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NAAE E-Newsletter, January 31, 2014

Mitzi J. Budde

It is truly an exciting time for ecumenists again. We see aresurgence of hope and enthusiasm with fresh winds of the Spiritblowing in the papacy. The maturing of various Protestant bilateralrelationships is bringing about deepening mission and creative jointministries. Renewed conversations are taking place between the Orthodoxand Catholicism. The World Evangelical Alliance, the World Council ofChurches, and the Vatican, who together represent over 90 percent of theworld’s total Christian population, have released a joint document on Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct. Collaborative and cooperative ecumenical work is spreading across the churches.

At the same time, we live in a time of reinvigoratedinternational religious violence and persecution. Pope Francis hasspoken of “the ecumenism of blood”that binds Christians of all persuasions who are facing religiousviolence. The pope’s assertion that “Unity is a gift that we need to askfor” calls us all to fervent prayer for peace and justice, dialogue andwitness.

I commend to you a new resource for ecumenical educationjust released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office forEcumenical and Interfaith Relations.  On the Path to Christian Unityis a series of  fourteen 4-minute online videos that address topicsincluding friendship as the foundation of ecumenism, ecumenicalfamilies, grassroots ecumenism, dialogue, culture and ecumenism, andprayer. The USCCB also provides a helpful discussion and study guide.

Thanks to our past president, Sr. Dr. Lorelei Fuchs, theNorth American Academy of Ecumenists had a stimulating conference on“The Emerging Face of Being One” in Chicago September 27-29, 2013. Theabstracts of the papers in this e-news are intended to whet yourappetite for the full papers, which will be published in a forthcomingissue of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

Mark your calendars now for September 26-28, 2014! Theannual conference will be held in Burbank, CA, jointly sponsored by theNorth American Academy of Ecumenists and the Southern CaliforniaEcumenical Council’s Faith and Order Commission. The presenters willdiscuss the new WCC ecclesiology document The Church: Towards a Common Visionand include the Rev. Canon Dr. John Gibaut, Director of the WCC Faithand Order Commission, and the Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall, Professor ofChurch History and Ecumenics at St. Andrew's College (Saskatoon). TheWestern Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America will host theevent at the St. Leon Armenian Cathedral in Burbank, and His EminenceArchbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate, will be our banquet speaker.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve as President of theNorth American Academy of Ecumenists. I hope that you will join us inBurbank next September!