ECUMENICAL REVIEW最新文献

This article discusses the organization of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925, its significance for the 20th-century ecumenical movement, and the central role played by Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom. It describes Söderblom's repeated efforts during the First World War to bring churches together to work for peace and how he originally hoped that what might become the Stockholm conference would be organized by the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches, as well as his determination that Orthodox churches should be present in Stockholm. The article then gives an account of the proceedings of the Stockholm conference and how it demonstrated the diversity of the unity of the church.

“Mission from the margins” is an important concept to help move toward a renewed vision of ecumenical mission praxis. This article examines the idea of mission from the margins in the context of the Nagas, an Indigenous (tribal) people in Northeast India. The article's aim is to identify the main internal factors that drive the marginalization of the Nagas, such as geographical isolation, poverty and migration, ecological injustice, exploitation of identity, culture, and values. This marginalization will be addressed in conversation with the mission document of the World Council of Churches, Together towards Life, exploring the possibilities of inclusive mission for a just community.

This article explores the efforts of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in combating racism and discrimination, emphasizing the importance of anti-racism rather than non-racism. The article underlines the intersection of racism with climate change and economic inequality, including its compounded impact on marginalized groups. It highlights an epistemology that gave primacy to Western knowledge and ways of knowing and that became a fundamental tool in making enslavement and colonization acceptable to enslaving and colonizing empires. The article outlines the WCC's commitment to anti-racism – which includes awareness campaigns, capacity building, and global advocacy against systemic racism – and underlines the WCC's role in fostering justice and reconciliation within diverse communities.

In November 2023, the Groupe des Dombes, a Francophone ecumenical group, published its new study “De toutes les nations … ”: Pour la catholicité des Églises (“Of All Nations … ” For the Catholicity of the Churches). Its central affirmation, following a common reading of history, and as a result of the biblical exploration that group has undertaken together, is that “it is possible to affirm that the Catholic Church and the Churches of the Reformation form One Church, although in imperfect communion.” This article recalls the history of the Groupe des Dombes, as a group gathering equal numbers of Roman Catholic and Protestant members, and sets out the main elements of the new study on catholicity. It concludes by discussing the central affirmation and returns to the calls for conversion, so important to the Groupe des Dombes, as a way to live together according to the gift of God: “For beyond themselves, the Churches have the common mission of bearing witness to the unity of humanity. The lived catholicity of the Church can be a sign of this.”

The year 2024 marks 25 years since the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), along with an Official Common Statement and an attached Annex, on 31 October 1999. In reflecting upon the JDDJ, this article attempts to evaluate the impact of the declaration by addressing the following questions: What did the JDDJ accomplish, and what did it fail to achieve? What progress has been made since 1999 to build on the work of the JDDJ? What work still needs to be done moving forward in Catholic–Lutheran dialogue? The article concludes that the JDDJ has had a ground-breaking impact in ecumenical dialogue – both in and beyond the Catholic–Lutheran context – that continues to unfold today. While there is a long way to go in the ecumenical venture, the JDDJ represents a pivotal moment and a sign of hope for visible Christian unity, which is the goal of ecumenism.

This article discusses the latest document by the Francophone ecumenical group the Groupe des Dombes. The document advocates a “reformed catholicity” through the conversion of the churches, where catholicity is not seen as the exclusive property of the Roman Catholic faithful but encompasses the entire Christian church, and in which the word “reformed” also concerns the whole Christian church and not only Protestant churches. This article first explores the contribution of this text to ecumenical dialogue. It then discusses the “bold thesis” at the centre of the document, according to which the Catholic Church and the churches of the Reformation “form one Church, although in imperfect communion.” The article then goes on to highlight the eschatological dynamic of the document and the relationship between catholicity and mission. The article concludes with some thoughts about the path toward a truly universal catholicity.

Against the background of the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which will take place in 2025 around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” this article explores the marks of visible unity set out in the Gospel of John and the Letter to the Ephesians. The two texts show an astonishing convergence. Following a biblical exegesis, the article concludes that discussions about the visible unity of the church need first to establish the similarities and differences in the understanding of the eucharist. The question of the understanding of ministry must first be clarified in a differentiated way. If the unity of the church consists in the confessional fellowship of believers, then it is not the institutionalized uniformity of the ministerial structure that is decisive, but rather unity in faith in the one shepherd and Lord as head of the church and Saviour of the world. Unity becomes visible above all in common prayer and worship, not only within different traditions as in Ephesus, but even more so when different church traditions celebrate ecumenically.