Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam DeVille
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Geographical Scope ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The chapter traces developments in ecclesiology through the twentieth century, as the ecumenical movement unfolded, and raises questions about the relationship between the church and the communion of the Persons of the Trinity, and about the nature of the Church as eucharistic and sacramental. Further more practical questions about authority, primacy, and synodality (or conciliarity) are also examined in light of the work of multilateral ecumenical dialogues (especially within the World Council of Churches), and bilateral dialogues, particularly the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the international Roman Catholic–Orthodox theological dialogue. Considerable progress has been made on all these questions, but new issues have recently arisen, and these are briefly treated, including questions of imperfect communion, of the ordination of women and of those in same-sex relationships, and questions of geographical scope relative to jurisdiction and canonical territory.

Ecology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin W. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Local Churches ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

The chapter surveys the statements and initiatives on ecology developed within and issued by the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Roman Catholic Church. It finds care for creation to be a concern to which churches have responded both through individual initiatives and by ecumenical dialogue. It identifies 1989–1990 as a watershed when statements and initiatives began to develop ecological teachings centred on the creative activity of the Trinity, the responsibility of members of the church as stewards and priests of creation, and the centrality of prayer and liturgy—especially the Eucharist—in care for creation. Finally, it indicates avenues for further ecumenical dialogue and offers suggestions for action, focusing in particular on sacramentality and a sacramental view of the world, and highlighting the ecclesiological importance of contributions, initiatives, and statements from local churches.

“Although We Cannot Fully Meet” the Roman Catholic Response to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-267
Author(s):  
Peter R. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church

The publication of Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry by the World Council of Churches in 1982 was the culmination of more than fifty years of ecumenical discussion. The document was designed to elicit official comment from the churches involved in its production and also to involve a wide membership of the churches in the process of reception of the text by taking its insights into their spiritual, pastoral and theological life. This present article analyses the response of the Roman Catholic Church. The response is largely positive, but the methodology of the document reveals unresolved tensions concerning theological reformulation while the wider issue touching reception in the life of the Church is avoided.

The Protestant World and Mariology

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
George A. F. Knight
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Early Church ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church

In various parts of the Protestant world a re-examination of the question of Mariology has been entered upon. Now that we are in sincere dialogue with Rome, and Protestantism and Orthodoxy are united in fellowship in the World Council of Churches, it has become incumbent on Protestants to cease to be merely negative to the Mother of our Lord. Simply because our Roman Catholic brethren hold doctrines about her that Protestants do not appreciate does not mean that the Virgin Mary should have no theological significance for the Churches of the Reformation. Ten years ago an article from my pen, entitled ‘The Virgin and the Old Testament’, appeared inThe Reformed Theological Review(of Australia), Vol. XII, No. 1. That article was occasioned by an uneasy reaction to a reading of the section entitled ‘Mariology’ inWays of Worship, being the Report of a Theological Commission of Faith and Order in preparation for the Lund Conference of 1952. I acknowledge my indebtedness now to my former article, and thank the editor of theRTRfor permitting me to expand it here.The Protestant has to satisfy himself that any doctrine he holds is securely rooted in Scripture. For the early Church ‘Scripture’ meant only the Old Testament. And to it the Church undoubtedly turned as it sought to understand the place of the Virgin Mary in the Gospel it was preaching to Jews and Gentiles alike, and thus to understand her relationship to her Saviour Son.

Faith and Order

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Wainwright
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
Consensus Document ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church ◽  
Common Vision

Generically, ‘faith and order’ designates the contents of doctrinal belief and the patterns of social and governmental structure that mark the historically varied communities that claim the name and status of ‘church’. Concern with these closely connected areas has been central to the worldwide ecumenical movement since the early twentieth century. The chapter focuses on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, which has the overall aim of calling the churches to the goal of visible unity in order that the world may believe. It considers the activities and organization of the Commission, and various fruits of its work across a range of issues, including the apostolic faith, anthropological and moral issues, tradition, and ecclesiology. It particularly highlights the consensus document on ‘Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry’ (1982), and the process culminating in the report: ‘The Church: Towards a Common Vision’ (2013).

Is Christ Divided?

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Brian Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Common Strategy ◽  
World Council ◽  
Protestant Christians ◽  
The Church ◽  
India And China

This chapter examines the ecumenical movement. The twentieth century has sometimes been denominated by historians of Christianity as “the ecumenical century.” Narratives of the ecumenical movement typically begin with the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh in June of 1910, which assembled some 1,215 Protestant delegates from various parts of the globe to devise a more effective common strategy for the evangelization of the world. Viewed with the benefit of hindsight, the Edinburgh conference has been widely identified as the birthplace of the formal ecumenical movement. Without it, there would be no World Council of Churches. Yet serious attempts to bridge divisions between Protestant Christians were already under way in India and China before 1910. Furthermore, the World Missionary Conference was precisely that—a gathering of mission executives and missionaries convened to consider questions of missionary policy. Delegates represented missionary agencies rather than churches, and discussion of questions of doctrine and church order was forbidden, in deference to the Church of England, whose endorsement would not have been given if the conference had been expected to discuss matters of faith and order with Nonconformists. The chapter then looks at the failure and success of the ecumenical movement.

The Church: Towards a Common Vision

Exchange ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-249
Author(s):  
Radu Bordeianu
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Common Vision ◽  
The Way

The 2013 convergence document, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (ctcv) incorporates several aspects of the response of the Napa Inter-Orthodox Consultation to The Nature and Mission of the Church (nmc) which, as its subtitle suggests, was A Stage on the Way to a Common Statement, namely The Church. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox responders (jointly!) point to the imprecise use of the term, ‘church’, the World Council of Churches (wcc)’s understanding of ‘the limits of the Church’, and to the ‘branch theory’ implicit in nmc, an ecclesiology toned down in ctcv. Bordeianu proposes a subjective recognition of the fullness of the church in one’s community as a possible way forward. Simultaneously, Orthodox representatives have grown into a common, ecumenical understanding of the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the church’s work for justice; attentiveness to the role of women in the church; and accepting new forms of teaching authority in an ecumenical context. The positions of various churches are no longer parallel monologues, but reflect earnest change and convergence.

scholarly journals The Ecumenical Value of Comparative Church Law: Towards the Category of Christian Law

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (02) ◽  
pp. 135-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Doe
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Regulatory Systems ◽  
Global Christianity ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Common Action ◽  
Common Vision

This study explores juridical aspects of the ecclesiology presented in the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission Paper,The Church: Towards a Common Vision(2013). It does so in the context of systems of church law, order and polity in eight church families worldwide: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian and Baptist.Common Visiondoes not explicitly consider church law, order and polity or its role in ecumenism. However, many themes treated inCommon Visionsurface in church regulatory systems. This study examines how these instruments articulate the ecclesiology found inCommon Vision(which as such, de facto, offers juridical as well as theological principles), translate these into norms of conduct and, in turn, generate unity in common action across the church families. Juridical similarities indicate that the churches share common principles and that their existence suggests the category ‘Christian law’. While dogmas may divide the churches of global Christianity, the profound similarities between their norms of conduct reveal that the laws of the faithful, whatever their various denominational affiliations, link Christians through common forms of action. For this reason, comparative church law should have a greater profile in ecumenism today.1

Gospel and Culture: The WCC Project

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-207
Author(s):  
Paul G. Hiebert
Keyword(s):  
Study Groups ◽  
Cultural Pluralism ◽  
First Century ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has launched a major study project on the gospel and cultures resulting in the formation of study groups around the world and the publication of 15 study pamphlets that discuss how the gospel relates to different cultures. This article reviews the contents of these pamphlets around the themes of the gospel and cultural pluralism and the church and social pluralism. In evaluating these materials, it is noted that the tension between gospel and culture, revelation and hearing, divine and human is central to the Christian Faith. The WCC debate on the relationship of the gospel to cultures and the church to the world is an attempt to move ahead and chart a mission course for the twenty-first century.

Molanus, Lutheran Irenicist (1633–1722)

1953 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-218
Author(s):  
Samuel J. T. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Church

At the present time ideas of church reunion are current in many forms. Journals are appearing which are devoted exclusively to the exposition of dogmatic positions in an increasingly irenical light. Not the least important among these publications devoted to the expository method of clearing up possible areas of thought for reunion are Irenikon, produced by the Benedictines at Chevtogne, and Catholica, published at Münster under the auspices of Dr. Robert Grosche. Catholica has once again appeared after eleven years of virtual suspension and Dr. Grosche lauds the theologisches Gespräch “as the recognized way which can bring us nearer to the unity of the Church.” With respect to actual ecumenical meetings the Faith and Order Conference of the World Council of Churches met in Lund, Sweden, in 1952, and there Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and free church representatives, and even Roman Catholic observers, rubbed shoulders and discussed problems of ecclesiology with church unity as the ultimate goal.

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