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Report on Dialogue With Reformed World Alliance For relations with the Christians of the Reformed tradition, the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity is in continuing
contact with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) which has
headquarters in Geneva. The Alliance includes more than two hundred and
fifteen churches of various traditions—reformed,
presbyterian, congregationalist, and some united, including some
70,000,000 Christians from every continent, the majority from the so
called "third world" countries.
The Kingdom of God as principle of action on behalf of justice, peace
and integrity
During the past year, the third phase of international dialogue
between the Catholic Church and the Alliance continued, holding its
fourth meeting, this time in Cape Town, South Africa, 22-28 August 2001.
It continued its joint study of the notion of the Kingdom of God and
ways in which this notion might assist Reformed and Catholics in finding
further common ground in ecclesiology, and motivation for common
witness. In previous sessions, the dialogue has heard papers addressing
biblical, and theological insights about the notion of the Kingdom of
God. And one of the papers in Cape Town included a treatment of the
Kingdom of God in ecumenical dialogues. A unique feature of this meeting
was that taking advantage of the South African situation it emphasized a
contextual aspect, by asking for papers from South African Theology, one
Catholic and one Reformed on the following theme: "What does it
mean that the Church is the instrument of the Kingdom of God in the
South African context", relating to both the apartheid and the post
apartheid periods. This brought valuable perspectives into the
exploration of the Kingdom of God. The meeting also took up again
discussion of a theme describing the kingdom of God as "principle
of action on behalf of justice, peace and integrity of creation"
which had begun in a previous session. There will probably be two more
sessions of this phase, leading to a report on what this dialogue has
accomplished.
Indulgences are seen as a point of division in Reformed-Catholic
relations
But two other important meetings took place. One, concerning the
question of indulgences, called to mind one issue which was a source of
serious conflict at the Reformation and is still unsettled. The other
reflected progress in the ecumenical movement. It concerned the
challenge of building on the ecumenical breakthrough of the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, by exploring
the question of whether other Christian world communions could adhere to
the consensus on justification achieved together in dialogue and
officially accepted by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic
Church.
Concerning indulgences the PCPCU, the WARC and the LWF at the
invitation of Bishop Walter Kasper, then Secretary of the PCPCU,
organized a two-day consultation on that theme which took place in Rome
9-10 February 2001. Six persons from each of the three bodies took part.
It was occasioned by events related to the celebration of the Great
Jubilee 2000. The Jubilee included (as usual) for Catholics the
traditional usage of indulgences under the proper conditions. But the
Jubilee celebrations in Rome also included important ecumenical events.
A major ecumenical celebration was the opening of the Holy Door of the
Basilica of St Paul-Outside-the-Walls, by the Pope, together with the
representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Archbishop of
Canterbury, in an ecumenical service on 18 January 2000 to which leaders
of all the Christian world Communions were invited. Since the Jubilee
Year, as every Holy Year, included the practice of indulgences, which,
from the perspective of ecumenism is an unresolved ecumenical issue,
very much related to serious conflicts at the Reformation, the WARC did
not feel it possible to accept the invitation to the event just
mentioned. Some Lutherans also asked whether indulgences might not clash
with the consensus achieved in the Joint Declaration in the Doctrine
of Justification. It was therefore necessary to discuss this
question.
Clarification helps to put aside misunderstandings about Indulgences
The objective of the consultation was not to try to resolve, in a
two-day meeting, the long standing differences about indulgences. The
consultation was seen as an initial step, to help to begin to put aside
misunderstandings. It was especially important for Catholics to state
clearly from an historical and a theological perspective the teaching of
the Catholic Church on indulgences, including the limits of indulgences,
and this was done in two presentations. Reformed and Lutheran scholars
also presented papers indicating the way this issue was seen from
their perspectives. The meeting, co-chaired by Bishop Kasper and the
General Secretaries of the LWF and WARC, Dr Ishamel Noko and Dr Setri
Nyomi, respectively, was conducted in a very cordial atmosphere. No
statement was published at the conclusion of the meeting except a
communiqué giving a basic description of the meeting (see PCPCU Information
Service 106, 2001/I pp. 28-29). But the papers given at the meeting
will be published with the hope that they will be discussed
within the three Christian families. After this initial step, the three
co-sponsors are willing to consider another meeting in the future if
this would be useful. The issues involving indulgences still need
to be clarified and hopefully reconciled, among Christians.
Joint Declaration is a sign of progress on the ecumenical front
The second meeting took place in Columbus, Ohio, 26 November - 1
December 2001. The PCPCU and LWF together invited the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council to a consultation to
discuss the question of whether the Reformed and Methodist communions
could somehow adhere, if they wished, to the consensus on justification
found in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification officially
signed and accepted in 1999 in Augsburg by Lutherans and Catholics. The
World Methodist Council had signaled its interest already when attending
the Augsburg signing. Various Reformed voices raised the question of
Reformed participation even before 1999 when the Joint Declaration project
was in process. A consultation was therefore called to explore this
question. This was a meeting of theologians to sort out the issues and
not a meeting of the respective church authorities and decision makers.
The result was the decision that a consultative process will be
continued by Reformed, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists on this
question. The matter, therefore, is still under study. (Communiqué Information
Service 107 2001/ IV).
The implications for ecumenical progress here should be noted. Not so
long ago, churches stemming from the Reformation, such as the Lutheran
and the Reformed would have simply been together on one side of the
ecumenical dialogue and the Catholic Church on the other. In this
instance Lutherans and Catholics, who after decades of dialogue, having
achieved and declared in 1999 a basic consensus on the doctrine of
justification, a central issue of conflict at the Reformation, have
together invited Reformed and Methodists to explore whether they can
agree in some way with the core of this consensus. It illustrates the
effectiveness of dialogue and the somewhat changing ecumenical scene.
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