scholarly journals The mystery and the unity of the Church: Considerations from an Eastern Orthodox perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolae V. Mosoiu
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Mutual Knowledge ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
World Council ◽  
Divine Life ◽  
The One ◽  
World Mission ◽  
The Church

This article attempts an approach to discuss the mystery and the unity of the church and firstly, it underlined that the church cannot have a formal definition as the divine life extended from Christ’s resurrected body into those who believe and receive the Holy Mysteria. At the same time, the process of becoming part of the church is a mystical one. In order for life in Christ to be possible, Christ must be formed in the human being. Becoming a Christian is described in terms specific to the process of birth (cf. Gl 4:19), its end being the formation of Christ in us. Then, the theme of unity is dealt with from an Eastern Orthodox perspective, not in isolation, but in connection with the Roman Catholic, Protestant and ecumenical concerns for unity and collaboration amongst Christians. The cosmic unifying vocation of the church was accomplished because of the five syntheses realised by her Head, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Then there are references to the Theotokological aspect of the church, Holy Baptism as the bond of church unity; Holy Eucharist as the Mysterion of ecclesial unity, the ministry of the bishop for unity and the unity of Christians in the one Church.Contribution: The author, having experience in ecumenical dialogues as a former member of the Commmission on World Mission and Evangelism and, at present, of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, tried to offer a balanced perspective on the sensitive theme of the unity of the Christians in the one Church, referring to some of the main relevant sources, which facilitate dialogue, mutual knowledge and collaboration.

Porto Alegre 2006: Called to be the One Church: Ecumenism beyond its Crisis?

Exchange ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Houtepen
Keyword(s):  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The One ◽  
Economic Injustice ◽  
The Church

AbstractFrom 9-23 February 2006 the World Council of Churches held its 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brasil with the theme God, in your grace, transform the world. It gathered in an atmosphere of crisis in the ecumenical movement, caused by global political and religious developments, post-modern thinking on the value of plurality and difference and by the slow reception of ecumenical agreements. The Assembly, though, became a sign of hope beyond the ecumenical crisis. Its reflections and proposals on Globalisation and economic injustice, on Christian identity and religious plurality and on Church Unity and the Mission of the Church demonstrate a matured ecumenical and ecclesiological awareness, strengthened by a new method of decision-making by consensus. The document Called to be the one Church might be seen as the constitutional basis for a reconfiguration of the ecumenical movement and as a refinement of the Toronto Declaration of 1950. It formulates a matrix of catholicity and of a legitimate diversity of church forms within an essential convergence about its structures of continuity and mission.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

Where We Dwell in Common

Horizons ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (02) ◽  
pp. 332-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Haight
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
The Many ◽  
Common Understanding ◽  
The Church

The great surge of Christian missionary activity during the course of the nineteenth century elicited a new concern for church unity. Was this missionary activity, after all, spreading division? In 1910 representatives of Protestant churches came together to respond to that question in Edinburgh at The World Missionary Conference. The conference in its turn channeled the concern to the sending churches. Although somewhat slowed down by World War I, the ecumenical movement grew and was punctuated by landmark events in The Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work (Stockholm, 1925) and The World Conference of Faith and Order (Lausanne, 1927). The report of this second conference included a description of what the churches assembled in their representatives shared in common and the many things that distinguished and sometimes divided them. When the World Council of Churches came into existence in August of 1948, the Faith and Order movement was integrated into it as a distinct agency whose concern was the doctrinal unity of the churches. Its signal achievement thus far has been the document entitled Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry, frequently referred to as the Lima document, which sketches a proposal for a common understanding of these three aspects of the church across the churches. This document is the best example of what I will call “transdenominational ecclesiology,” and the fact that it has received so much attention from the churches indicates that it plays some important role in the whole church.

Mission and Evangelism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale T. Irvin
Keyword(s):  
Missio Dei ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Ecumenical Movement ◽  
World Council ◽  
Evangelical Protestants ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
International Missionary Council ◽  
World Mission ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church

From its inception, the modern ecumenical movement has entailed the twin pursuits of realizing both the unity and the mission of the church. Moreover, mission and evangelism were closely related in twentieth-century ecumenical thought. The main ecumenical institutional structure that advanced the churches’ understanding of mission and evangelism for much of the century was the International Missionary Council, which in 1961 became the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism within the World Council of Churches. By the end of the 1960s, Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants were also making major contributions to the broader ecumenical understanding of mission and evangelism. Enduring theological achievements including the concept of the missio Dei and the contextualization of theology remain a part of the overall legacy of the ecumenical movement.

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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