This week – even as the world mourns the tragic loss of life in the unprecedented Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippine Islands – political leaders have converged on Warsaw, Poland, in yet another anticipated meeting on climate change. Concerned citizens throughout the world are hoping and praying for prompt and practical results. The conference follows Read more
The Vatican has officially declared its intention to defeat the Church of England – not in a theological re-match nearly 500 years after they split, but on the cricket pitch The challenge was launched at the baptism of the St. Peter’s Cricket Club. Vatican officials said the league will be composed of teams of priests Read more
An English Catholic archbishop believes the Vatican may be willing to relax the circumstances for sharing Eucharist with members of other Christian denominations. Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham said that the 1993 Ecumenism Directory made certain relaxations in the rules for the sharing of Eucharist. “Given that that represents a change, and a very significant Read more
Last month The Fiji Council of Churches held its annual general meeting. It was six years in the making and the participants see it as a sign of the desire by many of the churches in Fiji to put aside the issues that had caused division in the past and start afresh. Members of the Read more
Pope Francis reaffirmed the commitment of the Catholic Church to ecumenical unity at a meeting with several dozen representatives of Christian churches and other world religions who had attended his inauguration. “For my part, I wish to assure, in the wake of my predecessors, the firm wish to continue on the path of ecumenical dialogue,” Read more
Leaders of Muslim, Jewish and other non-Catholic faiths are welcoming the election of Pope Francis, many expect improved interfaith relation. In an unprecedented event, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, will also attend Pope Francis’ installation Mass in Rome March 19. The appearance by the Ecumenical Patriarch, the “first among equals” of all the world’s Read more
Interchurch relations in Nigeria have been dealt a blow by the Catholic Church’s decision to indefinitely suspend its involvement in the nation’s 40-year-old ecumenical association. Catholic and Protestant churches formed the Christian Association of Nigeria to promote Christian unity and to speak with one voice on national issues. Catholic leaders have now decided to pull Read more
The task of evangelisation is closely linked to the work of ecumenism, Pope Benedict XVI has told participants in a plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. “We cannot follow a truly ecumenical path while ignoring the crisis of faith affecting vast areas of the world, including those where the proclamation of Read more
The latest meeting of the Anglican Roman Catholic Conference of Aotearoa New Zealand (ARCCANZ) took “Receptive Ecumenism” as it’s theme. The Receptive ecumenism process encourages each participant to openly put forward and discuss the most serious problems they are working through. Unlike earlier Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue which has focussed on doctrine, receptive ecumenism starts from Read more
Speaking at the Nikaean Club, an ecumenical organisation overseen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity observed the two communions have the same theology, but a different ecclesiology. Adding that Anglo-Catholicism was so Catholic he wondered what was keeping Anglican clergy in the Church of England. Read more