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ECUMENISM-DIALOGUES Jan-19-2006 (420 words) With ECUMENISM-FUTURE. xxxi
Pope, church officials have full schedule of ecumenical events
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- By mid-January, Pope Benedict XVI and the Roman Catholic Church already had a full schedule of ecumenical events planned for 2006.
The Catholic-Orthodox international commission is scheduled to meet in September for the first time in six years. Commission members plan to return to the theological discussion of church authority and primacy abandoned in the 1990s as Catholics and Orthodox struggled to overcome tensions caused by the renewed life and activity of the Eastern Catholic churches after the fall of communism.
While the Anglican Communion continues to deal with internal tensions created by differences over homosexuality and the Church of England -- the Anglican mother church -- considers ordaining women bishops, Vatican officials said contacts would continue, although both issues raise questions for possible unity.
However, the official launching of a new phase of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission will have to await a decision by the Anglicans' Lambeth Conference, scheduled to meet in 2008.
The Catholic-Lutheran dialogue is nearing completion of a document on "the apostolicity of the church," looking at the continuation of church teaching and tradition from the time of the apostles. The document had been scheduled for completion last fall, but after Lutherans and members of some Reformed churches entered into eucharistic sharing agreements in Germany, new questions arose about the need for an ordained minister to preside at the Eucharist.
The Catholic-Methodist dialogue is scheduled to finish work by July on a statement about how far each community can go in recognizing the church of God present in each other. The World Methodist Council also is scheduled to vote in July on formally adopting the 1999 Catholic-Lutheran agreement on justification.
The Catholic Church and a group of Pentecostal churches are working on a document explaining what both mean by "baptism of the Holy Spirit" and its role in the salvation of individual Christians.
While the dialogues continue and several of them prepare to complete important documents, the highlight in ecumenical relations for the Catholic Church in 2006 is expected to be Pope Benedict's planned November meeting with Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
The pope hopes to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, for the feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of the patriarchate.
Addressing the cardinals who elected him, Pope Benedict had said that in the search for Christian unity, "concrete gestures that enter hearts and stir consciences are essential, inspiring in everyone that inner conversion that is the prerequisite for all ecumenical progress."
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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