“We are ready to be co-workers with God in whatever tasks of mission serve the Gospel. We give glory to God for the gift of unity already ours in Christ, and we pray for the fuller realization of this gift in the entire Church.”

With these concluding words of the Waterloo Declaration, read aloud on July 6, 2001, Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada committed themselves to a shared future in full communion. They chose to treat differences in areas such as church order, faith expression and liturgical style as gifts that can strengthen unity. They chose partnership, mutual responsibility and a reconciled future over inherited division. Through common discernment, joint witness, shared ministry and so much more, we have learned again and again that unity in Christ is not merely an institutional arrangement, but a gift of grace that strengthens the Church for joining God’s mission in the world.
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Archbishop Sotirios of Canada is resigning in early July, after 52 years of episcopal ministry in Canada. The information of The National Herald was confirmed by the Archbishop himself while he was in Vancouver, Canada, on a pastoral visit, saying: “Your information is true. I am planning on going to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on the first Saturday of July, where I will discuss it with the Patriarch, and afterwards I will make statements.”

Archbishop Sotirios Athanassoulas recently celebrated his 90th birthday at a major event organized by the Greek diaspora in Canada, about which The National Herald had written in detail.
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Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Council for Refugees have filed a new Federal Court challenge to the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. that says refugees must claim asylum in whichever country they arrive in first.

In 2023 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled refugees can avoid being sent back to the U.S. if they face unnecessary detention or the risk of deportation to a country where their rights and lives would be threatened.

These considerations are referred to as “safety valves” by people working in the migrant rights sector.
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Two denominations with historic ties to John Wesley are strengthening their ties with each other.

Driving the move, in part, is the increasing migration of United Methodists from around the globe to Canada.

The United Methodist Council of Bishops and leaders of the United Church of Canada, at separate meetings this spring, each approved an interim covenant that mutually affirms both denominations’ clergy and opens the door to greater cooperation across national borders.

The covenant also declares the leaders’ intention to propose a formal relationship between the two denominations to their top policymaking bodies — the United Methodist General Conference and the Canadian church’s General Council. Both assemblies are next set to meet in 2028.
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From 26 to 29 May 2026, a Knowledge-Sharing Symposium on the Doctrine of Discovery was held in Edmonton, examining the historical and legal consequences of colonization for Indigenous Peoples, and the Catholic Church’s involvement in that colonization in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The event was hosted by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), with support from the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, and representation from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. It was organized by a group of Catholic men and women, Indigenous and Church leaders and scholars.
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With its 243 paragraphs and more than 200 references, “Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” the first encyclical of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, will undoubtedly stand as a milestone in the development of Roman Catholic social doctrine. In retrospect, one better understands Cardinal Robert Prevost’s choice of the name “Leo” a little over a year ago: it signals a clear intention to situate his pontificate within a tradition of continuity, particularly in the Church’s mission to serve the most vulnerable in society, as did Pope Leo XIII.
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Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox leaders took a major step towards healing a 1,600‑year division when Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew welcomed Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church to the Phanar for a celebration of the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George. Both hierarchs called for renewed commitment to unity between their traditions.

In his official address at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, His All-Holiness spoke about the relationship between the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, saying that “the relationship between the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox Churches occupies a unique and privileged place within the broader ecumenical endeavour.” He detailed a path to the restoration of unity between the two Churches, and emphasized that “we have been called to move from agreement to reception, from dialogue to life, from theological convergence to sacramental and pastoral cooperation.”
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As Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical ‘Magnifica humanitas’ is unveiled, Professor Anna Rowlands, theologian at Durham University, tells Vatican News that such a powerful message—addressing both the benefits and dangers of our AI era—will leave an enduring mark on the Church and the world.

“There is not a tomorrow to begin thinking about these issues.”

Professor Anna Rowlands, theologian at Durham University in the United Kingdom, stressed this point in an interview with Vatican News following the release of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, presented at the Vatican on May 25.
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Pope Leo XIV published his landmark encyclical on artificial intelligence, “Magnifica Humanitas”, on May 25, comparing the attempt to build an AI future that excludes God to the “Tower of Babel” and underlining the need to safeguard human dignity as it is “threatened by new forms of dehumanization.”

“The risk of dehumanization — of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means — is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise,” Pope Leo wrote in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”
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“Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”

The opening words of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, summarize its underlying reasons and purpose.

Published on Monday, May 25, the Pope signed the encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum.
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