Ecumenical Updates #10
A Service of the Washington Theological Consortium
Rev. Dr. John W. Crossin, OSFS
July 10, 2001

Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon Professor of Mission and Peace at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis and General Secretary of the Consultation on Church Union offers his TOP 10 "Challenges Ahead for the Churches and the Ecumenical Movement." [Ecumenical Trends, May 2001, 74-78]. His top three are:

3. The challenge of nurturing in a new generation
of clergy and lay leaders a passion for ecumenism
and a vision of the church's wholeness.

2. The challenge of expanding the circle of
participants in the ecumenical movement.

1. The most pressing challenge before us is the
need to recover and proclaim with passionate
conviction the gospel-based vision of unity in
Christ that has historically been at the heart
of this movement.

In "Reviving an ancient practice: The office of prayer," Arthur Paul Boers offers an interesting ecumenical review of recent bookson daily offices. He believes "The current interest in spirituality is breaking down traditional dividing lines between Christians. People from various Protestant traditions have been turning to the wisdom found in the pre- Reformation church (East and West), in Franciscan spirituality, in Celtic Christianity and in the writings of various mystics." [CHRISTIAN CENTURY, March 21-28, 2001, pp. 14-17]

Dr. Wolfgang Vondey presented his paper "Appeal for a Pentecostal Council for Ecumenical Dialogue" to the Society for Pentecostal Studies this past March [Mid- Stream, 40/3, July, 2001, pp. 45-56]. He discusses at some length an "Ecumenism of Pentecost." He concludes that "A Pentecostal Council for Ecumenical Dialogue will provide a new and vital opportunity for ecumenical discussion among both Pentecostal and other churches. It will give a voice to the ecumenical silence of the Pentecostal movement."

There is a spate of new offerings on authority in the churches. There is an article by Aldelbert Denaux, Catholic member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, on "Authority in the Church: A Challenge for both Anglicans and Roman Catholics"; in the April issue of Ecumenical Trends and articles by Sister Sara Butler (Roman Catholic) and Rev. Dr. Ruth A. Meyers (Anglican) in the June 2001 issue of Ecumenical Trends on The Gift of Authority: New Steps in Anglican/Roman Catholic Relations.

George Weigel's Erasmus lecture, "Papacy and Power," contends that the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom, "made possible the emergence of the Catholic Church as an assertive, effective proponent of basic human rights." [First Things, February 2001, pp. 18-25]. An ecumenical group of scholars respond to this lecture in "The Future of the Papacy: A Symposium" in the March issue of First Things [pp. 28-28].

John P. Burgess of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary reviews a recent book on Cardinal Ratzinger in the May 9, 2001 issue of the CHRISTIAN CENTURY. Interestingly, he says that "[Cardinal]Ratzinger forces us to ask whether we can really live disciplined Christian lives unless the church has meaningful ways to exercise discipline;....whether we have any business doing theology unless we believe that God has revealed a truth to us from beyond ourselves, to which we must conform our lives." He goes on to say that "Perhaps the trouble with [Cardinal] Ratzinger's thinking lies not in its strong conviction that the world is fallen but in its failure to acknowledge just how fallen the church is."