Ecumenical Update
21 June 2009
The latest news from the Clifton Diocese Ecumenical Commission. Chair Anne Doyle writes for cliftondiocese.com.
The last month has been quite a busy period. First the trip to Rome to speak to a group of students doing a course on ecumenism at the Gregorian University. My task was to give practical advice on building relationships and working with ecumenical partners in a parish. There were 33 students on the course, Americans, English, Scots, African and Egyptian. A diverse group - however building relationships and making friends is the same the world over. I stayed at the English College and also took a tutorial with first year students. Rome is wonderful but 35 degrees Celsius was a bit much.
The Roman Catholic / United Reformed Church Dialogue meeting was at the end of May. The topic was conscience and led to a wide ranging discussion. The Bishops’ Conference has appointed Bishop Declan to be in charge of International Affairs so sadly he will be leaving us as Co-Chair. Hopefully another Co-Chair will be appointed before long.
The Committee for Christian Unity met with diocesan representatives at the weekend and had the final discussion on the leaflets on practical ecumenism. These leaflets are aimed at parish teams, committees and groups, enabling them to be more effective in the parish’s involvement in ecumenism.
Leaflet 1 is Together in Christ - growing together in unity as Christians which is an introduction to the leaflets
Leaflet 2 is New Directions - suggestions for an audit of where the parish is ecumenically
Leaflet 3 is Exploring together what we believe
Leaflet 4 is Prayer and Worship Together
Leaflet 5 is Together in Mission
Leaflet 6 is Working Together for the Common Good
Leaflet 7 is a list of resources and ideas for further reading
Leaflets 2 to 6 will have the following format:
Introduction,
Ask yourselves - what are we doing already
How about -practical suggestions of things to do
Resources for the topic.
They will be available in late autumn and can be downloaded from the Bishops’ Conference website. I hope that our diocesan commission will be able to send a copy to every parish.
Last month's ecumenical update is still online.
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