.”

At the same time, the “classic tension between movements and institutions” is being lost,” Ryan said. Some would say that ecumenism “has been brought under control and domesticated by the churches it was designed to reform. The ecumenical movement has been institutionalized and needs to become a movement again.”

In the end, said Ryan, ecumenism “must be the result of a conversion of the hearts and minds of the people who make up the church. This must be a work of the people, by the people, for the people: for the sake of the credibility of the Gospel and the life of the world.”

• NAAE 2009: The Ethical Horizon from an Ecumenical Perspective

NAAE 2009: The Ethical Horizon from an Ecumenical Perspective

The North American Academy of Ecumenists will hold their 2009 annual meeting in Washington, DC at the Washington Theological Union. Lodging will be available at the Paulist House nearby. Registration will begin after June 1.

Draft Agenda

Friday, 7:00 PM
  Michael Root: Ethical Issues Addressed in Ecumenical Dialogues
  Stanley Harakas: What Eastern Orthodox Ethics Can Offer Ecumenism
9:00 PM, Reception

Saturday, 9:00 AM
  Timothy Sedgwick: Human Sexuality
  Drew Christiansen, S.J.: Just War & Peace Churches
1:00 PM, Panel of local theologians/ethicists/pastors
3:00 PM, Essay Contest Award Presentation
3:30 PM, Business Meeting
6:00 PM, Banquet: Speaker, Lorelei Fuchs

Sunday, 9:00 AM
  Robin Steinke: The Ecumenical Horizon
  John Crossin: A Summary of Ecumenically Shaped Ethics

• 2009 Parliament of the World's Religions

2009 Parliament of the World's Religions

2009 Parliament of the World's Religions: Conference Proposals Requested

Melbourne, Australia -- December 3-9, 2009

The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions invites all people of faith, spirit and goodwill to encounter the vast and rich diversity of the world's religious and spiritual traditions. Take part in over 500 events including keynote addresses, seminars, conferences, dialogues, performances, concerts and exhibitions on the theme: "Make a World of Difference: Hearing each other, Healing the earth".

Key topics of global concern will be addressed from religious and spiritual perspectives. These include:

• Healing the Earth with Care and Concern
• Reconciling with Indigenous Peoples
• Overcoming Poverty in a Patriarchal World
• Securing Food and Water for all People
• Building Peace in the Pursuit of Justice
• Sharing Wisdom in the Search for Inner Peace

Consider submitting a proposal to present on one of these topics, or other areas of pressing concern. Full instructions are available online, as are registration materials and additional information. www.parliamentofreligions.org.

• International Ecumenical Peace Convocation

International Ecumenical Peace Convocation

The culmination of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence will be an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation on May 4-11, 2011 in Kingston, Jamaica. Work on an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace will culminate in its adoption there. The declaration will not be a consensus document but, as a public affirmation of witness that is theological and spiritual in character, it will affirm what can be said together, identify topics for further discussion, recommend examples, and initiate practical services for committed groups. The convocation, expected to have some two thousand participants, will include representatives of other faiths. Planners will search with these representatives for ministries that struggle against the current trend to turn political conflict into religious confrontation. A timeline of preparatory processes has already been outlined, suggestions for participation have been posted, and related events will be listed as information is available. Geiko Muller-Fahrenholz, who is working on convocation preparations for the WCC, has visited the U.S. in March to garner ideas and dialogue about the state of the ecumenical peace movement. Themes for the conference have been identified as: peace at heart, peace at home, peace in the virtual world, peace on earth is peace with the earth, peace in the market place, and make peace not war.

• Ecumenical Shared Ministries: an idea whose time has come?

Ecumenical Shared Ministries: an idea whose time has come?
Posted: March 27, 2009Transmis : 27 mars, 2009

by Rev. Dr. Jan Bigland-Pritchard
(Executive Director, Prairie Centre for Ecumenism & Coordinator, Shared Ministries Bureau)

In Winnipeg, a Catholic parish and an Anglican parish share a large building on a busy city street. In Shell Lake Saskatchewan, Anglican, Lutheran and United Church Christians have joined buildings and hearts together to form one worshipping community with joint staff and programming. In Montreal, downtown clergy of two denominations start talks about sharing a worship space: one has a big church with a small congregation, while the other has a congregation with no suitable place to meet. In Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, three existing congregations are about to break ground for a new church facility which will serve them as one congregation and help them serve the needs of their town. In Biggar, Saskatchewan, the Anglican and Lutheran pastors run a ‘Monday School’ kids club for the children of the whole town. What are all these Christians doing? They are exploring ecumenical shared ministry.

An Ecumenical Shared Ministry (ESM) exists where Christians of more than one denomination worship and serve God in a united way while still maintaining their denominational identities and connections. ESMs take many forms, from sharing a building, to sharing programs, staff and worship. There are an estimated 80-150 ESMs in Canada. Some are found in tiny rural communities. Some are in major cities. Most ESMs are located in Western Canada and the Maritimes, and new ones are forming all the time.

Ecumenical Shared Ministries are showing themselves to be part of the solution to the problem our churches face in the rural areas, and in new urban areas. In places where numbers are diminishing due to rural depopulation, ESMs offer a way for rural Christians of several denominations to work together in ministry to their communities without losing their denominational allegiances. In the new city suburbs in Western Canada, denominations are stretched to finance the planting of new churches, and some are creating new urban ESMs, like the Living Spirit Centre in Regina. These ESMs not only maximize limited financial resources, but also give ‘flesh’ to Christians’ spiritual commitment to seek Christian unity and reconciliation.

• Summer Ecumenical Institute 2009

Summer Ecumenical Institute 2009
Posted: March 21, 2009Transmis : 21 mars, 2009

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

June 2-5, 2009 in Saskatoon, SK

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

This conference will be the climax of a year of themed events giving thanks for the past achievements of the ecumenical movement and committing ourselves to Christian unity and reconciliation for the future. The SEI will be built around worship and singing, keynote addresses, a variety of optional workshops, and a banquet at the Western Development Museum. It begins on Tuesday evening and finishes Friday with lunch.

We are honoured to have Fr. Tom Ryan CSP to lead us in this task. Tom is the director of the North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations of the Paulist Community, and is based in Washington, DC. Fr. Tom was ordained in 1975, and served in campus ministry at the Ohio State University (Columbus) and at McGill University (Montreal), prior to directing the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism for 14 years. He spearheaded the 1995 founding of the Unitas Ecumenical Centre for Christian Meditation in Montreal and served 5 years as its director before answering the call of his community to take up his current work. He is a gifted speaker, author, mission and retreat leader.

We are excited to have Cheryl and Bruce Harding to get us singing, and drumming. Cheryl and Bruce Harding are gifted United Church recording artists and worship leaders, whose eclectic musical style melds a theology of healing and understanding with a spirit-filled passion for congregational singing. When they are not on tour, Cheryl and Bruce lead singing at Royal Heights United Church in Delta, BC. Bruce is also past co-chair of UCCAM, the United Church of Canada Association of Musicians, and was the Managing Editor for More Voices, the supplement to the current United Church of Canada hymn book, Voices United (1996).

• Summer Ecumenical Institute webpage
• SEI programme
• SEI workshops
• Poster

• Dialogue with Judaism is necessary and possible

Dialogue with Judaism is necessary and possible
Posted: March 14, 2009Transmis : 14 mars, 2009

Last November, attention turned once again to comments made by Pope Benedict XVI, this time on dialogue with Islam. Precisely as the Vatican was intensifying efforts to open dialogues with Islam on ethical and other practical issues, a book was published in Italy by Marcello Pera that contained a forward written by the pope. In this text, the pope commended Pera's argument that interreligious dialogue is not strictly possible. The book, entitled "Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian" was an argument for the indispensably Christian character of Europe. Prior to his election as pope, Cardinal Ratzinger had co-authored another book with Pera about Europe's identity, and so it is not a great surprise that he would write a forward for another book on the same subject by his academic colleague.

• Saskatchewan bishops' joint pastoral letter on Nuclear Power

Saskatchewan bishops' joint pastoral letter on Nuclear Power
Posted: March 3, 2009Transmis : 3 mars, 2009

Bishops call for Critical Reflection on Uranium Mining and a Proposed Nuclear Power Plant in Saskatchewan

The Bishops of the Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic churches in Saskatchewan call on their members and all Saskatchewan citizens to consider with care the issues surrounding the proposed expansion of the uranium industry in Saskatchewan and make their views known to the Government of Saskatchewan.

The Government of Saskatchewan is exploring "value-added" initiatives to expand the uranium industry in our province, including the possibility of a nuclear power plant being built in Saskatchewan. Bruce Power, the country's only private nuclear generating company, has deemed an area of Saskatchewan (roughly from Lloydminster to Prince Albert) to be a potentially suitable site for such a development. In March 2009 a government-appointed panel is expected to make recommendations regarding such initiatives. It is critical that any recommendations be made only after full and open consultation with the people of this province.

• Vatican and Al-Azhar: promoting a pedagogy of peace

Vatican and Al-Azhar: promoting a pedagogy of peace
Posted: February 26, 2009Transmis : 26 février, 2009

The Vatican's new YouTube channel has posted a short video about a dialogue this past week between the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCIRD) and a Muslim partner, the Permanent Committee of Al-Azhar for the Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions.

[Centro Televisivo Vaticano, February 24, 2009] Mutual understanding and respect: with this theme began today the traditional encounter between the Permanent Committee of Al-Azhar for the Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.The annual reunion of the Joint Committee, ending February 26th, provides the opportunity to examine the specific role of religions in the promotion of a pedagogy and culture of peace between peoples.Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Vatican dicastery, underlined that truth should always guide dialogue between religions: "The Pope has greatly insisted upon this issue. Dialogue is important, but it should not lead to syncretism or relativism. I always say: interreligious dialogue does not consist in saying that all religions say more or less the same thing. It means that every believer, every searcher of God, has the same dignity. This is interreligious dialogue, in charity, but first of all in truth."