announced Thursday, June 16, the Roman Catholic Church is "eager to continue cooperation" with the World Council of Churches (WCC), officials said. WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia said he also invited the pope to visit WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, "as yet one more concrete step in our long journey towards visible unity."
The pontiff reportedly assured Kobia that the church he heads is "eager to continue cooperation" with the WCC, and expressed hope that the visit had been "fruitful, strengthening the bonds of understanding and friendship between us".
"The commitment of the Catholic Church to the search for Christian unity is irreversible," said the pope, in an apparent reference to late Pope John Paul II, who launched the mission during his papacy.
"CAPITAL IMPORTANCE"
The three above-mentioned "areas of capital importance" for collaboration were at the heart of Kobia’s remarks to Benedict XVI at what was a first meeting since both took up their current positions, and before a private conversation between the two took place.
Dialogue about the understanding of the theological differences is an hot issue among the Council’s member churches since it affects, among other things, "their ability or inability to recognize one another as churches", the WCC said in a statement to BosNewsLIfe News Center.
The WCC "would like to encourage dialogue on these fundamental questions, in our relationships with all our ecumenical partners, Kobia told the pope. "Grounded on the fertile soil of our respective spiritual treasures, we could seek together a stable place of moral clarity and confidence amid today’s turbulent human landscape of shifting values, uncertain hopes and crumbling commitments," Kobia said.
ECUMENICAL FORMATION
As to ecumenical formation, Kobia affirmed that "classical ways" of doing it are "progressively diminishing," and that it becomes an "imperative" to take "important steps towards visible unity" among the different dominations which he said must be "communicated, fully received, and put into practice in the lives of the churches".
The WCC claims to represent over 340 churches, denominations and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world, representing some 400 million Christians. They include most of the world’s Orthodox churches, scores of denominations from traditions of Protestant Reformation such as Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed churches, as well as many united and independent churches.
While the bulk of the WCC’s founding churches were European and North American, today most are in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific, the WCC says. (With Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Vatican City).
