Showing posts with label Ecumenical Dialog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ecumenical Dialog. Show all posts

Thursday, July 27, 2017

New Orthodox Catechism Condemns Opponents of Ecumenism

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission has published a draft version of the Catechesis of the Russian Orthodox Church for Church-wide discussion, reports patriarchia.ru. The final section on the Russian Church’s attitude towards the non-Orthodox has caused some consternation. 
The idea of creating a modern catechism was first raised at the Bishops’ Council in 2008, and the Holy Synod instructed the Synodal Theological Commission to being preparing the project a year later. Prominent theologians of the Russian Church, as members of the Biblical-Theological Commission, as well as professors of various theological academies, and specialists in various theological fields have been involved in the project. The first version of the text was completed in January 2016. 
The commission unanimously adopted the draft at a plenary session on January 29, 2016, after which it was submitted to the Council of Bishops session on February 2-3, 2016. The council decided to forward the draft to the permanent members of the Holy Synod, the primates of the patriarchate’s autonomous Churches, the first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the heads of Synodal institutions and theological schools, and diocesan bishops who expressed a desire to participate in reviewing the text.

http://orthochristian.com/105386.html
AMDG

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Windows to the Past: Protestant Theologian Urges the Rejection of Schema "De Ecclesia"


Edit: some will remember that the original schemata which were rejected, especially De Ecclesia.

It's hard to imagine that undue attention was paid to voices like  the Protestant Edmund Schlink, who was an observer at the council.

Despite assurances to the contrary,  and the tacit understanding with respect to Protestants described by Dr. Schlink, Protestants are no closer to Catholics half a century later.  There may be fewer Protestants, and they may be far less relevant than they were in 1963 when this was written, but these concerns are still raised.  They are echoed by Progressivist counterparts in the Catholic Church who themselves, might as well be Protestants.

This entire "discussion" has taken place at the expense of the Catholic Faith and to the scandal of the faithful.

The following is from an article we found:

IN THE OPINION  of Professor Edmund Schlink, a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany and an observer of the Second Vatican Council, the council's schema De Ecclesia, if adopted as it now stands, will seriously jeopardize rapprochement between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches.  Dr. Schlink told a press conference in Rome that he is particularly disturbed by one schema statement which implies that "the one holy, catholic, apostolic church is the church directed by the Roman pope, thus identifying the church of God with the Roman church."  He noted that the schema refers to non-Catholic individuals but not to non-Catholic churches.  The conclusion he draws from this fact is that the Roman Catholic Church can recognize and claim as its own all Christians whose baptism is identical with that of the Roman Catholic Church but cannot recognize the existence of non-Catholic churches as churches.  Professor Schlink has not raised a captious and irrelevant complaint but has uncovered a basic issue standing between Protestants and Roman Catholics.  "Separated brethren," to use the Roman Catholic euphemism for Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians, belong to churches.   Their churches are just as truly the body of Christ to them as the Roman church is to Roman Catholics.  To imply, as De Ecclesia is said to do, that gulf between non-Catholics and Roman Catholics will be bridged by a return of individuals to Rome without regard to their churches is to misinterpret Protestant and Orthodox hopes for unity and to misunderstand the ecumenical movement as it relates to Protestant and Orthodox hopes for unity and to misunderstand the ecumenical movement as it relates to Protestant and Orthodox churches.  Professor Schlink raised a timely reminder when he said: "Non-Roman Christendom consists not merely of individual Christians, but of churches.  Non-Roman Christians are certain of salvation as members of their own churches.  It is not through the Roman church, but through their own church, that they have received baptism, and that they have come to the faith through the gospel,"  We hope that Dr. Schlink's reminder will be taken into account before the Vatican Council takes a position on so important a matter.  His statement does not assume that non-Roman churches are immune to change; it does assume that all the changing will not be done on one side.

November 20, 1963

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Würzburg Vicar Hw. Thomas Eschenbacher and Protestant functionary Kirsten Oldenburg Jointly Organize an Ecumenical Sideshow

New liturgical element: "ecumenical" dialogue
 sermon in rhyme; Picture: Press Office Diocese of Würzburg / Mohr
Once there had been a happy hour in the land, as on the 17th of January 2013 of the first Carnival Society of Elferrat Würzburg publicly held this years church conference in Neumuensterkirche.

"In the thick of things" is the Würzburg Cathedral Vicar with the Protestant official, who -- as explained in preparation -- had decided on the somewhat looser form of Liturgy of the Word,  probably in order not to completely ignore the liturgical progress of the Church.

"Vanishing Justice" of the Preaching Dialog

A modern, zeigeisty innovation, perhaps even according to the invocation of the "sprit of Vatican II" Fr. Eschenbacher put the liturgical elements of the preaching dialog in rhyme:  "... that only talking's not enough, where justice takes a puff" was clearly the dialogs choice piece.

It had been a balancing act, said the Cathedral Vicar.  "I can also understand, that not everyone found it enjoyable."  But: "everything took place with dignity."

Joy of the Instructor of Pastoral Theology

A Pastoral Theologian was also completely overjoyed (a kind of miracle in the Post-Conciliar Church): "Carnival belongs to the life of the people just as to the Church.  I think the connection between them both is very exciting."

In the Diocese of Wurzburg the main goal of the Pastoral Theologian, "the consequent search for the outline of our vocation in the transform of the structures in the Diocese and with thus connected pastoral tasks and focal points.

Exit of the Fool

At the end the fool was applauded to the church door -- and in the midst of it all the Cathedral Rector.

Link to kreuz.net...

Saturday, November 26, 2011

St. Issac Jogues Parish in Niles, Illinois celebrates Thanksgiving Eve service with Muslims

Above: Clip art from the article in the parish bulletin.

Editor: Source info informed us that St. Issac Jogues parish in Niles Illinois announced in it's November 13, 2011 that it would be participating in a "Thanksgiving Eve" service with Muslims. See online bulletin here:
http://sij-parish.com/512032.111311.pdf We post the article by one of the priests at the parish below.

The following is the parish website: http://sij-parish.com/


THANKSGIVING EVE: Interreligious Service

November is the Month of the Holy Souls. It is also a month when Americans celebrate a secular holiday with deep religious roots. While the emphasis has shifted to feasting and football, Thanksgiving still inspires religious feelings. The ritual of bowed heads and table grace may be a nod to nostalgia and tradition, but it is often much more than that!

Thanksgiving is a remembrance of God’s mercy - - an encounter with the Holy. The “pilgrim fathers” were convinced that God had saved them from drought and starvation. That is why they gave thanks, why they feasted, and why they played games. Thanksgiving then was not a celebration of self-satisfied abundance, it was a celebration of God’s bounty. It was an acknowledgement of answered prayers!

Thanksgiving has a “Mayflower” pedigree. There is a distinct Protestant flavor to it’s origins. But, through the centuries and with waves of immigration, Thanksgiving has been adopted and adapted by people of different cultures and religions. In that, Thanksgiving is a most accommodating feast! Thanksgiving stresses the holiness of God and the
blessings of the harvest. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists as well as Christians instinctively want to thank God. A growing, beautiful custom is celebrating an Ecumenical or Interreligious Service on Thanksgiving Eve. I am happy to say that I have been part of such celebrations since I was ordained in 1970.

This year, local clergy and laity will observe Thanksgiving Eve (Nov. 23rd) at The Morton
Grove Mosque (8601 N. Menard Ave.) at 7:30 PM. All are welcome to participate.

Please consider attending the presentation on Islam next Sunday, November 20th in the Holy Family Room at 3:00 PM. Jason Renken & Azam Nizamuddin will explore “Thanksgiving and Service from the Muslim & Catholic Perspectives”.

Why should you consider attending this presentation and participating in the Interreligious Thanksgiving Service? A scholar of world religions, Leonard J. Biallas, has an excellent answer: “There are spiritual riches buried in the innermost
recesses of our own religions that are only opened up to us when we encounter what is strange and different in other traditions.”

Our first “encounter” with other traditions can be the beginning of better self-understanding and real dialogue. That dialogue can enable us to compare and contrast how human nature and the human condition are perceived. Life, love, compassion, destiny and death … how much do we share in common? How much comes from a different vantage or perspective?

It was Pope Pius XI who once said: “If we are to love each other, we must first know each other.” I would add something commonplace, but essential, to that: “To know each other, we must first meet each other.” The Thanksgiving Eve Service can inaugurate an ongoing dialogue with other religious people. That can contribute much toward peace in our own communities and ultimately in the world.

-Fr. Luczak

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

German bishop prepares for funeral of ecumenism

Edit: this is yet another astonishing event.  Since when have Catholic Bishops ever expected the partners in ecumenical dialog to be consistent about anything, or even to be equal partners in a discussion?  Here's something big from Catholic Church Conservation.




Passau: Bischof Müller sieht Zukunft der Ökumene gefährdet - PNP-Interview | Passauer Neue Presse - Politik - Heute in Ihrer Tageszeitung - Heimatzeitung für Niederbayern und Altötting:

The Regensburg Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller has accused representatives of the German Protestant Church of driving "a wedge" into the Catholic Church. In the interview with PNP, the Bishop responsible for the ecumenical movement within the German Bishops' Conference attacked "controversial statements" during the Pope's visit to Germany and put Catholic-Protestant ecumenism as a whole in question.

Muller was particularly critical of the Berlin Protestant bishop Markus Dröge, who had written that Benedict XVI had "no concept of ecumenism". Such statements are "just to be dismissed as totally without basis," said the Regensburg Bishop, stating: "If one continues on this line, this would be the death of ecumenism."

German bishop prepares for funeral of ecumenism