Tag: Ecumenical news

Mennonite-Catholic dialogue featured in ecumenical conference

The recent Mennonite-Catholic dialogue will be among the projects discussed at an upcoming ecumenical conference in St. Paul, MN.  Hosted by Saint Paul Seminary, “A Century of Ecumenism” will be held June 17-19.  The conference is organized by Monsignor John Radano, Vatican staff person for the Mennonite-Catholic dialogue.

From the conference website:

The goal of this seminar is to concentrate the attention of scholars on an assessment of specific achievements of international dialogue. Special attention will be paid to international bilateral dialogues that began immediately after the Second Vatican Council involving the Catholic Church with many different churches and Christian World Communions, and the multilateral dialogue sponsored by the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order.

The conference schedule and brochure can be found here.

Resource for interchurch families

Follow this link to the website for the Association of Interchurch Families.  The organization “seeks to link all those families, groups, and Associations so that together we may grow in Christian unity, and become for our churches an ever-greater gift of healing of the scandal of disunity.

It takes seriously both our marriage commitment to one another and the fact that two churches are represented in our family; by affirming at local, national and global levels the gifts of interchurch families and their potential as a catalyst for wider church unity.”

The most recent newsletter can be found here.  Topics in this newsletter include “Spiritual Ecumenism in Interchurch Marital Spirituality” and “Interchurch Families: Domestic Churches.”

Bridgefolk co-sponsors ecumenical peace conference

Peace Among the Peoples is a gathering of ecumenically minded Christian peacemakers. This conference will be an opportunity to reflect on the future of ecumenical peacemaking in North America, and beyond. Bridgefolk is a co-sponsor of this conference.

In May 2011, the World Council of Churches will hold the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Kingston, Jamaica, culminating the 2001-2010 Decade to Overcome Violence program. The immediate objective of Peace Among the Peoples is to critically appropriate the agenda of the 2011 Convocation.

The meeting will include panel presentations from leading thinkers and activists, such as Stanley Hauerwas, Rita Nakashima Brock and Brian McLaren.

For more information, click here.

Recommended reading: “As Different as We Think: Catholics and Protestants”

Protestants and Catholics may use much the same vocabulary to express their respective beliefs and practices, but behind this common language lie different ways of thinking. Becoming aware of and paying attention to these differences is essential for fruitful ecumenical dialogue.

Bridgefolk board member Darrin Snyder Belousek calls our attention to a recent article in Books & Culture that explores those background assumptions in an especially succinct and helpful way. The full article is not available online, except to the magazine’s subscribers, but Darrin shares his summary below: Continue reading “Recommended reading: “As Different as We Think: Catholics and Protestants”” →

Catholic-Mennonite encuentro in Guatemala

COBAN, Guatemala – Local Catholics and Mennonites recently gathered in an unprecedented ecumenical meeting in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.  Among the participants were Rob and Tara Cahill, former workers with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Coban. Continue reading “Catholic-Mennonite encuentro in Guatemala” →

“Forgiving Lutherans could be a temptation for self-righteousness,” says Mennonite theologian

The request of our historic persecutors for forgiveness presents us Mennonites with a temptation and an opportunity, warns Jeremy Bergen, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont.  In response to a previous article in Canadian Mennonite, Bergen publsihed the following commentary on the magazine’s website. Continue reading ““Forgiving Lutherans could be a temptation for self-righteousness,” says Mennonite theologian” →

Mennonite Church Canada represented at Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

WINNIPEG, Manitoba —Mennonite Church Canada leaders gathered with those from other denominations on January 24/2010 for the opening service of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Among the other denominations represented  were Anglican, Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, United Church of Canada, Evangelical Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Salvation Army, Presbyterian and Ukrainian Orthodox. Continue reading “Mennonite Church Canada represented at Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” →

Sermon for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

A friend of Bridgefolk recommends a sermon preached at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on January 18 on the occasion of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Click here to read.

Excerpt:

The insight of our ecumenical pioneers in Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910 is that witness to the things of Christ’s resurrection will only be effective if Christians are united with one another, be it the churches Acting Together in Haiti this week and in the coming years, the churches responding to human division and unjust structures, the churches responding to the environmental crises, the churches responding to war and violence, the churches responding to cynicism and despair with the good news of the Gospel. In all these things, we bear witness to the Risen Christ, together.