Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore offers a very positive "Ecumenical Vision for the Future" in an address given on September 6, 2001. [Ecumenical Trends, November 2001, 149-152,157]. He contends that "The full communion realized between the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the three Reformed Churches, the Moravian Church, and now the Episcopal Church,while raising certain questions, demonstrates an ecumenical vitality and concern. These developments offer a challenge to any who would consider ecumenism moribund, or the technical theological work esoteric or divorced from mission."

"Guilt and complexity: the Holocaust's lessons for the church," [Christian Century, October 10, 2001, pp 26-31].Victoria Barnett offers a quite lucid view of the controversies surrounding the holocaust and Pope Pius XII. "One thing that may be lacking from the debate is a greater sense of perspective." She seeks to provide such perspective in her review of some recent books on the topic.

Professor John H. Erickson, Associate Dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, offers a sobering and detailed assessment of Orthodox participation in ecumenism in his “Retreat from Ecumenism in Post-Communist Russia and Eastern Europe.” [Ecumenical Trends, October 2001, pp. 129-38.] “The 1990's saw a significant Orthodox retreat from ecumenical involvement--or at least a rethinking of ecumenical involvement....And this retreat shows no signs of abating in the 2000s.”

In a provocative article entitled “Eucharistic Sharing: Recent Developments” in the same issue of Ecumenical Trends [pp. 139-144], Ernest Falardeau discusses “the present status of the Catholic Church on the subject of eucharistic sharing with special emphasis on recent developments.” Among other things, he contends that “The Eucharist as means to unity has largely been either ignored or underestimated by the Catholic Church.”

In an editorial contrary to much public thinking [December, 2001, 11-17], the editors of First Things offer a number of thought-provoking points such as: “President Bush is right to insist that this is not a war of religion, even if that may be more wish than fact....Like it or not, and we decidedly do not like it, we are engaged in a war that can be defined in many ways, but is also and inescapably a war of religion.”

The Consortium celebration for the 2002 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will take place at Washington Theological Union on Tuesday, January 22 at 7:30 PM. Fr. Ron Roberson, CSP of the Ecumenical Affairs Office of the Catholic Bishops will preach.