Ecumenical relations mark MWC meetings

Miller Elizabeth slide

7.24. 2015 Written By: Gordon Houser, editor of The Mennonite, for Meetinghouse

Photo: Elizabeth Miller of the Moravian Church brings greetings. Photo by Dale Gehman.

During both morning and evening worship sessions on July 22 and 23 at the MWC Assembly in Harrisburg, Pa., representatives from various Christian communions brought greetings to MWC participants. Nearly all praised Mennonites for their long-standing peace witness.

In the morning worship on July 22, Gretchen Castle of the Friends World Committee for Consultation brought greetings. That evening, Larry Miller, former MWC General Secretary, brought greetings from the Global Christian Forum, followed by Monsignor Gregory Fairbanks of the Roman Catholic Church.

On July 23, greetings came from Elizabeth Miller of the Moravian Church and William Wilson of the Pentecostal World Fellowship in the morning, followed by Isabel Phiri of the World Council of Churches, Martin Junge of the Lutheran World Federation and Diop Ganoune of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the evening. Junge received sustained applause as he expressed gratitude for MWC extending forgiveness to Lutherans in 2010 for their treatment of Anabaptists in the past.

Several workshops also addressed ecumenical concerns. Jonathan Seiling and Fernando Enns led a July 22 workshop, “Introduction to Mennonites and Ecumenism,” which introduced the reasons and contexts in which Mennonites have entered into official dialogue with other Christian denominations.

That same day, Valerie Rempel led the workshop “The MWC-Seventh-day Adventist Dialogue,” which highlighted the outcomes of a dialogue that happened in 2011-12.

On July 23, Alfred Neufeld, John Rempel and Seiling led the workshop “Trilateral Dialogue: Catholics, Lutherans and Mennonite Conversations on Baptism,” which reported on dialogues between MWC and the Lutheran and Catholic churches, a five-year process that has dealt with the healing of memories, theologies and practices that separate us, the meaning and function of a sacrament and the problem of Christian initiation.

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Francis commemorates the reformer Jan Hus on the 600th anniversary of his death

Vatican City, 15 June 2015 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis received in audience the representatives of the Czech Hussite Church and the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, in Rome to celebrate a liturgy of reconciliation on the occasion of the 600 th anniversary of the reformer Jan Hus, distinguished preacher and rector of the University of Prague, whose execution was lamented by St. John Paul II in 1999, who included him among the reformers of the Church. Continue reading “Francis commemorates the reformer Jan Hus on the 600th anniversary of his death” →

Beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero hailed by ecumenical leaders

World Council of Churches, 28 May 2015

Leaders of churches and ecumenical organizations have expressed respect and appreciation following the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero on Sunday 24 May. In the Roman Catholic Church, beatification is a significant step in the process leading to canonization as a saint. Romero was murdered while presiding at Mass in San Salvador on 24 March 1980. He had been archbishop of the capital of El Salvador for three years.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, Roman Catholic prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, has been widely quoted as saying, “Romero, from heaven, wants every Salvadoran to walk the path of peace and justice.”

Continue reading “Beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero hailed by ecumenical leaders” →

Mennonite Daniel Hostetler becomes executive director of Parliament of the World’s Religions

Hostetler Daniel

4.14. 2015 Written By: Parliament of the World’s Religions

Daniel Hostetler, a member of Christ Community Mennonite Church in Schaumburg, Ill., is the new executive director of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He begins this role on April 20.

He is the first Anabaptist to hold this position and will be based in Chicago, Ill.

Since their first worldwide gathering, or “Parliament,” in the year 1893, the Parliament of the World’s Religions has sought to bring followers together in peace so that knowledge and acceptance of attendee’s diverse religious and cultural beliefs could reduce the ignorance and confusion that creates conflict.

See the full news story at The Mennonite and an introductory biography on the Parliament Blog.

The Ecumenical Review marks 50th anniversary of Second Vatican Council

22 January 2015 – World Council of Churches Press Centre

The current issue of The Ecumenical Review, a quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), takes as its theme “Vatican II in Retrospect.” Celebrating a half-century of dialogue emanating from the Second Vatican Council’s decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, central topics and operating methods of the council’s sessions are recalled by Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago, John Gibaut of the WCC commission on Faith and Order, and Oxford-based researcher Donald W. Norwood.

Additional features in The Ecumenical Review suggest further steps toward unity. In an appeal for continued inter-confessional commitment, Ernst M. Conradie advances an overture toward development of a truly ecumenical theology of creation. Member associations of the German East Asia Mission offer an open letter to Christians in Japan and South Korea, “Together on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” arising from the Just Peace in East Asia conference at Wittenberg, Germany in the autumn of 2014.

The “ecumenical chronicle” section of the journal reproduces a study document on inter-religious dialogue and cooperation that was accepted by the WCC central committee in July 2014: “Who Do We Say That We Are? Christian Identity in a Multi-religious World.” Following a series of consultations exploring Christian self-identity in relation to interactions with a series of other world religions, this major text “seeks to draw together the reflections and work of the last decade.”

For additional resources, visit the World Council of Churches.

Vatican and Lutheran World Federation to prepare common liturgies for 2017 commemoration of Protestant reformation

Mennonite – Lutheran reconciliation service in 2010 provided inspiration

(LWI) – Rev. Martin Junge, General Secretary of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) says relations between the Lutheran and Catholic churches have reached an epoch-making turning-point.

Speaking during a panel discussion, held 18 December, in the Lutheran church in Rome, Junge emphasized that the relationship between Lutherans and Catholics was being transformed “from conflict to communion.” Precisely in a world “in which religion and faith are regularly portrayed and perceived as trouble makers,” he said it was a phenomenal testimony that the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches continued to move “towards a profound communion that frees us to serve God and the world.” Continue reading “Vatican and Lutheran World Federation to prepare common liturgies for 2017 commemoration of Protestant reformation” →

Ecumenical friendship calls for solidarity with ancient Christian communities in Middle East

Christians gather for Evening Prayer outside St. Joseph’s Church in Erbil. (photo: Don Duncan, CNEWA)

Ecumenical friendship is not only about theological dialogue and common causes–it is also about solidarity in suffering, our calling to “bear one another’s burdens” in the body of Christ so that we might “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). The Catholic Near East Welfare Agency (CNEWA) is a Vatican agency that provides humanitarian and pastoral support for the Eastern Catholic churches. CNEWA works in Eastern Europe, Northeast Africa and throughout the Middle East. A key area of CNEWAs work has been supporting seminaries and training catechists in some of the oldest Christian communities that are struggling to survive in challenging conditions.

This year the church marks Advent and Christmas while many thousands of Catholic Christians have been displaced by expanding war in northern Iraq. They are waiting and wondering whether they will ever be able to return home. Their story is told in an article titled “Exodus” in the magazine ONE, published by CNEWA. Here’s a brief sample:

At night, above this landscape of abjection reigns a scattering of glimmering crosses. On the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, celebrated on 14 September, Iraqi Christians erect illuminated crosses on top of their buildings and leave them there for several weeks. The crosses they left behind in Qaraqosh and Bartella have most likely been taken down or destroyed, but crosses seem to have redoubled across the recently overpopulated Christian enclaves of Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the presence of the crosses certainly brings hope to the faithful, the harsh reality grinds on: It has been months since their expulsion and they are still languishing in churches, tents, abandoned basements, unfinished buildings, repurposed schools and social centers.”

For the full story click here

Pope Francis: “War is never necessary, nor is it inevitable.”

Vatican City, 8 September 2014 (VIS) – This Sunday the Holy Father sent a video message to all the representatives of the Christian Churches, ecclesial communities and all heads of world religions who will meet in the Belgian city of Antwerp from 7 to 9 September for the International Meeting for Peace organised by the Sant’Egidio Community. This year’s theme, “Peace is the Future”, commemorates the dramatic outbreak of the First World War one hundred years ago, and evokes a future in which mutual respect, dialogue and cooperation will help banish the sinister phantom of armed conflict.

“In these days, in which many people throughout the world need help to find the way to peace, this anniversary teaches us that war is never a satisfactory means of redressing injustice or reaching balanced solutions to social and political discord. In the final analysis every war, as Pope Benedict XV stated in 1917, is a ‘useless massacre’. War drags populations into a spiral of violence that is then shown to be difficult to control; it demolishes what generations have worked to build and paves the way for injustice and even worse conflicts.”

Pope Francis stressed that “we cannot remain passive” when faced with “the innumerable conflicts and wars, declared and undeclared, that nowadays afflict the human family and ruin the lives of the youngest and of the elderly, poisoning long-standing relationships of co-existence between different ethnic groups and religions.” He remarked that with the power of prayer “our various religious traditions are able, in the spirit of Assisi, to offer a contribution to peace. … I hope that these days of prayer and dialogue will serve to remind us that the search for peace and understanding through prayer can create lasting bonds of unity and prevail over the passions of war. War is never necessary, nor is it inevitable. There is always an alternative: the path of dialogue, encounter and the sincere search for truth.”

“The moment has arrived for the heads of all religions to cooperate effectively in the task of healing wounds, of resolving conflicts and seeking peace. Peace is the sure sign of commitment to God’s cause.” The Pontiff concluded by encouraging all those present to be “builders of peace” and to convert communities into “schools of respect and dialogue with those of other ethnic or religious groups, places in which we learn to overcome tensions, promote equitable and peaceful relations among peoples and social groups, and build a better future for the generations to come.”

On the journey with Lutheran brothers and sisters: an interview with John D. Roth

By Andre Gingerich Stoner

At its most recent meeting, the Executive Board asked Ervin Stutzman, executive director, to send a letter of greeting and Christian friendship to Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The letter recounts with gratitude the remarkable developments in Mennonite-Lutheran relations in the past fifteen years. It acknowledges ways Anabaptists, too, have at times misrepresented Lutherans and Lutheran practices.

Further, the letter responds to occasional informal questions from Lutheran leaders as to whether Mennonites regard Lutherans as fully part of the body of Christ. Finally it affirms the current three-way dialogue on baptism between Mennonite World Conference, the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican.

John Roth, professor of history at Goshen (Ind.) College, was part of the formal dialogue with Lutherans both on behalf of Mennonite Church USA and later Mennonite World Conference. We have asked him to reflect on the content and the significance of the recent letter sent on behalf of Mennonite Church USA to Presiding Bishop Eaton of the ELCA.

See the interview here.