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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. 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...

Galations 3: 27-28 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ; have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Pope Benedict XVI stressed his commitment to bringing Christian churches closer together during a meeting with a delegation of Presbyterian and Congregational church leaders at the Vatican. The pontiff made the point that the meeting with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches came on the 40th anniversary of the "Unitatis Redintegratio" papal decree committing the Catholic Church to dialogue with other churches to overcome "the tragic divisions which arose among Christians in the 16th century", according to a statement released by the Vatican. The pope said he intended to pursue the strategy of his predecessor John Paul II who stipulated...

Vatican, Dec. 15 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI once again underlined his commitment to ecumenical progress-- particularly in talks with the Eastern churches-- as he met on December 15 with Catholic and Orthodox officials planning the resumption of formal theological dialogue. The Holy Father met with 21 people-- 10 Catholic and 11 Orthodox-- who are making plans for the next meetings of a joint theological commission. The commission, established in 1979, has not met since 2000, when talks in Baltimore broke down in disagreement over Orthodox complaints of Catholic "proselytism," particularly in Eastern Europe. In June 2004, Pope John Paul...

HADARIM PRISON, Israel - Young Palestinian activists from the ruling Fatah Party rejected a call for unity Thursday, determined to push aside the corrupt old guard associated with Yasser Arafat and form their own party for January parliamentary elections. The decision, made after a meeting with their imprisoned leader, deepened a crisis for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and threatened to give a boost to Islamic Hamas militants. In another blow to Fatah, Hamas swept to victory in elections in the West Bank's largest city, Nablus, according to official results announced early Friday. Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms...

CAIRO, Egypt -- In the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ascendancy to the presidency of Iran, the country's opposition is beginning to show signs of unifying as the clerical regime wages a war against internal dissent. Yesterday, the regime closed all schools in Tehran, citing poor air quality, after word leaked of the first major demonstrations since the summer. Nonetheless, a rally at Tehran University attracted 300 demonstrators amid a heavy police presence on campus. Of note is that before the rally against the new president, a coalition of Kurdish students also signed on to the call. In Brussels on Monday,...

BOLOGNA, Italy, NOV. 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).- In a message to the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, Benedict XVI renewed his intention to continue on the path of Christian unity. The message to Patriarch Bartholomew I also stated that the Pope hoped to travel soon to Istanbul, Turkey, headquarters of the Orthodox patriarchate. The papal message was read by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, retired president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, during the Byzantine-rite vespers he presided over Saturday in the Basilica of St. Petronius in Bologna. On hand was Archbishop Carlo Caffarra of Bologna. Patriarch Bartholomew I, the "first among...

Many of our contemporaries, it seems, have grown increasingly sensitive about the whole enterprise of doctrinal debate. In many quarters, debate over doctrine is seen as "spiritually incorrect." The fear that unity – or at least the appearance of unity – might be somehow compromised has become a form of paranoia in many evangelical circles. A kind of vague and ill-defined veil of unity covers an evangelical movement that has no creed and no unifying doctrine, except perhaps the increasingly distant memory of Protestant orthodoxy and the doctrinal system that claims to be no doctrinal system, dispensational premillennialism. But as...

MOSCOW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) – The Moscow Patriarchate was astonished by a remark on the concepts of proselytism that a high-rank cleric in the Vatican made earlier this week, said a Patriarchate spokesman. In an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass Friday Priest Igor Vyzhanov, secretary for Inter-Christian Communications at the Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, said the basic interpretation of proselytism was universal and commonly accepted. “That notion doesn’t have different readings and means a practice where activists of one or another denomination of Christianity recruit new followers among the believers belonging to other denominations of the Christian faith,” the...

Washington DC, Oct. 28, 2005 (CNA) - More than a dozen clerics and theologians gathered in Washington last week to consider and discuss the advancements in Orthodox-Catholic relations, in particular in the last 40 years.The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation held its 69th meeting Oct. 20-22 at Georgetown University. It was co-chaired by Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati and Bishop Savas of Troas, the Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Bishop Savas substituted for Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh, who is still recovering from a recent fall.Fr. Brian Daley, SJ, began the session with a public lecture entitled “Forty Years of...

Conservatives were heartened by yesterday's withdrawal of the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination and say it has given President Bush a fresh start to unite his conservative base for the judicial, legislative and election battles to come. The move ends a bitter family fight with his conservative supporters that Mr. Bush could ill-afford while he and his party were under fierce attack on a growing number of political fronts. "This was tearing apart the conservative movement and the Republican Party and was potentially inflicting longer-term devastation to Bush's winning coalition. So it's good that the White House is bringing this...

The Rev. William Klock: "Our Unity in Christ" Considering some of the news we have seen lately about efforts towards reunification of the various churches, the sermon Our Unity in Christ by the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon is quite timely. This point is quite pertinent to much of what has been going on:We need to be realistic and acknowledge that there are factors in the Church that tend to drive us apart. But in our lesson from Ephesians we learn a second fact about the Church and that is that underneath all these differences...

A Palestinian rally to celebrate Israel's pullout from Gaza ended in chaos Wednesday when a Hamas activist grabbed a microphone away from a rap singer, and police firing in the air escorted the singer away. No one was hurt, but the small crowd of about 2,500 people dispersed quickly after the incident. The rally was billed as a show of Palestinian unity, but most of the factions stayed away, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas canceled his appearance.

An AIDS patient writes a letter to the HIV virus, forgiving it for the harm it’s done him and thanking it for inspiring him to live a fuller life. A recovering alcoholic reminds herself to “let go and let God.” Parents pray to see their son as “the perfect child of God” rather than call a doctor to prescribe medication for his earache. A collective of incorporeal beings sends this message to a best-selling author: “There is nothing you cannot be, do, or have.” What do these people have in common? All of them are heirs of the religious philosophy...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Just days ahead of key votes on the role of gays in the church, a Lutheran leader told a national assembly Wednesday he's "profoundly concerned that we not squander this great gift of unity" because of deep disagreement on the issue. The Rev. James M. Childs, head of sexuality studies for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said proposals before the denomination's assembly on ordaining gays who are not celibate and blessing same-sex unions were written as "a plea that we work on it despite our differences." Childs made the comments as the measures were formally presented...

Looking at the wire story about the hearing on sexuality [at the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America taking place this week in Orlando] at the Boston Globe website, I took note of the revisionist script from several quoted. The key mood word to describe those that hold to 2,000 years of Christian teaching on sexuality is "fear." I have also noted the use of the family systems' buzz word "anxiety." This borders on dark humor but for the tragic seriousness with which revisionists offer their "cry of the heart." After all, it is a cry to...

Contents IntroductionWhat is the PSM/ISM?ISM Rewriting History ACT NOW! - OPPOSE GOOGLE'S PLAN Automatically send emails opposing Google's planSign a petition Introduction According to Lee Kaplan, writing for FrontPageMagazine.com: The Internet giant Google will give news agency status to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to an anonymous source at Google. If true, the ISM—an affiliate of the anarchist/communist wing of the PLO—would be on par with professional news services such as CNN, Fox, and Associated Press. … The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) are related and interconnected organizations that have one goal: the...

Jesus prayed “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that Thou has sent Me.” The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, sets forth principles for the way in which the Church is striving to answer the prayer of Jesus that all may be one.

All for One? The idea of unity divides Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Posted on Thu Jul 14 2005: BY FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN Friday, July 15, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT "The need is felt to join forces and spare no energies" to renew dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox Christians, said Pope Benedict XVI. In comments to delegates of the Patriarch of Constantinople on June 30, the pope explained that "the unity we seek is neither absorption nor fusion, but respect for the multiform fullness of the Church." Outsiders may wonder: Why don't those two venerable churches just kiss and make up? From...

Oh boy, did Karl Rove put bees in a few bonnets last week. Rove, speaking at a meeting of the New York Conservative Party, said, “liberals … wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers” while describing the differences between conservative and liberal philosophies to the attacks of 9/11. Without naming names, Rove set off the usual firestorm of condemnation among Washington Democrats, some of whom called for him to “take it back” while others went so far as to call for his resignation as a presidential advisor. Boo hoo hoo! You would have thought that...