Recognising that the Christian churches continually are called to grapple with new moral issues and that reaching different conclusions can complicate the search for Christian unity, a commission of Catholic and Anglican bishops and theologians has been studying how their traditions make decisions and what they can learn from each other. According to a statement Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Christian Unity’
Can today’s church overcome division?
Thursday, May 23rd, 2024
The Week of Christian Unity, the church celebrated this week, supports an unfashionable cause. It encourages the healing of divisions between churches. Divisions rule In culture, politics and religion, however, division provides most of the news of the day. The religious headlines emphasise fractures within churches. They tell of discrepancy between the professed values of Read more
Brand Christianity called into question by search for Christian unity
Monday, May 30th, 2022
Christian Unity is more than a “nice to have” it is an essential element of those who confess their vocation to live like Christ. The scandal to the world is the disunification of the Christian churches. Ironically, in disunity, many find strength because they are “not like the others”. They enjoy the separation because it Read more
Pray for Christian unity to heal the pain of division – Pope
Monday, June 28th, 2021
Pope Francis said divided Christians should suffer because they cannot share the Eucharist. However, that suffering should spur them to work and pray harder for Christian unity. On the 491st anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the pope held an audience with members of the Lutheran World Federation in the Vatican. In his address to the Read more
Promoting Christian unity is not optional
Monday, December 7th, 2020
Catholics must work towards Christian unity, a new guidebook from the Vatican says. It can no longer be seen as “optional” by bishops. They won’t be left to work out how on their own though. The new guidebook, released by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, offers practical ways for bishops to promote unity Read more
Ecumenism 25 years on
Thursday, May 28th, 2020
Twenty-five years ago, St. John Paul II’s encyclical on ecumenism, “Ut Unum Sint,” put the papal seal of approval on a shift in the Catholic Church’s approach to the search for Christian unity. For the 30 years from the Second Vatican Council to the publication of St. John Paul’s encyclical May 25, 1995, official ecumenical Read more
When Americans tried to reunite Christianity
Thursday, November 9th, 2017
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther, a German monk, initiated a split in Christianity that came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. After the Reformation, deep divisions between Protestants and Catholics contributed to wars, hostility and violence in Europe and America. For centuries, each side denounced the other and sought to convert its followers. Then, in the early 1900s, Read more
The second Reformation – joyfully together again
Thursday, June 8th, 2017
Hundreds packed Wellington’s Sacred Heart Cathedral on Sunday to witness what could be described as a second Reformation. The crowd was witnessing New Zealand’s formal commitment to healing the divisions of the Reformation: the 500 year-long separation of Lutherans and Catholics. The atmosphere was joyful, positive and affirming as Lutheran Bishop Mark Whitfield and Cardinal Read more
Lutherans and Catholics a step closer to unity
Thursday, June 1st, 2017
The movement towards healing the 500 years of separation between Lutherans and Roman Catholics takes a step closer in New Zealand next week. On Sunday 4 June Lutheran Bishop Mark Whitfield and Cardinal John Dew will open a formal dialogue for the two Christian denominations with a combined ecumenical service in Sacred Heart Cathedral to Read more
Reformation, Catholics and today’s unity
Monday, May 22nd, 2017
The Reformation’s 500th jubilee is important to Catholics as well as Protestants, says Sr Joyce Ann Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a Sister of the Precious Blood, and a professor of liturgy from Dayton, Ohio. Although the Catholic Church has been involved in a number of divisions over the millennia – including the Protestant Reformation – it Read more