Get updates sent directly to your email Inscrivez-vous pour mises à jour

Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT)

• Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millenium
  This is the first agreed statement by a group of Evangelical and Catholic theologians in the U.S. and Canada. This statement covers the broad prospects for cooperation in civil life in the U.S. Catholic participants would be described as conservative. Many of the Evangelical participants faced public criticism due to this statement.
  • Why I Decided To Become A Signatory on the Document [December 1994]
    by Dr. Bill Bright, Founder and President of Campus Crusade for Christ International
  • Statement By Protestant Signers To ECT [January 1995]
    "We Protestants who signed ECT, took this action to advance Christian fellowship, cooperation, and mutual trust among true Christians in the North American cultural crisis and in the worldwide task of evangelism. The same concern leads us now to elucidate our ECT commitment."
  • Letter from Dr. Bill Bright announcing that key protestant leaders have met and reconciled [February 1995]
  • NEWS: Evangelicals Clarify Accord with Catholics [March 1995]
    Resulting from a January 19, 1995 meeting of top evangelical leaders.
  • Catholic-Evangelical signers address areas of controversy [March 1995]
• The Gift of Salvation (ECT II)
  The ECT text on justification by faith alone. Resulting from a meeting in the fall of 1996, it was determined that further progress depended upon firm agreement on the meaning of salvation, and especially the doctrine of justification. After much discussion, study, and prayer over the course of a year, a statement was agreed to at a meeting in New York City, October 6-7, 1997. In future conversations they intend to address the outstanding questions noted at the end of this statement. (cache)
  • Trent or Westminster? At the core of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together debate: Can the two traditions coexist?
    by Edward E. Plowman of World magazine. A report of a meeting in February 1998 between senior evangelical leaders, to discuss the ECT statement "Gift of Salvation".
  • Evangelicals & Catholics Together…Again: An Analysis of the "ECT: Gift of Salvation" Statement
    by Matt Costella, staff writer, Foundation Magazine: A magazine of Biblical Fundamentalism, Jan-Feb 1998. This text reflects a critical perspective written from the perspective of the "Fundamental Evangelistic Association".
• Your Word is Truth (ECT III)
  "The next question taken up by ECT participants was the relationship between Scripture and tradition. The following statement, 'Your Word Is Truth,' is the product of intense and extended deliberation and was first published this summer [2002] by Eerdmans in a book by the same title. The participants express the hope that those responding with critical evaluations of the statement will consult the scholarly papers prepared for their deliberation and to be found in the book. The ECT project continues and is currently studying Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant understandings of 'the communion of saints' (communio sanctorum)." [First Things 125 (August/September 2002): 38-42.]
  • Book Review by Stanley J. Grenz in Christian Century, October 23, 2002.

Evangelical - Roman Catholic Dialogue on Mission, 1977-1984 (ERCDOM)

• Evangelical - Roman Catholic Dialogue on Mission (ERCDOM) Final Report
  "The Evangelical- Roman Catholic Dialogue on Mission was a series of three meetings which took place over a period of seven years. The first was held at Venice in 1977, the second at Cambridge in 1982 and the third at Landévennec in France in 1984. ... This Report is in no sense an "agreed statement" but rather a faithful record of the ideas shared. It is not exhaustive, for more questions were touched on than could be described in this brief compass. Yet enough has been included to give a substantial idea of how the dialogue developed and to communicate something of it without creating misunderstandings or false expectations." [from the introduction]

Southern Baptist - Roman Catholic Conversations

• Southern Baptist - Roman Catholic Conversation Report on Sacred Scripture (September 10, 1999)

World Evangelical Alliance - Roman Catholic Consultations

Note: The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has maintained a small dialogue / consultation with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity for some years now. The WEA office responsible for the consultation is the Theological Commission. The WEA's co-secretary of the consultation is Dr. George Vandervelde. In 2000, the former World Evangelical Fellowship changed its name to the World Evangelical Alliance.

• World Evangelical Fellowship - Vatican Communiqué (November 13, 1999).
  A report of the dialogue meeting held November 7-13, 1999 between the WEF's Theological Commission and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
• Church, Evangelization, and the Bonds of Koinonia (2002, published 2004)
  "The present consultations represent an important development in our relationship. For the first time these meetings were sponsored by international bodies on both sides: the World Evangelical Alliance and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This initiative eventually resulted in formal consultations beginning in Venice in 1993, and continuing at Tantur, Jerusalem in 1997, Williams Bay, Wisconsin in 1999, Mundelein, Illinois in 2001, and Swanwick, England in 2002. Initial meetings led us eventually to focus on two general areas: the church and her mission. As the discussion continued, it became clear that a common reflection on the biblical notion of koinonia would help us to clarify some convergences and differences between us on the church (Part I). The focus on mission evolved into reflection on evangelization and the related issues of religious freedom, proselytism and common witness in light of koinonia (Part II)." [from the preamble]