by Jacqueline Frioud

Jacqueline Frioud is the minister of Église unie St-Jean in Montreal, QC for the year 2000-2001 as well as Project Leadership Development Officer of the Montreal and Ottawa Conference of the United Church of Canada.

At this turn of the century it is important to review what we have accomplished in our shared ministries. To celebrate the millennium, why not highlight that which we hold dear and which crosses denominational barriers?

For several centuries groups and associations have been pursuing goals which they have in common, beyond their confessional or doctrinal allegiances.

It is true that each individual, each institution and each church leads us to see differences which, unfortunately, are often perceived as challenges rather than treasures.

We hope that this directory will provide you with valuable information on our shared ministries and that it will help you discover networks that reflect your interests. Perhaps it will also lead you to develop new ecumenical, friendly relationships that will help us all get to know each other better. This directory is certainly not an exhaustive one; some listings we would have liked to include had to be left out for lack of space or information. We have only scratched the surface when it comes to ecumenical initiatives. Your own ecumenical experience may be markedly different, and we would enjoy hearing about it.

You will note that the organizations mentioned do not all have the same amount of space devoted to them. This is because we did not receive the same amount of material. In some cases we received much more than we could use and had to cut back, and in others, there was much less information. The printed material was provided by the organizations themselves.

The organizations are presented in alphabetical order, in three sections: informal groups, followed by a list of various ecumenical initiatives and then, institutes for formation/education.

We encourage you to contact any organizations that interest you for more information or for inspiration in launching similar projects.

Sometimes it is said that ecumenism has made little progress; it seems to us that this may apply more on the visible, hierarchical level, than on the grassroots level.

We hope that this directory will not appear to be just an accommodation of our principles of faith and of ministry, but rather that it will provide an opportunity to open a door to discover all the riches of integration based on essentials, the faith tradition we share.

Please send us your comments on our choices and our omissions.

Translation: Belva Webb