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
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
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
The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, opened his ecumenical and interfaith tour of New Zealand and Australia on 6 October. The first stop was Auckland with a powhiri at Te Karaiti Te Pou Herenga Waka Maori Anglican church in Mangere. Tveit will visit the region between Read more
Ukrainian Christians are facing violence with a unified front. “To overcome conflicts, to fight hatred with goodness, and to make Ukraine a free and European country: these are the tasks of the Catholic Church in Ukraine”, according to a priest with knowledge of the situation. Christians in Ukraine are facing a difficult experience. Despite the Read more
Pope Francis urged world leaders to “promote peaceful coexistence” in the face of “a devastating outbreak of violence against Christians” on Monday, when he received the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Pope Matthias I, in the Vatican. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which rejected the Read more
The funeral Mass of an English Catholic priest is to be celebrated in an Anglican church in recognition of the work he did to bring Christians together. Canon Brian O’Sullivan of Arundel and Brighton diocese died on August 21. The Anglican Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, has approved the unusual funeral move in recognition Read more
Pope Francis has said Christians from different denominations should work for closer ties without waiting for theologians to agree on everything. He told Pentecostal bishops visiting him in Rome that Catholics and Evangelicals should “walk together”. Focussing on differences amounts to “sinning against God’s will”, the Pope said. He said Christians should not wait for Read more
One is an Argentine son of Italian immigrants, the other an Old Etonian whose mother worked for Sir Winston Churchill. Yet despite coming from opposite ends of the earth – both literally and metaphorically – Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury have some uncanny similarities. The two leaders of Christianity’s largest global communions were Read more
Mark your calendars: In 2025, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians may return to Nicaea, the spot in modern-day Turkey where Christianity was literally defined. In 325, early followers of Jesus came together to figure out what it means to be a Christian; the goal was to create theological consensus across all of Christendom. This Read more