On this date in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses, concerning failings he saw in the Church, on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire.

Bishop Whitfield and Cardinal Dew officially signed a document, Dialogue for Unity As Reformation Remembered, based on a statement recently issued in Australia.

In Australia, a Roman Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue team has been discussing ongoing issues for the past 30 years.

The Lutheran Church of New Zealand, as a District of the Lutheran Church of Australia, has been a party to this discussion.

The Lutheran and Catholic representatives on the New Zealand Dialogue Commission are now committed to studying the documents of the Australian Dialogue and presenting both the pastoral and theological fruit of the discussion to the Catholic and Lutheran churches in New Zealand.

In the document signed on Sunday, the two leaders encouraged the members of their churches to work for unity.

"Unity is indeed the gift of God and the will of Christ in whom all things hold together (cf Colossians 1:17).

"We gratefully acknowledge the unity we already share. Together we confess one faith, one Lord, one baptism.

"We encourage all members of our two communities, Roman Catholic and Lutheran, to hear God's call for continued transformation, meeting together whenever possible and witnessing the joy and power of the gospel in daily life."

The signing was followed by a service at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Wellington to mark the reformation.

Earlier this year, the Cardinal and Bishop Mark led an ecumenical worship service at Sacred Heart Cathedral attended by Catholic, Lutheran and several other Christian denominations, formally opening the New Zealand dialogue between the Catholic and Lutheran Churches.

Read the Statement

Source

Supplied New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference
Image: lcasynod.au/resources.stuff.co.nz/supplied

If it is also accepted by the Lutheran bishops at their meeting in Lae on 10-14 June 2013, plans may be made to formally launch it in March 2014.

Bishop Bill Fey, the Deputy Bishop for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands says The Catholic Ecumenical and Interreligious Commission has been in existence for many years. There has been ongoing dialogue with the Anglican Church in PNG.

Since 2000 there has also been dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in PNG. This led to the signing of an agreement on baptism in 2003 between the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in PNG.

Further dialogue meetings with the Anglicans led to an agreed statement on marriage that was signed by bishops of the two Churches. Further meetings with the Lutherans led us to also talk about marriage.

The draft Statement on marriage covers the theology of human sexuality and marriage.

It confirms the traditional Christian stance that:

• The couple must have achieved a mutual consent to live as husband and wife until the death of one or the other.
• Unless there is a special exemption, both Churches require of their members that this act of accepting each other be witnessed by an official minister of the respective Church.
• Married love is only possible between one man and one woman.
• Marriage commitment points to the love of Christ who bound himself in an irrevocable covenant to his Church and that therefore it is meant to be permanent and faithful.

The statement acknowledges that further discussion is required regarding "our understanding of marriage as a divinely instituted means of grace, the morality of contraception, appropriate ways to respond to the HIV-AIDS pandemic, divorce, annulment and remarriage, factors such as consanguinity of a certain degree that invalidate a marriage, required permissions to have a Lutheran/Catholic mixed marriage, as well as the baptism of children of polygamous or broken marriages or of couples living together without marriage."

Source

• The Bishops' Conference of PNG and SI
• The Bishops' Conference of PNG and SI
• Image: Anglican Diocese of Niagara