The Lund principle

3. Lund principle - introduce and explain 5 mins.

The third world conference on Faith and Order at Lund, Sweden, in 1952 issued this challenge:

Should not our churches ask themselves whether they are showing sufficient eagerness to enter into conversation with other churches, and whether they should not act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately?

This challenge has been adapted in many forms as the Lund principle. One current formulation is "that we should not do separately what conscience permits us to do together". This principle is affirmed in the 1995 papal encyclical Ut Unum Sint.

Read the longer or shorter form (or both) of this principle to the group. Note how the principle includes the unity of love, truth, and witness through its commitment to other Christians (love), its recognition of deep convictions (truth) and its movement towards action (witness).