Shifts in Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Ecclesiology from 1965 to 2006

Ecclesiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fahey
Keyword(s):  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
World Council ◽  
Select Bibliography ◽  
Communion Ecclesiology ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

AbstractDrawing upon his thirty years experience of teaching ecclesiology, the author tries to identify some developments and paradigm shifts he recognizes as having influenced theological reflection on the Church in Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant contexts. He contrasts the present-day situation of Catholics to the isolationist doldrums that characterized the post-Modernist and pre-Vatican II eras. The impact of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches was already notable when Catholics belatedly began to participate in ecumenical dialogue. Various advances in ecclesiology can be identified, especially the use of 'communion' ecclesiology. Negatively, the achievements of ecumenical exchanges are little known by the faithful and rarely cited by church leaders. Canonical regulations especially affecting eucharistic hospitality do not take into consideration the doctrinal consensuses that have emerged. A select bibliography is appended.

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.

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.

The Impact of Non-Roman Catholic Observers at Vatican II

Ecclesiology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
Donald W. Norwood
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church ◽  
Domestic Affair

Not all accounts of Vatican II, 1962–65, recognize that the 200 carefully selected non-Roman Catholic Observers had a considerable influence on the Council and on its major documents about the Church, Church unity, liturgy, the Jews and religious freedom. Their impact is assessed both by Roman Catholic theologians like Congar and Willebrands and Observers such as Bishop Moorman and Robert McAfee Brown together with comments Karl Barth later made on some of the documents in his discussions with Pope Paul VI and others, including Ratzinger and Rahner in Rome. An attempt is made to explain how the Observers had the influence they did. One conclusion is that they helped the Council evolve from what could have been a purely domestic affair and a rubber-stamping exercise dealing with 70 documents, already prepared by the Curia, and Commissioners appointed by the Pope, into a genuinely ecumenical, deliberative, debating and decision-making council of the worldwide Church.

Pivotal Years: 1948–1965

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorelei Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

The chapter considers key ecumenical developments in the period 1948–65, between the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the closing of the Second Vatican Council, at which the Catholic Church finally embraced the ecumenical movement. Explaining how that period can be seen as pivotal in the history of the movement, it tracks the developing understanding of the ecumenical challenge reflected in successive assemblies of the WCC and conferences on Faith and Order, both at world level and in North America, and the growing desire for Catholic engagement in the ecumenical movement manifested particularly in the activities of the Catholic Conference for Ecumenical Questions. It then considers the teaching of Vatican II on ecumenism, for example, regarding degrees of communion, and the impact of Catholic participation on the ecumenical movement, notably in the practice of bilateral dialogues.

Evangelization from the Inside: Reflections from a Prison Cell

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mortimer Arias
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
La Paz ◽  
Methodist Church ◽  
Executive Secretary ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church

The military coup in Bolivia on July 17, 1980 initiated a bloody and repressive situation in that country. It brought about the arrest and imprisonment in late August of former Methodist Bishop Mortimer Arias in Cochabamba, Bolivia—along with many other Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders, as well as countless lesser-known individuals. After thirty-seven days—during which time little was known by his family, friends, and church of his whereabouts and condition—Dr. Arias was suddenly released by the Bolivian authorities on condition that he leave the country immediately. Born in Uruguay, Mortimer Arias served as bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia, and as executive secretary of the Council of Methodist Churches in Latin America, with offices in La Paz, Bolivia. Widely respected for his leadership in the ecumenical movement, Dr. Arias gave a memorable plenary address at the Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Nairobi, 1975) in which he called for a renewed recognition of evangelism as “an essential priority.” Renewal of the church, he said on that occasion, “does not come before mission but in mission.” He has served on previous occasions as visiting professor of evangelism both at Bostom University School of Theology and at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. In January 1981 Dr. Arias was appointed Professor of Mission and Evangelism at the School of Theology in Claremont, California. Upon his arrival in the United States, the International Bulletin invited Dr. Arias to share with our readers an account of his experience while in prison.

scholarly journals A Decade of Ecumenical Dialogue on Canon Law

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-328
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Church Law

In the decades that followed the close of the Second Vatican Council, great progress was made in the dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church. During that period, the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) was founded in 1967 by Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Michael Ramsey). The rich and common heritage shared by Anglicans and Roman Catholics found expression in the work and statements of ARCIC. In the background was the work of theologians, historians, liturgists and Scripture scholars, and many relationships were being cultivated locally in dioceses and parishes around the world. While the possible significance of Church law had been recognised in the 1974 World Council of Churches Report, Christian Unity and Church Law, there has been no sustained discussion of canon law in the work of ARCIC.

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.

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

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