Folks, accorcing to Ekklesia News Service:Posted on 01/16/2006 2:59:19 PM PST by Teófilo
Folks, accorcing to Ekklesia News Service:
Pope Benedict XVI has praised dialogue with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), saying the dialogue is helping to surmount "tragic divisions" between Christians going back to the 16th century Protestant Reformation, writes Stephen Brown for Ecumenical News International.Commentary. Hmmm. This should come as shocking news for the most adamant anti-Catholic militants and apologists who in their majority hail from this branch of Protestantism, spanning the range from the very thoughtful to the most fanatical.The Pope was speaking at the Vatican a week ago to a delegation of the Geneva-based alliance led by its president, the Rev Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
"I pray that our meeting today will itself bear fruit in a renewed commitment to work for the unity of all Christians," said Benedict, who declared after his election in April that promoting Christian unity would be his "primary task".
WARC groups more than 200 Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed and United churches, whose roots go back to the 16th-century Reformation which broke with the Roman Catholic Church and whose leaders included John Calvin, the Geneva-based theologian, among others.
I wonder what kind of impact the "new partnership" will have on such people. I dare say none. Pretty soon we will be hearing their condemnations and their charges of "apostasy." It is so predictable is boring.
But I don't want to end this post on such a sour note. The Holy Spirit bids to be open and optimistic. Christ prayed that we "should all be one," as He and the Father are One. Christ never prayed in vain. Let's watch these developments with humble, joyful expectation as a sign of what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
PING!
This should be fun...
Teó:
I think you'll find that Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick is from one of the liberal, mainline Protestant Churches which is moving towards open communion, gay ministers and gay marriage. Rev. Kirkpatrick's understanding of The Church and that of the Pope, I suspect, are as fundamentally different as those beteen Rev. Kilpatrick and our Calvinist Freepers.
Actually it comes as no surprise to me at all. I have stressed many times especially to my Orthodox friend Kolokotronis that Protestants and Roman Catholics are moving in the direction of Eastern Orthodox. This is simply another indication of that movement.
The Eastern Orthodox have always had a synergistic belief (as near as I can tell. The Roman Catholics formally adopted it with Trent. The Protestants (Lutheran, Presbyterians, etc.) have all but adopted it.
But don't worry. A few of us monergistic Reformers will leave the lights on. ;O)
"Actually it comes as no surprise to me at all. I have stressed many times especially to my Orthodox friend Kolokotronis that Protestants and Roman Catholics are moving in the direction of Eastern Orthodox. This is simply another indication of that movement."
Maybe so, my friend, but I'll suggest that PCUSA, like ECUSA, has headed off on a fork in the road to Orthodoxy which leads straight to a very, very bad place.
"But don't worry. A few of us monergistic Reformers will leave the lights on. ;O)"
LOL! Now see, Harley, you're cooperating with God to keep us semi-Pelagians from missing the monergistic cliff in the dark! :)
And I still have a pocketful of quarters, so the jukebox will keep playing!
Wrong.
That's a bit off base.
Well, let's all look at the full dialogue.
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
Code: ZE06010801
Date: 2006-01-08
Pope's Address to World Alliance of Reformed Churches
"No Ecumenism Worthy of the Name Without Interior Conversion"
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI delivered Saturday when he received a delegation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
* * *
Dear Friends,
At the beginning of this new year I welcome you, the leaders of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, on the occasion of your visit to the Vatican. I recall with gratitude the presence of delegations from the World Alliance both at the funeral of my predecessor Pope John Paul II, and at the inauguration of my own papal ministry. In these signs of mutual respect and friendship I am pleased to see a providential fruit of the fraternal dialogue and cooperation undertaken in the past four decades, and a token of sure hope for the future.
This past month, in fact, marked the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, which saw the promulgation of the decree on ecumenism, "Unitatis Redintegratio." The Catholic-Reformed dialogue, which came into existence shortly thereafter, has made an important contribution to the demanding work of theological reflection and historical investigation indispensable for surmounting the tragic divisions which arose among Christians in the 16th century. One of the results of the dialogue has been to show significant areas of convergence between the Reformed understanding of the Church as "Creatura Verbi" and the Catholic understanding of the Church as the primordial Sacrament of God's outpouring of grace in Christ (cf. "Lumen Gentium," No. 1). It is an encouraging sign that the current phase of dialogue continues to explore the richness and complementarity of these approaches.
The decree on ecumenism affirmed that "there can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without interior conversion" (No. 7). At the very beginning of my pontificate I voiced my own conviction that "inner conversion is the prerequisite for all ecumenical progress" ("Homily in the Sistine Chapel," April 20, 2005), and recalled the example of my predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who often spoke of the need for a "purification of memory" as a means of opening our hearts to receive the full truth of Christ.
The late Pope, especially on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, gave a powerful impulse to this endeavor in the Catholic Church, and I am pleased to learn that several of the Reformed Churches which are members of the World Alliance have undertaken similar initiatives. Gestures such as these are the building blocks of a deeper relationship which must be nurtured in truth and love.
Dear friends, I pray that our meeting today will itself bear fruit in a renewed commitment to work for the unity of all Christians. The way before us calls for wisdom, humility, patient study and exchange. May we set out with renewed confidence, in obedience to the Gospel and with our hope firmly grounded in Christ's prayer for his Church, in the love of the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. "Unitatis Redintegratio," No. 24).
[Original text in English]
Response
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome
Code: ZE06010802
Date: 2006-01-08
Address of World Alliance of Reformed Churches to the Pope
"We Are Eager to Be Partners With You"
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address delivered Saturday by the Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, during an audience with Benedict XVI.
* * *
Your Holiness,
In this Season of Epiphany we greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, who is revealed as Lord and savior of the world. We extend a special word of congratulations to you in this first year of your papal ministry and assure you of the prayers of Reformed Christians all over the world that God will richly bless your ministry.
We come representing the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the global fellowship of 215 churches of Reformed, Congregational, Waldensian and Presbyterian traditions composed of some 75 million Christians from all parts of our world. We are churches shaped by the Protestant Reformation and its values but also deeply committed to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church of which both of our communities are a part.
We are extremely grateful for the three phases of the Reformed-Roman Catholic dialogue that have been completed and have born real fruit in our common understanding of the presence of Christ and the nature of the church and in our common witness to the Kingdom of God. We are eager to begin the next stage of efforts to move closer together in common faith and witness and look forward to exploring this possibility with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity while we are here in Rome. As Reformed Christians, we will also soon be commemorating the 500th anniversary of the founding of our movement and are eager to find ways to approach these events and our learning from them ecumenically with our sisters and brothers from the Catholic Church.
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has recently concluded its 24th General Council, the every-seven-year gathering of leaders from Reformed Churches all over the world this one held in Accra, Ghana in August of 2004. The theme of that Council was Jesus' promise in John 10:10 that he has come so that all "may have life, and have it in fullness." The exploration of that theme and the witness of our growing churches in Africa and other parts of the South led us to a common core commitment to justice in the economy and the earth as our central calling as Reformed Churches in this period of history.
We see this commitment not simply as a matter of social justice but rather as a concern that is central to the very integrity of our Christian faith. We are eager during our visit here at the Vatican to pursue with you how Catholic and Reformed Christians might be partners together for God's justice in a world wracked by poverty, war, ecological destruction, and the denial of human freedom.
Finally, we come as pilgrims in the cause of Christian unity. At the core of our tradition is the understanding that to be Reformed is to be faithful to Jesus' high priestly prayer "that they might all be one ... that the world might believe" (John 17:21). We are grateful for new ecumenical breakthroughs between Protestants and Catholics.
In talking with the moderator of the Waldensian Church here in Italy, who is part of our delegation, I was pleased to learn of positive new ecumenical developments between Protestants and Catholics around honoring the Bible and interconfessional marriages and of new structures of ecumenical cooperation at the grass-roots levels -- developments that are paralleled in the U.S.A. where I live, and in many parts of the world. However, there is still much to be done to move beyond our past condemnations of one another, to truly respect one another as parts of the one body of Jesus Christ, serve God together without worrying about inhibitions in our nations, and to come together at the table of our Lord. We are eager to be partners with you in this important ministry of Christian unity.
In many ways, historians will likely look back on the second millennium of Christian history as the millennium of the division of the Christian Church. May we together, in the power of the Holy Spirit, commit our efforts to make the third millennium the era of the reuniting of the broken body of Christ. May God bless you and may God bless our common efforts to be pilgrims together for the unity which Christ intends for the Church and the world!
[Original text in English]
The way I see it is that we are witnessing the realignment of Christendom into three major factions:
1) The liberal ecumenicalists from some (Eastern) Orthodox, liberal Catholics, and major factions of mainline Protestants (including Moravians) forming a bloc of their own of Christian "unity" under the World Council of Churches umbrella.
2) A conservative ecumenical group encompassing the conservative factions of mainline Protestants, Reformed-leaning Protestants outside the mainline denominations, Wesleyan-leaning Protestants outside the mainline denominations (Nazarenes, etc), Catholic church (covering both the Latin and Eastern rites, any any future Anglican rites if they become reality), and the (Eastern) Orthodox church. They will be working together on the issues on morality in society and "historical Christian doctrinal orthodoxy".
3) This leaves us, much of the evangelical church from a majority of theologically conservative Baptists, to the Calvary Chapels, to non-denominational churches similar to the fictional New Hope Village Church in the Left Behind series, messianic Jewish, and perhaps a minority of evangelicals in the mainline denominations (such as the Sydney Archdiecose of the Anglican church), that will be busy evangelising and preaching the gospel. We will cooperate with 2) if what their social activism agrees with the Bible, but we won't join with them formally.
4) The rest is "others" such as the LDS, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, Jenovah's Witness, Worldwide Church of God etc. They aren't really significant .
I tend to agree with your words.
You can have them both.
One would think that the Dispensationalist would be going crazy. Can anyone say "One World Church".
Interesting analysis.
Well, how interesting. Let me wipe the egg from my face.
-Theo
I take Pope Benedict over and against your opinion any time, thank you.
-Theo
Here are the "member " USA churches
Reformed Church in America
United Church of Christ
Christian Reformed Church in North America
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Korean Presbyterian Church in America
Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Notice anything? I do not think there is a conservative Calvinist professing church in the mix.
Don't hold your breath ;-)
Nor a conservative Lutheran church either...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.