N. 141 (2013/I)

N. 146 (2015/II)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

POPE FRANCIS AND ECUMENISM (July-December 2015) Apostolic Journey of Pope Francis to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic (25–30 November 2015) ..... 1 Visit of Pope Francis to the Evangelical-Lutheran Community in Rome (15 November 2015) ....................................... 2 Other statements by Pope Francis ............................................................................................................................................... 5

VISIT TO THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE BY A DELEGATION OF THE HOLY SEE FOR THE FEAST OF SAINT

ANDREW (29 November – 1 December 2015) Word of Presentation by Cardinal Kurt Koch ........................................................................................................................... 8 Message of Pope Francis to His Holiness Bartholomew I (30 November 2015) ............................................................... 8 Greeting of His Holiness Bartholomew I to the Holy See Delegation (30 November 2015) ........................................... 9

ECUMENICAL NEWS Catholics and Pentecostals: Sixth Round of Conversations, Rome, Italy (10-17 July 2015) ............................................. 11 Anglican and Oriental Orthodox Churches reach historic agreements on the incarnation of Christ and procession of the Holy Spirit (9 October 2015) ............................................................................................................... 11

COMMISSION FOR RELIGIOUS RELATIONS WITH THE JEWS .......................................................................................................... “The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable” (Rom 11:29.) A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate (N° 4)

Press Conference for Presentation of Document, Holy See Press Office, Vatican City (10 December 2015) Presentation by Cardinal Kurt Koch ................................................................................................................................. 13 Intervention of Fr Norbert Hofmann, SDB .................................................................................................................... 16 Remarks of Rabbi David Rosen ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Reflections of Dr Edward Kessler..................................................................................................................................... 19 Complete text of the Document: “The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable” (Rom 11:29).

A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate (N° 4) .................................................................................................................................... 21

DOCUMENTATION SUPPLEMENT Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 .................................................................................................................................. 32 Letter of the PCPCU’s Secretary to the Ecumenical Commissions of Episcopal Conferences and of Synods of Oriental Catholic Churches .......................................................................................................................... 32 Resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017 ................................................................................................. 33

OFFICE: Via della Conciliazione 5 – 00193 Rome (Italy) Tel: +39–06–698 83568 (Editorial Office)

Fax: +39–06–698 85365 – Email: infoservice@christianunity.va

Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

EDITOR

Reverend Father Hyacinthe Destivelle, OP

ADDRESS FOR ALL CORRESPONDENCE

Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity VA – 00120 Vatican City

Back copies: €7 (US$9)

The material in this Information Service is not copyright, but we would appreciate a copy of any publication which includes extensive quotation from it.

1

POPE FRANCIS AND ECUMENISM

July – December 2015

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS

TO KENYA, UGANDA AND THE CENTRAL

AFRICAN REPUBLIC

25-30 November 2015

HOLY MASS FOR THE MARTYRS OF UGANDA

Area of the Catholic Shrine of the Martyrs of Namugongo (Uganda)

28 November 2015

On Saturday morning, 28 November, Pope Francis visited the Anglican and Catholic shrines in Namugongo, where the 24 Uganda martyrs were killed between 1885 and 1887. Following his visit to the Anglican shrine in the morning, the Pope celebrated Mass in memory of the martyrs in the large natural park that surrounds the Catholic shrine. The following is an excerpt of the English translation of the homily which the Holy Father gave in Italian.

(…) “You shall receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). From the age of the Apostles to our own day, a great cloud of witnesses has been raised up to proclaim Jesus and show forth the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, we recall with gratitude the sacrifice of the Uganda martyrs, whose witness of love for Christ and his Church has truly gone “to the end of the earth”. We remember also the Anglican martyrs whose deaths for Christ testify to the ecumenism of blood. All these witnesses nurtured the gift of the Holy Spirit in their lives and freely gave testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ, even at the cost of their lives, many at such a young age (…).

ORE, 4 December 2015

MEETING WITH EVANGELICAL COMMUNITIES

Faculty of Evangelical Theology (FATEB), Bangui

29 November 2015

On Sunday afternoon, 29 November, after having lunch with the bishops of the Central African Republic, the Pope met with Evangelical communities at the headquarters of the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of Bangui. The following is the English text of the Holy Father’s discourse, which he gave in Italian.

_____________________________

* Sources of the texts are designated as follows: OR: L’Osservatore Romano,

daily edition in Italian; ORE: L’Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English. If texts come from sources other than L’Osservatore Romano, this will be

noted. When translation is undertaken by the Information Service it is indicated by the abbreviation: IS.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am happy to be able to meet you in this Faculty of Evangelical Theology. I thank the Dean of the Faculty and the President of the Evangelical Alliance of Central Africa for their kind words of welcome. With fraternal affection I greet each of you and, through you, all the members of your communities. All of us are here in the service of the risen Lord who assembles us today; and, by virtue of the common baptism we have received, we are sent to proclaim the joy of the Gospel to men and women of this beloved country of Central Africa. For all too long, your people have experienced troubles and violence, resulting in great suffering. This makes the proclamation of the Gospel all the more necessary and urgent. For it is Christ’s own flesh which suffers in his dearest sons and daughters: the poorest of his people, the infirm, the elderly, the abandoned, children without parents or left to themselves without guidance and education. There are also those who have been scarred in soul or body by hatred and violence, those whom war has deprived of everything: work, home and loved ones. God makes no distinctions between those who suffer. I have often called this the ecumenism of blood. All our communities suffer indiscriminately as a result of injustice and the blind hatred unleashed by the devil. Here I wish to express my closeness and solidarity to Pastor Nicholas, whose home was recently ransacked and set on fire, as was the meeting-place of his community. In these difficult circumstances, the Lord keeps asking us to demonstrate to everyone his tenderness, compassion and mercy. This shared suffering and shared mission are a providential opportunity for us to advance together on the path of unity; they are also an indispensable spiritual aid. How could the Father refuse the grace of unity, albeit still imperfect, to his children who suffer together and, in different situations, join in serving their brothers and sisters? Dear brothers and sisters, the lack of unity among Christians is a scandal, above all because it is contrary to God’s will. It is also a scandal when we consider the hatred and violence which are tearing humanity apart, and the many forms of opposition which the Gospel of Christ encounters. I appreciate the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation existing between the Christians of your country, and I encourage you to continue on this path of common service in charity. It is a witness to Christ which builds up unity. With increasing intensity and courage, may you add to perseverance and charity, a commitment to prayer and common reflection, as you seek to achieve

2

greater mutual understanding, trust and friendship in view of that full communion for which we firmly hope. I assure you of my prayerful support along the path of fraternal charity, reconciliation and mercy, a path which is long, yet full of joy and hope. I ask the Lord Jesus to bless all of you! May he bless your communities, and our Church as well! I ask you to pray for me. Thank you very much.

ORE, 4 December 2015 VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS TO THE

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN COMMUNITY

IN ROME

15 November 2015

The Holy Father paid a visit to Christuskirche parish on Sunday evening, 15 November. Before the common prayer, Pope Francis responded off the cuff to the questions of three members of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Rome.

CONVERSATION OF THE POPE WITH THE

COMMUNITY

Julius a nine-year-old boy, asked him: “What do you like most about being Pope?”

The answer is simple. If I were to ask you what you like most about a meal, you would say cake, the dessert! Wouldn’t you? But you have to eat everything. Quite honestly what I like is being a pastor, being a parish priest. I do not like office work. I don’t like these tasks. I don’t like giving official interviews — this one is not official, it’s comfortable! — but I have to give them. Thus, what do I like best? Being a parish priest. Once, when I was rector of the faculty of theology, I was a priest in the parish next to the faculty, and you know, I liked teaching the Catechism to the children and saying Mass on Sunday with the children. There were 250 children, more or less; it was difficult for all of them to keep quiet, it was difficult. Dialoguing with children.... I like this. You are a child and perhaps you will understand me. You are concrete, you do not ask theoretical, far-fetched questions: “Why is this so? Because...”. It is just that I like being a parish priest and, as a priest what I like best is being with children, talking with them, and one learns so much. One learns so much. I like being Pope in the style of a parish priest. Service. I like it in the sense that I feel good, when I visit the sick, when I talk with people who are somewhat in despair, sad. I really love going to prisons, but not those that put me in jail! To talk with the inmates.... Perhaps you will understand what I am saying — every time I enter a prison, I ask myself: “Why them and not me?”. And there I feel the salvation of Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ for me. Because it is He who saved me. I am no less a sinner than they are, but the Lord took me by the hand. I feel this too. And when I go to a prison I am happy. Being Pope is being a bishop, being a priest, being a pastor. If a Pope is not a bishop, if a Pope is not a

priest, if he is not a pastor, he may be a very intelligent, very important person, he may have a great deal of influence in society, but I think — I think! — that in his heart he is not happy. I don’t know if I have responded to what you wanted to know.

Then Anke de Bernardinis, the wife of a Roman Catholic, expressed sorrow at “not being able to partake together in the Lord’s Supper” and asked: “What more can we do to reach communion on this point?”.

Thank you, Ma’am. Regarding the question on sharing the Lord’s Supper, it is not easy for me to answer you, especially in front of a theologian like Cardinal Kasper! I’m afraid! I think the Lord gave us [the answer] when he gave us this command: “Do this in memory of me”. And when we share in, remember and emulate the Lord’s Supper, we do the same thing that the Lord Jesus did. And the Lord’s Supper will be, the final banquet will there be in the New Jerusalem, but this will be the last. Instead on the journey, I wonder — and I don’t know how to answer, but I am making your question my own — I ask myself: “Is sharing the Lord’s Supper the end of a journey or is it the viaticum for walking together? I leave the question to the theologians, to those who understand. It is true that in a certain sense sharing is saying that there are no differences between us, that we have the same doctrine — I underline the word, a difficult word to understand — but I ask myself: don’t we have the same Baptism? And if we have the same Baptism, we have to walk together. You are a witness to an even profound journey because it is a conjugal journey, truly a family journey, of human love and of shared faith. We have the same Baptism. When you feel you are a sinner — I too feel I am quite a sinner — when your husband feels he is a sinner, you go before the Lord and ask forgiveness; your husband does the same and goes to the priest and requests absolution. They are ways of keeping Baptism alive. When you pray together, that Baptism grows, it becomes strong; when you teach your children who Jesus is, why Jesus came, what Jesus did, you do the same, whether in Lutheran or Catholic terms, but it is the same. The question: and the Supper? There are questions to which only if one is honest with oneself and with the few theological “lights” that I have, one must respond the same, you see. “This is my Body, this is my Blood”, said the Lord, “do this in memory of me”, and this is a viaticum which helps us to journey. I had a great friendship with an Episcopalian bishop, 48 years old, married with two children, and he had this concern: a Catholic wife, Catholic children, and he a bishop. He accompanied his wife and children to Mass on Sundays and then went to worship with his community. It was a step of participating in the Lord’s Supper. Then he passed on, the Lord called him, a just man. I respond to your question only with a question: how can I participate with my husband, so that the Lord’s Supper may accompany me on my path? It is a problem to which each person must respond. A pastor friend of mine

3

said to me: “We believe that the Lord is present there. He is present. You believe that the Lord is present. So what is the difference?” — “Well, there are explanations, interpretations...”. Life is greater than explanations and interpretations. Always refer to Baptism: “One faith, one baptism, one Lord”, as Paul tells us, and take the outcome from there. I would never dare give permission to do this because I do not have the authority. One Baptism, one Lord, one faith. Speak with the Lord and go forward. I do not dare say more.

Lastly, Gertrud Wiedmer, a Swiss woman and treasurer of the community, presented a project which aids refugees and asked the Pope: “What can we do, as Christians, so that people do not give up or build new walls?”

You, being Swiss and being the treasurer, hold all the power in your hands! Service.... Misery.... You said this word: misery. Two things come to mind to say: The first, walls. Man, from the first moment — if we read Scripture — is a great builder of walls that separate man from God. In the first pages of Genesis we see this. There is an illusion behind human walls, the illusion of becoming like God. I think the myth, to put it in technical terms, or the account of the Tower of Babel, is really the attitude of men and women who build walls, because to build a wall is to say: “We are powerful, you are outside”. But in saying “we are powerful and you are outside” there is the arrogance of power and the attitude described in the first pages of Genesis: “you will be like God” (Gen 3:5). To build a wall is to exclude, it goes along this line. The temptation is: “if you eat this fruit, you will be like God”. In regard to the Tower of Babel — perhaps you have heard me say this, because I repeat it, but it is so “vivid” — there is a midrash written around 1200, in the time of Thomas Aquinas, of Maimonides, more or less in that time, by a Jewish rabbi who, to his faithful in the Synagogue, explained the construction of the Tower of Babel, where the power of man was felt. This construction was very difficult, because mud bricks had to be made and there was not always water nearby, straw had to be found, the mixture had to be made, then cut, then drained, then dried, then baked in the oven and at the end taken out, and the workers moved them.... If one of these bricks fell it was a catastrophe because they were valuable, they were expensive, costly. If a worker fell, however, nothing happened! Walls always exclude, they prefer power — in this case the power of money because the bricks were costly, or the tower that they hoped would reach heaven — and thus they always exclude humanity. A wall is a monument to exclusion. In us too, in our interior life, how often do riches, vanity, pride become a wall before the Lord, they distance us from the Lord. Building walls. To me, the words that come to me now, rather spontaneously, are those of Jesus: what can we do so as not to build walls? Service. Play the part of the least. Wash feet. He set the example for you. Service to others, service to brothers, to sisters,

service to the neediest. With this work of supporting 80 young mothers you do not build walls, you serve. Human selfishness seeks to defend itself, to defend one’s own power, one’s own selfishness, but in such defense one distances oneself from the source of wealth. In the end walls are like suicide, they close you off. It is an awful thing to have a closed heart. And today we see it, the tragedy.... My brother Pastor mentioned Paris today: closed hearts. Even the name of God is used to close hearts. You asked me: “We try to be of help against misery, but we also know that assistance is limited. What can we do as Christians, so that people do not give up or build new walls?”. Speak clearly, pray — because prayer is powerful — and serve. One day, they asked Mother Teresa of Calcutta a question: “What’s the use of the effort you make just to allow these people, who are three or four days from death, to die with dignity?”. It is a drop of water in the ocean, but after this, the ocean is no longer the same. And, always with service, the walls fall down by themselves; but our selfishness, our desire for power always seeks to build them. I don’t know, this is what came to my mind to say. Thank you. IMPROVISED HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER

After the Gospel Reading, the Pope gave the homily extemporaneously in Italian. The following is a translation.

Jesus, during his life, made many choices. The one which we heard about today will be the final choice. Jesus made many choices: the first disciples, the sick whom he healed, the crowd that followed him... — they followed him to listen because he spoke as one with authority, not like the doctors of the law who were strutting about; but we are able to read who these people were two chapters earlier. In Matthew chapter 23, did they not see authenticity in him; and those people followed him. Jesus made choices and even corrected with love. When the disciples made mistakes in their method: “Shall we make fire come from the sky...?” — “You do not know what your spirit is”. Or when the mother of James and John went to ask the Lord: “Lord, I’d like to ask you a favour, that my two sons, at the time of your Kingdom, that one be at your right, the other at your left...”. And he corrected these things: he always guided, accompanied. Even after the Resurrection there is so much tenderness in seeing how Jesus chooses the right moment, chooses people, he doesn’t frighten. Let us consider the journey to Emmaus, how he accompanied [the two disciples]. They were supposed to go to Jerusalem; but they flee from Jerusalem out of fear, and he goes with them, he accompanies them. Then he shows himself, he reassures them. It is one of Jesus’ choices. Then the great choice which always touches me, when the son’s wedding feast is being prepared, he says: go to the crossroads and bring here the blind, the deaf, the lame...”. The good and the bad! Jesus always chooses. Then the choice of the lost sheep. He does not make a financial calculation: “I have 99, I have lost one...”. No.

4

But the final choice will be the definitive one. And what questions will the Lord ask us on that day: “Did you go to Mass? Did you do a good catechesis?”. No, the questions will be about the poor, because poverty is at the centre of the Gospel. He who was rich made himself poor to enrich us with his poverty. He did not retain the privilege of being like God but abased himself, humiliated himself, unto death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:6-8). It is the choice of service. Is Jesus God? It is true. Is he the Lord? It is true. But he is a servant, and he will make the choice on that basis. You, have you used your life for yourself or to serve? To protect yourself from others with walls or to welcome them with love? And this will be Jesus’ final choice. This page of the Gospel tells us so much about the Lord. I can ask myself the question: which side are we on, Lutherans and Catholics, the left or the right? There have been bad times between us.... Think of the persecutions — between us! — with the same Baptism! Think of the many burned alive. We have to ask each other forgiveness for this, for the scandal of division, because we all, Lutherans and Catholics, are in this choice, not in other choices, in this choice, the choice of service as he showed us by being a servant, the servant of the Lord. I would like, to finish, seeing the Lord as the servant who serves, I would like to ask him to be the servant of unity, to help us to walk together. Today we have prayed together. Praying together, working together for the poor, for the needy; loving one another together, with the true love of brothers and sisters. “But Father, we are different, because our dogmatic books say one thing and yours say another”. But one of your great [exponents] once said that there is a time for reconciled diversity. Let us ask for this grace today, the grace of this diversity reconciled in the Lord, in the Servant of Yaweh, of that God who came among us to serve and not to be served. I thank you very much for this fraternal hospitality. Thank you. PREPARED ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER

The following is the text of the address that the Pope had prepared for the occasion.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, Today’s meeting allows us to share a moment of fraternal prayer, and also gives us the opportunity to reflect on our relationship and on the ecumenical situation in general. Let us begin by thanking the Lord for the numerous steps we have taken towards unity, even while we are aware that there is still a long path ahead. Today, the ecumenical movement has become a fundamental element of the life of our communities. For many people, of different age groups, progress in the field of ecumenism has become an objective to which it is worthwhile committing oneself permanently. Many men and women are willing to

work together in order to overcome the divisions that are still present among us Christians. A very lively ecumenism is being experienced on a local, regional and global level. Even outside of our communities, men and women today are looking for an authentically lived faith. And this search is also the main reason for ecumenical progress. If ecumenism is to have a future, that future cannot but start from the concerns and problems of people today. First, it is important to recognize each other as a community of believers in search of the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, knowing well that in this way they will receive all the rest (cf. Mt 6:33). On this common journey we can learn from each other, support and encourage each other, and experience the gifts of a faith lived as a wealth and source of strength. The Gospel that we listened to once again proposes to us the parable of the Last Judgment (cf. Mt 25:31-46). It reminds us that we will, indeed, be judged on our genuine closeness to our brother in his actual situation, in his condition. This requires the ability to express consideration, compassion, sharing and service. This is a way of being Church, as was presented in the opening words of the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes: “The joy and the hope, the grief and the anguish of the men of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well” (n. 1). This is also the vocation and ecumenical mission of Catholics, Lutherans and all Christians: a joint commitment in the service of charity, especially for the smallest and poorest of people, rendering credible our affiliation to Christ. Otherwise, it continues to be compromised by the divisions and conflicts between the Churches and between believers. Let us assume together the joy and toils of the diakonia of charity through greater ecumenical cooperation. Let us do this with children and the elderly who are most in need, with refugees, and with all those who need care and support. Another very important aspect of our path to unity is the recovery of all the richness of common prayer, of liturgical texts and the various forms of worship; the ecumenical celebrations of the Word, such as, for example, the ecumenical Liturgy of the Hours. Communal reading of the Bible belongs in a specific way to the sphere of spiritual ecumenism. I recall in particular the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Ecumenical Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which takes place on 1 September each year, and of other times your community diligently has organized along with various ecumenical partners. In addition, enlightened by our common Baptism, Lutherans and Catholics are called to continue theological dialogue. After 50 years of ecumenical dialogue, the ground covered shows that what unites us is already much more than what still divides us. We are constantly searching for a deeper

5

knowledge of divine truth. The experience of recent decades shows us that we must persevere in our efforts, to discover new aspects of divine revelation together and to bear witness to it together, according to the will of the Lord. With this trust in dialogue we shall be able to deepen the concerns of the Church, the Eucharist and Ministry in particular. I also believe it is important that the Catholic Church courageously carry forward a careful and honest reevaluation of the intentions of the Reformation and of the figure of Martin Luther, in the sense of “Ecclesia semper reformanda”, in the broad wake traced by the Councils, as well by men and women, enlivened by the light and power of the Holy Spirit. The recent document of the Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity, entitled “From Conflict to Communion – Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017”, has addressed and carried out this reflection in a promising manner. Therefore, ecumenism between Catholics and Lutherans, which is a fundamental condition for bearing a convincing witness to our faith in Christ before the people of our time, is based on these pillars: common prayer, diaconal sharing with the poor, and theological dialogue. Soon the Jubilee Year of Mercy will begin. I invite you to join us on this journey, in ecumenical communion, in Rome and in all churches and local communities, so that it may be a time for everyone to rediscover the mercy of God and the beauty of love for brothers and sisters. May the Lord bless us and keep us in his peace.

ORE, 20 November 2015

OTHER STATEMENTS BY POPE FRANCIS

ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF THE ‘RENEWAL IN THE HOLY SPIRIT’

3 July 2015

On Friday afternoon, 3 July, in St Peter’s Square, the Holy Father met with members of the ‘Renewal in the Holy Spirit’, who had come to Rome for their 38th annual Convention. The following is an excerpt of the Pope’s address, which was given in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

(…) There is another strong sign of the Spirit in Charismatic Renewal: the search for unity of the Body of Christ. You, Charismatics, have a special grace to pray and work for Christian unity, so that the current of grace may pass through all Christian Churches. Christian unity is the work of the Holy Spirit and we must pray together — spiritual ecumenism, the ecumenism of prayer. “But, Father, can I pray with an Evangelical, with an Orthodox, with a Lutheran?” — “You must, you must! You have received the same Baptism”. We have all received the same Baptism; we are all going on Jesus’ path, we want Jesus. We have all made these divisions in history, for so many reasons,

but not good ones. But now, in fact, is the time in which the Spirit makes us think that these divisions are not good, that these divisions are a counter-testimony, and we must do everything in order to journey together: spiritual ecumenism, the ecumenism of prayer, the ecumenism of work, but of charity at the same time; the ecumenism of reading the Bible together.... To go together towards unity. “But Father, do we have to sign a document for this?” — “Let yourself be carried forward by the Holy Spirit: pray, work, love and then the Spirit will do the rest!”. This current of grace passes through all Christian Confessions, all of us who believe in Christ — unity first of all in prayer. The work for Christian unity begins with prayer. Pray together. Unity, for the blood of today’s martyrs makes us one. There is the ecumenism of blood. We know that when those who hate Jesus Christ kill a Christian, before killing him, they do not ask him: “Are you a Lutheran, are you an Orthodox, are you an Evangelical, are you a Baptist, are you a Methodist?” You are Christian! And they sever the head. They are not confused; they know there is a root there, which gives life to all of us and which is called Jesus Christ, and that it is the Holy Spirit who leads us to unity! Those who hate Jesus Christ, led by the Evil One, do not confuse one with the other. They know and therefore kill without asking questions. And this is something that I entrust to you, perhaps I have already told you this, but it is a true story. It is a true story. In Hamburg, a city of Germany, there was a parish priest who studied the writings to carry forward the cause for the beatification of a priest killed by Nazis, guillotined. The reason: he taught children the catechism. And, as he studied, he discovered that after the priest, five minutes later, a Lutheran pastor was guillotined for the same reason. And the blood of both was mixed: both were martyrs, both were martyrs. It is the ecumenism of blood. If the enemy unites us in death, who are we to be divided in life? Let us allow the Spirit to enter, let us pray to go forward all together. “But there are differences!”. Let us leave them aside; let us walk with what we have in common, which is enough: there is the Holy Trinity; there is Baptism. Let us go forward in the strength of the Holy Spirit. A few months ago, there were those 23 Egyptians who were also beheaded on the beach in Libya, who in that moment said Jesus’ name. “But they were not Catholics ...”. But they were Christians, they are brothers, they are our martyrs! — the ecumenism of blood. Fifty years ago, at the canonization of the young martyrs of Uganda, Blessed Paul VI made reference to the fact that their Anglican companion catechists had also poured out their blood for the same reason; they were Christians, they were martyrs. Excuse me, do not be scandalized, they are our martyrs! Because they gave their life for Christ and this is the ecumenism of blood — pray, remembering our common martyrs.

6

Unity in working together for the poor and the needy, who are also in need of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It would be so beautiful to organize seminars of life in the Spirit, together with other Christian Charismatic realities, for brothers and sisters who live on the street: they too have the Spirit within who impels them, so that someone will open wide the door from the outside.

ORE, 31 July 2015

MESSAGE TO THE TAIZÉ COMMUNITY

16 August 2015

“Choose to love”: with these words of Frère Roger, the Pope asked the Taizé Community to continue to nurture the message of their Founder. The community is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding as well as the centenary of the birth and 10-year anniversary of the death of Frère Roger, its Founder. On this occasion, the Pope sent a message to Frère Aloïs and to the entire Community. The following is a translation of the message which was written in French.

To Frère Aloïs and to the Taizé Community

In this year in which the Taizé Community is celebrating three anniversaries, the 75th of its founding, the 100th of Br Roger’s birth, and the 10th of his death, I join in your activity of giving thanks to God, He who always creates new faithful witnesses until the end. I have entrusted to my Venerable Brother Cardinal Kurt Koch the task of imparting to you and to all members of your Community the assurance of my affection. As Pope Benedict XVI said to young people, on the occasion of the European Meeting organized by the Taizé Community of Rome in 2012, Br Roger was a “tireless witness to the Gospel of peace and reconciliation, ardently committed to an ecumenism of holiness” (Speech of 29 December 2012). It was this fire that urged him to found a community which can be considered a true “parable of communion” which, up to today, has played such an important role in building bridges of fraternity among Christians. In seeking with passion the unity of the Church, Body of Christ, Br Roger opened himself up to the treasures safeguarded in the different Christian traditions without, however, causing a rupture with his Protestant origin. With the perseverance by which he gave proof during his long life, he helped to modify the relations between still distant Christians, marking for many a path of reconciliation. Nourished by Holy Scripture, Br Roger also took inspiration from the Holy Fathers of the Church, he drew from Christian sources and knew how to render them current among the young. Br Roger understood the younger generations; he had confidence in them. He made Taizé a meeting place where the youth of the whole world felt respected and accompanied in their spiritual search.

Br Roger loved the poor, the disowned, who seemingly counted for nothing. He showed, with his existence and with that of his brothers, that prayer goes hand in hand with human solidarity. I give thanks to God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for the gift of Br Roger’s life, up to his violent death. May the Taizé Community always maintain the passion of the witness he bore to Christ Risen and the appeal that he ceaselessly renewed to “choose to love”.

From the Vatican, 16 August 2015

FRANCISCUS PP

ORE, 21 August 2015

MESSAGE TO THE SYNOD OF THE WALDENSIAN METHODIST CHURCH

24 August 2015 Torre Pellice, Turin (Italy)

To His Excellency Monsignor Pier Giorgio Debernardi

His Holiness assures the participants in the Waldensian-Methodist Synod of his spiritual closeness. The Pope promises a fervent remembrance in his prayers, that the Lord may grant to all Christians the joy of journeying with sincerity of heart toward full communion, in order to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to His Gospel, working together in service to humanity, especially in defence of the dignity of the human person, in the promotion of justice and peace, and in giving a common response to the suffering that afflicts so many people, especially the poor and the weak.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin Secretary of State of His Holiness

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/08/24/pope_sends_greetings_to_waldensian_synod/1167032

TO THE CATHOLICOS PATRIARCH OF THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

21 September 2015

Solidarity with those who “suffer because of the tragic situation in the Middle East, especially our Christian brothers and sisters and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria”. Pope Francis expressed this in a message sent to the Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Gewargis III, who was elected on 16 September and succeeded Mar Dinkha IV, who died on 26 March. The following is the text of the Pope's message, sent on Monday 21 September.

His Holiness Mar Gewargis III Catholicos Patriarch of the

Assyrian Church of the East

I received with joy the news of the election of Your Holiness as Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. I gladly extend to you and to the

7

clergy and faithful of the Assyrian Church of the East my good wishes and prayerful solidarity, asking the Holy Spirit to bestow his abundant blessings upon your lofty ministry. It is my prayer that Your Holiness may be an inspirational pastor for the flock entrusted to your care and an untiring builder of peace and harmony, serving the common good and the good of the entire Middle East. I join your Holiness in prayer and solidarity with all who suffer because of the tragic situation in the Middle East, especially our Christian brothers and sisters and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. With you, I ask the Lord to grant them strength so that they may persevere in their Christian witness. In expressing gratitude to Almighty God for the bonds of fraternity between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, I hope and pray that our continuing friendship and dialogue may be further developed and deepened. May our heavenly Father fill Your Holiness with peace and strength for the noble task that awaits you,

FRANCISCUS PP

ORE, 9 October 2015

POPE’S MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF THE ‘SOPHIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE’ HONORARY DOCTORATE TO ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW I

26 October 2015

To His Eminence Cardinal Giuseppe Betori Archbishop of Florence

Grand Chancellor of the Sophia University Institute

On the occasion of the Conferral of the Honorary Doctorate in the Culture of Unity to His Holiness Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, by the Sophia University Institute, I wish to assure you of my spiritual closeness and send my warmest greetings to all those present. I send special greetings to my beloved brother Bartholomew, with whom I renew sentiments of profound and heartfelt appreciation. I am pleased with this award which, besides being a rightful recognition of his commitment to the promotion of the culture of unity, contributes favorably to the common journey of our churches towards full and visible unity, to which we tend with dedication and perseverance. I wish that the Sophia University Institute, following the charism of the Focolare Movement and remaining open to the action of the Spirit, may continue to be a place of encounter and dialogue between different cultures and religions.

With the assurance of my prayers and, asking you to pray for me, I impart my blessing to all those present.

FRANCISCUS PP

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/10/26/pope_sends_message_as_patriarc_receives_honorary_doct

orate/1182240

APPEAL OF THE POPE FOR THE WORLD’S PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS ON THE OCCASION OF THE GLOBAL CHRISTIAN FORUM

2-4 November 2015

Tirana, Albania

To His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch President of the Pontifical Council

for Promoting Christian Unity

I extend greetings to you and all those participating in the Global Christian Forum Consultation, to be held in Tirana from 2 to 4 November 2015, as you reflect on the theme “Discrimination, persecution, martyrdom: following Christ together”. In a particular way, I wish to greet our brothers and sisters of different Christian traditions who represent communities suffering for their profession of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I think with great sadness of the escalating discrimination and persecution against Christians in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and elsewhere throughout the world. Your gathering shows that, as Christians, we are not indifferent to our suffering brothers and sisters. In various parts of the world, the witness to Christ, even to the shedding of blood, has become a shared experience of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostals, which is deeper and stronger than the differences which still separate our Churches and Ecclesial Communities. The communio martyrum is the greatest sign of our journeying together. At the same time, your gathering will give voice to the victims of such injustice and violence, and seek to show the path that will lead the human family out of this tragic situation. With these sentiments, I assure you of my spiritual closeness. May the martyrs of today, belonging to many Christian traditions, help us to understand that all the baptised are members of the same Body of Christ, his Church (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-30). Let us see this profound truth as a call to persevere on our ecumenical journey towards full and visible communion, growing more and more in love and mutual understanding.

FRANCISCUS PP

ORE, 6 November 2015

8

VISIT TO THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE BY A DELEGATION OF THE HOLY SEE

FOR THE FEAST OF SAINT ANDREW

29 November – 1 December 2015

Within the context of the traditional exchange of visits for the respective Feasts of the Holy Patrons, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, led a delegation on 29 November to Istanbul for the feast of St Andrew accompanied by Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Dicastery and Msgr. Andrea Palmieri, Undersecretary. The Cardinal took part at the celebration of Divine Liturgy presided by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the Patriarchal Church of St George in the Phanar. Then Cardinal Koch met with the Ecumenical Patriarch and members of the Synod Commission in charge of relations with the Catholic Church.

The Cardinal delivered to the Patriarch the message of Pope Francis which was read at the end of the liturgy. We publish here below the brief word pronounced by Cardinal Koch upon delivering the message and the text of the message, followed by the greeting of the Ecumenical Patriarch to the delegation.

WORD OF PRESENTATION BY CARDINAL KURT KOCH

On the 7th of December it will be 50 years since – here in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George in the Phanar and simultaneously in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome – the joint declaration of the highest representatives of our two Churches was read out, “removing from memory and from the midst of the Church” the reciprocal anathema of 1054, so that they “can no longer represent an obstacle to rapprochement in charity” (Tomos Agapis, N°. 127). With this courageous act the poison of excommunication was drawn from the organism of the Church, and the symbol of schism was replaced by the symbol of love. This act has become the starting point for the ecumenical dialogue of charity and truth, and also for the beautiful custom that the sister churches of Constantinople and Rome make reciprocal visits on the occasion of the feast of their patron saints in order to celebrate the fraternal embrace between Peter and Andrew. Last year the Holy Father Pope Francis was present in person at your patronal feast. This year, I have in turn the honour entrusted to me by Pope Francis of participating in this feast in Constantinople together with a delegation from Rome, to celebrate with you and to glorify the Triune God. With great joy it is my privilege at the close of this magnificent Divine Liturgy to express my heartfelt greetings, to convey to you the blessings of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, and to present his message addressed with deep affection to Your All Holiness, and to all who are gathered here today.

MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS TO HIS HOLINESS BARTHOLOMEW I

To His Holiness Bartholomew Archbishop of Constantinople

Ecumenical Patriarch

Your Holiness, Beloved Brother in Christ,

A year has passed since we celebrated together, in the Patriarchal Church in the Phanar, the feast of Saint

Andrew, the first-called Apostle and brother of Saint Peter. The occasion was a moment of grace which permitted me to renew and to deepen, in shared prayer and personal encounter, the bonds of friendship with you and with the Church over which you preside. It was with joy that I also experienced the vitality of a Church which unceasingly professes, celebrates and offers witness to faith in Jesus Christ, our one Lord and Saviour. I am pleased once again to send a delegation of the Holy See to the Patronal celebrations as a tangible sign of my fraternal affection and the spiritual closeness of the Church of Rome to Your Holiness, as well as to the members of the Holy Synod, the clergy, monks and all the faithful of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In our profound communion of faith and charity, and grateful for all that God has accomplished for us, I recall the fiftieth anniversary on 7 December 2015 of the Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I which expressed the decision to remove from memory and from the midst of the Church the excommunications of 1054. The memory of the mutual sentences of excommunication, together with the offensive words, groundless reproaches, and reprehensible gestures on both sides, which accompanied the sad events of this period, represented for many centuries an obstacle to rapprochement in charity between Catholics and Orthodox. Attentive to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed to the Father on the eve of his Passion that his disciples “may be one” (Jn 17:21), Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I consigned these painful memories to oblivion. Since then, the logic of antagonism, mistrust and hostility that had been symbolized by the mutual excommunications has been replaced by the logic of love and brotherhood, represented by our fraternal embrace. While not all differences between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches were brought to an end, there now existed the conditions necessary to journey towards re-establishing the “full communion of faith, fraternal accord and sacramental life which existed among them during the first thousand years of the life

9

of the Church” (Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration, 7 December 1965). Having restored a relationship of love and fraternity, in a spirit of mutual trust, respect and charity, there is no longer any impediment to Eucharistic communion which cannot be overcome through prayer, the purification of hearts, dialogue and the affirmation of truth. Indeed, where there is love in the life of the Church, its source and fulfilment is always to be found in Eucharistic love. So too the symbol of the fraternal embrace finds its most profound truth in the embrace of peace exchanged in the Eucharistic celebration. In order to progress on our journey towards the full communion for which we long, we need continually to draw inspiration from the gesture of reconciliation and peace by our venerable predecessors Paul VI and Athenagoras I. At all levels and in every context of Church life, relations between Catholics and Orthodox must increasingly reflect the logic of love that leaves no room for the spirit of rivalry. Theological dialogue itself, sustained by mutual charity, must continue to examine carefully the questions which divide us, aiming always at deepening our shared understanding of revealed truth. Motivated by God’s love, we must together offer the world a credible and effective witness to Christ’s message of reconciliation and salvation. The world today has great need of reconciliation, particularly in light of so much blood which has been shed in recent terrorist attacks. May we accompany the victims with our prayers, and renew our commitment to lasting peace by promoting dialogue between religious traditions, for “indifference and mutual ignorance can only lead to mistrust and unfortunately even conflict” (Common Declaration, Jerusalem 2014). I wish to express my deep appreciation for Your Holiness’s fervent commitment to the critical issue of care for creation, for which your sensitivity and awareness is an exemplary witness for Catholics. I believe that it is a hopeful sign for Catholics and Orthodox that we now celebrate together an annual Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on 1 September, following the longstanding practice of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Your Holiness, it is incumbent upon humanity to rediscover the mystery of mercy, “the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness” (Misericordiae Vultus, 2). For this reason I have called for an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, a favourable time to contemplate the Father’s mercy revealed fully in his Son, Jesus Christ, and to become ourselves an effective sign of God’s love through our mutual pardon and works of mercy. It is providential that the anniversary of that historic Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration concerning the removal of the excommunications of 1054 occurs on the eve of the Year of Mercy. Following Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I, Catholics and Orthodox today must ask pardon of God and one another for divisions that Christians have

brought about in the Body of Christ. I ask you and all the faithful of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to pray that this Extraordinary Jubilee may bear the spiritual fruits for which we yearn. I willingly assure you of my prayers for the events that your Church will celebrate in the year to come, especially the Pan-Orthodox Great Synod. May this important occasion for all the Orthodox Churches be a source of abundant blessings for the life of the Church. With fraternal affection in the Lord, I assure you of my spiritual closeness on the joyous feast of the Apostle Andrew, and I willingly exchange with Your Holiness an embrace of peace in the Lord Jesus.

From the Vatican, 30 November 2015

FRANCISCUS PP.

ORE, 4 December 2015

GREETING OF HIS HOLINESS BARTHOLOMEW I TO THE HOLY SEE DELEGATION

30 November 2015

Your Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch and the honorable entourage of the official delegation of our sister and elder Church of Rome, Your Eminence Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, President of the Catholic Conference of Bishops in Germany, it is with profound love and particular honor that we greet your presence here as bearers of the fraternal charity and congratulatory wishes of His Holiness Pope Francis, our dearly beloved brother, to whom we express our fervent gratitude personally and on behalf of our most holy Church of Constantinople for the gracious participation once again of his Church, through your person, in this year’s celebration of our thronal feast. It is with special joy and thanks that we recall the personal presence of His Holiness among us on this auspicious occasion last year, for which we once again express our fervent thanks; for we appreciate this presence as a manifestation of Christ’s love, which according to the Apostle “compels us” (2 Cor 5:14), and as support and solidarity for our Church in the struggle to bear witness to the Gospel in the contemporary world. Today’s thronal feast of our Church is in many ways a common feast for both of our Churches, of elder and new Rome alike. This is because our founders, the Apostles Peter and Andrew were brothers in the flesh but also because, in accordance with the holy Gospel reading that we heard during today’s Divine Liturgy, they both encountered the Lord and acknowledged Him as the Messiah and Savior of the world. Since that time, for almost an entire millennium, the two Churches founded by their preaching and martyrdom journeyed in the same faith, united in the one chalice of life, sharing the same Fathers and teachers, honoring the same saints and in particular the Most-Holy Theotokos. It is this full

10

communion and union that both Churches now seek to rediscover, transcending and healing the wounds inflicted on the body of the Church during the second millennium, through the dialogue of love and truth that commenced at the historical initiative of the late venerable leaders of our two Churches and by God’s grace continues to this day. Among these initiatives, the dialogue of love began with an exceptionally symbolical act on the part of both Churches, namely the lifting in 1965 of the anathemas, through which the Churches of Rome and Constantinople were – for reasons known to God – separated during the Schism of 1054, the start of unfortunate events that ensued in relations between the Churches of East and West for the next thousand years. This year, we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary since the historic act of the lifting of the anathemas, and we offer glory to the God of love for obliterating from our hearts every trace of malicious memory for whatsoever disrupted the fraternal relations of our Churches during the second millennium; for “cleansing our memory” has reestablished us as “sister Churches” in pursuit, through the dialogue of truth, of full reconciliation of our union in the communion of the Eucharistic Table. Blessed be the name of the Lord for this restored love, which we pray will remain seamless to the ages! We reap and enjoy the wonderful fruits of this “dialogue of love” each day in the life of our faithful, especially in the Diaspora and in countries that historically always belonged to the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, where the peaceful and creative coexistence and cooperation between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians is particularly strong. One such place of positive and fraternal collaboration between clergy and laity of both our Churches is Germany; this is why we take this opportunity of the presence of Your Eminence, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, President of the Catholic Conference of Bishops in Germany, to express – both to you personally as to the local Church that you head – the warm thanks of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and of our Modesty for the manifold and invaluable assistance that you provide to our beloved brother Metropolitan Avgoustinos of Germany, as well as to the Orthodox clergy and faithful there, for the smooth management of their work and ministry by means of a wonderful collaboration with their Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. We pray that this harmonious coexistence and cooperation may be strengthened and developed continually and increasingly for the progress of the unity of Christ’s Church and the promotion of the Gospel message in our contemporary world. Moreover, it is with great attention and vigilant prayer that we also follow from this sacred Center the advancement of the “dialogue of truth,” that other pillar in the bilateral relations between our two

Churches, which from 1980 to this day steadily accompanies the “dialogue of love.” We know and acknowledge the difficulties that this dialogue is undergoing, especially in its present phase, when it is examining thorny issues such as primacy in the Church; however, we are encouraged in ascertaining that solid and proper foundations for resolving this matter have already been established with the exceptional common text of Ravenna, which creates the context and conditions for exercising primacy in the Church, which is a primacy of service, rooted in the very nature of the Church and extremely necessary for the fulfilment of its ministry in the world. We profoundly appreciate the labors of Your Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch and your Orthodox co-chairman in the commission for dialogue, His Eminence Elder Metropolitan John of Pergamon; and we pray that this Dialogue may continue its work, supported by the finest theological resources and faraway from every form of interests beyond witnessing to the truth in love. This journey toward restoration of full unity between our Churches is carried out in a world torn apart by hatred and much turmoil. Each day we witness conflicts and assaults, often against innocent people, even in the name of God. The victims of these circumstances include Christians in lands where the Church of Christ emerged and was established, who are obliged at times to flee their ancestral homes and at other times to endure torture and even death. Human personhood and life itself are prone to lose their value, while the world is engulfed in an unprecedented darkness. Our heart aches from pain and anguish; our prayer to the God of love intensifies as it implores divine intervention. At the same time, we are increasingly obliged as believers in Christ to become witnesses of the Gospel of peace and charity “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation” (Phil: 2.15) so as to be first in providing an example of reconciliation and love. Perhaps never before has the reconciliation of Christians proved so mandatory and imperative as today. May the Lord, through the intercessions of St. Andrew the First-Called of His Apostles, whom we commemorate today, and his brother St. Peter the Apostle, on whose preaching and martyrdom our two Churches were founded, increase the love that unites us in the bond of peace, for the benefit of humanity which is suffering so much and for the glory of our God-in-Trinity. With these thoughts and sentiments, we welcome you on this festive day, once again wholeheartedly thanking you and His Holiness our brother Bishop of Rome, who sent you, together with all your Church. “May the God of love and peace be with you” (cf. 2 Cor 13:11). Amen!

ORE, 11 December 2015

11

ECUMENICAL NEWS

CATHOLICS AND PENTECOSTALS: SIXTH ROUND OF CONVERSATIONS

Rome (Italy), 10-17 July 2015

The Fifth Session of the Sixth Phase of the International Catholic - Pentecostal Dialogue took place in Rome, Italy, from 10 to 17 July 2015. Participants in the Dialogue include Catholics appointed by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and some Classical Pentecostal churches and leaders. The general theme for the present phase of Dialogue is “Charisms in the Church: Their Spiritual Significance, Discernment, and Pastoral Implications”. The topics discussed during the past four sessions were Charisms - Our Common Ground (2011), Discernment (2012), Healing (2013) and Prophecy (2014). The 2015 session was devoted to writing the Final Report, which is expected to be published early in 2016.

The goal of this Dialogue, begun in 1972, is to promote mutual respect and understanding in matters of faith and practice. Genuine exchange and frank discussion concerning the positions and practices of the two traditions have been guiding principles of these conversations, which include daily prayer services that are led alternately by Catholics and Pentecostals.

The Catholic Co-Chair of the Dialogue is Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Raleigh, NC, USA. The Pentecostal Co-Chair of the Dialogue is Rev. Cecil M. Robeck (Assemblies of God), Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA.

During their working sessions in Rome, Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, met with the group to engage in conversation, gather perspectives and respond to questions. The participants also had an informal meeting with Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council.

On Sunday, remembering the missionary journeys of Paul and his trip to Rome, participants attended Mass at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, where it is believed that the Apostle to the Gentiles is buried. They enjoyed the hospitality of the Benedictine community.

According to Bishop Burbidge, “It has been a privilege to serve as Co-Chair of this phase of the International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue and a real honor to work with such dedicated colleagues on both teams as we focused our attention on charisms in the Church and their spiritual significance. Through the scholarly papers that were presented, honest and respectful discussion throughout the Dialogue, and our prayer time together we grew to a deeper understanding of areas of agreement as related to charisms, healing, prophecy, and discernment, as well as points of divergence. We also identified together pastoral challenges and opportunities as we go forth to

invite others to a deeper reliance on the gifts of the Spirit who is always at work within us.”

Rev. Robeck noted, “This current round of dialogue has revealed that the teaching of Pentecostals and Catholics on the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit have many points of agreement. Both traditions recognize that every believer has been given one or more gifts by the Holy Spirit to be used to build up the Church and to minister to the world. These gifts have been present in the Church since the time of the New Testament. Given the problems posed by society in the current culture, we acknowledge that we face common challenges in which our people must rely upon the help of the Holy Spirit to exercise these charisms in thoughtful and creative ways as they seek to extend the message of love and forgiveness that Jesus Christ brought to the world.”

The members from the Classical Pentecostal churches are: Rev. Cecil M. Robeck, Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA (Assemblies of God), Co-Chair; Rev. David Cole, Vice President for Student Development, The King’s University, Southlake, TX, USA (Open Bible Churches; Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America), Co-Secretary; and Rev. S. David Moore, Professor, The King’s University, Dallas, TX, USA (International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, USA).

The members of the Catholic team are: Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Raleigh NC, USA, Co-Chair; Rev. Msgr. Juan Usma Gómez, Bureau Chief of Western Section, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Vatican City/Colombia, Co-Secretary; Dr. Mary Healy, Associate Professor, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI, USA, Chair of the Doctrinal Commission, International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services; Rev. Lawrence Iwuamadi, Catholic Professor, Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland/Nigeria; Sr. Maria Ko, FMA, Professor, Pontifical Faculty Auxilium, Rome, and Holy Spirit Seminary, Hong Kong, China; Rev. Marcial Maçaneiro SCJ, Professor, Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Brazil; and Dr. Teresa Francesca Rossi, Associate Director, Centro Pro Unione and Professor, Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy. ANGLICAN AND ORIENTAL ORTHODOX CHURCHES REACH HISTORIC AGREEMENTS ON THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST AND PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

9 October 2015

Historic agreements have been signed between the Anglican and Oriental Orthodox Churches helping to heal the oldest continuing division within Christianity. An Agreed Statement on Christology, published in North Wales this week by the Anglican-

12

Oriental Orthodox International Commission (AOOIC), heals the centuries-old split between the Anglican Churches within the family of Chalcedonian Churches and the non-Chalcedonian Churches over the incarnation of Christ. In addition, the Commission has made substantial progress on issues concerning the Holy Spirit, which have continued to keep the Churches apart over the centuries. Leading clergy and theologians from both Christian traditions from around the world have met at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden to engage in theological dialogue, while at the same time forging deeper bonds of faith and mutual support. His Eminence Metropolitan Bishoy from the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt and Co-Chair of the Commission said: “With this agreement we are able to heal the cause of the division between the two families of the churches worldwide which started at Chalcedon. There are other things which emerged during the long history since Chalcedon in the fifth century, so we have on our agenda many other topics including the position of the Holy Spirit, which we were able to sign a preliminary agreement on this subject also. The publication of our Agreed Statement on Christology is a great outcome of sharing dialogue together. It is a very beautiful piece of theology which is very encouraging and easily understandable to the people and pleasing to the theologians.” The Commission has spent a week in North Wales talking and visiting church communities across the Diocese of St Asaph. Speaking during Evensong at St Asaph Cathedral, the Anglican Co-Chair of the Commission, the Bishop of St Asaph, the Rt Revd Gregory Cameron, who hosted the visit, said: “It’s a privilege to welcome you to this building which has seen worship every day for at least 800 years, although this is a tradition which can be easily matched and bettered by the Churches of the East. Ecumenical dialogue can be long, but beneath the process is the love shared between Christians, and it is that love and affection which draws us together and back to dialogue and mutual understanding.” The Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Commission was established in 2001 to strengthen the relationships between the different Churches and to discuss important theological issues, such as Christology, which divided the Church at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. The dialogue was halted in 2003 following the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson in the Episcopal Church (in the United States) but resumed in 2013 with good progress being made since. As well as dialogue, the Commission worshipped and prayed, sharing the urgent concerns of members from the Middle East, especially in the critical situations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other regions. Metropolitan Polycarp Augin Aydın from the Syrian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Netherlands explained

why this agreement is important now: “Because of immigration we now find ourselves side by side as neighbours. In the past we used to talk about Eastern and Western Christianity but this is no longer the case. There are Eastern Christians who live in the Western Countries and vice versa. Therefore we have to dialogue with each other and to really learn from one another and to really share our treasures with one another.” Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK said: “The world we are living in today is a world that needs us as Christians to stand together. Around our commission table, we have the Armenians commemorating the Armenian Genocide, the Syrians and Iraqis whose countries are war-torn and peoples displaced, the Copts who have lost 21 of their men to that horrific martyrdom in Libya, the Ethiopians likewise in Libya, and here in Europe we also have our own struggles. It is very much time for us to stand together as Church leaders and to recognise what we have in common while at the same time respecting the differences we have. Over the past 15 years since 9/11 there has been a huge appetite for us to work with other religions but unfortunately I have not seen the same appetite for many people to work with other Churches. It becomes fashionable to be able to dialogue with inter-faith communities but we do not celebrate with each other or accept each other as we are; we want others to fit into a certain mould. So I think this dialogue acknowledges that we might have different teachings on things and some matters we may never resolve, and that is the reality of it, but we are not trying to be the same, we are trying to work on what we have in common”. For the two Church families this agreement is ground-breaking and could be a model for future ecumenical dialogue. The Very Revd Archimandrite Shahe Ananyan from the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church said: “Every signed ecumenical official document has its difficulties and has its advantages also. This document I think is a model for other Christological dialogues between Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches which need to re-start. I think this document could be served as a model for subsequently developed dialogues.” The Commission will meet again in Lebanon from 24-29 October 2016, where it is expected that dialogue on the Holy Spirit will continue.

www.anglicannews.org

13

COMMISSION FOR RELIGIOUS RELATIONS WITH THE JEWS

“THE GIFTS AND CALLING OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE” (ROM 11:29)

A REFLECTION ON THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO CATHOLIC-JEWISH RELATIONS

ON THE OCCASION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF NOSTRA ÆTATE (N. 4)

On Thursday 10 December, a new document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews was presented in the Holy See Press Office. The text, “The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable: A Reflection on the Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations”, was presented 50 years after the promulgation of ‘Nostra Aetate’. At its core is the different way in which Jews and Christians understand the revealed Word of God. Among those presenting at the conference were Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and Fr Norbert Hofmann, Secretary of the Commission, who illustrated the process of writing the document, pointing out that Jewish consultants read the text and made suggestions for improvement. Also presenting at the conference were Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of the Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, and Dr Edward Kessler, founder and Director of the Woolf Institute, Cambridge (United-Kingdom). We publish here below the texts of the presentations.

PRESS CONFERENCE FOR THE PRESENTATION OF THE DOCUMENT Holy See Press Office Vatican city, 10 December 2015 PRESENTATION BY CARDINAL KURT KOCH

On Wednesday, October 28 of this year, at the wish of Pope Francis, a very special general audience was organized, because on the same day, fifty years ago, the Declaration Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council was promulgated. The audience was attended by numerous representatives of other religions. Their presence was due to the fact that the Council text marked a turning point in the attitude of the Catholic Church to other religions and should be understood as a plea in favor of interfaith dialogue. The celebration of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate took place from October 26-28, with a major international conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The more than four hundred people present there also attended the papal audience on 28 October, which represented the culmination of the commemoration. On that occasion, the Holy Father stressed the importance of interreligious dialogue and collaboration between the various religions in the face of the serious problems and great challenges of the present time: “The world, looking to us believers, exhorts us to cooperate amongst ourselves and with the men and women of good will who profess no religion, asking us for effective responses regarding numerous issues: peace, hunger, the poverty that afflicts millions of people, the environmental crisis, violence, especially that committed in the name of religion, corruption, moral decay, the crisis of the family, of the economy, of finance, and especially of hope.”

For the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, the recurrence of this anniversary is a good occasion to present a new document, which takes up anew the theological principles of the fourth point of Nostra Aetate, broadening and deepening them where they affect relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism. Although it is true that in the course of Church history there have been official statements about Judaism or coexistence between Catholics and Jews, it is equally true that in Nostra Aetate (n.4), for the first time, a Council took a decisive theological position towards Judaism. The declaration expressly recalls the Jewish roots of Christianity. Jesus and his first disciples were Jews, marked by the Jewish tradition of their time; only in this context, therefore, is it possible to understand them properly.

The document that I wish to present today is entitled “The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable” (Rom 11:29) – A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations. It is an explicitly theological document, which intends to take up once more and to clarify the issues that have emerged in recent decades in Catholic-Jewish dialogue. Prior to this text, no other document published by the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism has had a strictly theological character. The three previous documents touched upon rather concrete issues, useful for dialogue with the Jewish people from an essentially practical perspective.

Alluding briefly to the history of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, I wish to recall that it was instituted by Blessed Pope Paul VI on October 22, 1974. The same year of its foundation, the Holy See’s Commission published, on December 1, 1974, its first official document, entitled “Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate (n. 4)”. The main purpose and innovation of this document was to draw

14

near to Judaism in order to know how it understands itself. The document was intended primarily to deal with the way in which Nostra Aetate (n. 4) can be put into practice properly in different contexts. After eleven years, on June 24, 1985, the Commission of the Holy See published a second document entitled “Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church.” Although the text is shaped by exegetical and theological premises, it has a mainly practical character: it focuses on the way in which Judaism is presented in Catholic preaching and catechesis. A third document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews was presented to the public on March 16, 1998. It deals with the Holocaust and is entitled “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah.” This document was especially sought by our Jewish partners, given the importance that the tragedy of the Holocaust plays in their long history of persecution.

Compared to these first three documents, the present document has a very different character and orientation. The context that provided the right opportunity for its drafting has already been mentioned: the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of Nostra Aetate (n. 4). But what is the reason that motivated its writing? What is its intention?

The preamble emphasizes that this is not an official document of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, but a study document of our Commission, whose aim is to explore the theological dimension of the Catholic-Jewish dialogue. The document, therefore, does not wish to present definitive doctrinal statements, but to provide a focal point and an impulse for further theological discussions. An important objective of Pope Francis and our Commission is indeed the enhancement of religious and theological dialogue between Jews and Catholics. Nostra Aetate (n. 4) had already mentioned theological issues that required further consideration. And it is precisely to this reflection that this document wishes to contribute. It calls on theologians and, more generally, all those who are interested in Jewish-Christian dialogue to incorporate, to consider and to discuss the various points made in the document.

The document is structured around seven sections: 1. A brief history of the impact of Nostra Aetate (n. 4) over the last 50 years; 2. The special theological status of Jewish-Catholic dialogue; 3. Revelation in history as “Word of God” in Judaism and Christianity; 4. The relationship between the Old and New Testaments and between the Old and New Covenants; 5. The universality of salvation in Jesus Christ and the God's unrevoked covenant with Israel; 6. The Church's mandate to evangelize in relation to Judaism; 7. The goals of dialogue with Judaism.

In the first section, the history of Catholic-Jewish dialogue in the last fifty years is briefly outlined, summed up at no. 10 with the following words: “Much has developed over the past 40 years; the former confrontation has turned into successful cooperation,

the previous potential for conflict has become positive conflict management, and the past co-existence marked by tension has been replaced by resilient and fruitful mutuality. The bonds of friendship forged in the meantime have proved to be stable, so that it has become possible to address even controversial subjects together without the danger of permanent damage being done to the dialogue”. These words correspond to what was stated by Pope Francis during the general audience of October 28: “Deserving of special gratitude to God is the veritable transformation of Christian-Jewish relations in these 50 years. Indifference and opposition have changed into cooperation and benevolence. From enemies and strangers we have become friends and brothers.” As evidence of this, the first section mentions the activities and initiatives of the last three popes in the field of Jewish-Catholic dialogue, as well as those of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, regarding which it is not possible to dwell upon in detail.

The second section, from a theological point of view, repeats a concept that is by no means new, namely the fact that Christianity comes from Judaism, has Jewish roots, and can be properly understood only from an awareness of this context. Jesus is born, lives and dies as a Jew; also his first disciples and apostles, as pillars of the Christian Church, are located in continuity with the Jewish religious tradition of their time. However, Jesus transcends this tradition because, according to Christian belief, he cannot be considered only as a Jew, but also as the Messiah and Son of God. The document states thus: “Herein consists the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity, that is, how the figure of Jesus is to be evaluated. Jews are able to see Jesus as belonging to their people, a Jewish teacher who felt himself called in a particular way to preach the Kingdom of God. That this Kingdom of God has come with himself as God's representative is beyond the horizon of Jewish expectation” (n.14). Although Jesus as Jew is perceived differently by Christians and Jews, from a theological point of view one can speak, however, with regard to relations between Christians and Jews, of a very close and undeniable family relationship. The document describes in fact the dialogue between Jews and Christians in the following words: “Therefore the Jewish-Christian dialogue can only with reservations be termed ‘interreligious dialogue’ in the true sense of the expression; one could however speak of a kind of ‘intra-religious’ or ‘intra-familial’ dialogue ‘sui generis’ (n.20).

The third section deals with revelation in history as the “Word of God”. Jews and Christians believe that the God of Israel is revealed through his Word, to offer people a lesson on how to live properly in the right relationship with God and neighbor. This Word of God can be identified by the Jews in the Torah; for Christians, it is incarnate in Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 1:14). In this regard, Pope Francis has affirmed:

15

“The Christian confessions find their unity in Christ; Judaism finds its unity in the Torah. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh in the world; for Jews the Word of God is present above all in the Torah. Both faith traditions find their foundation in the One God, the God of the Covenant, who reveals himself through His Word. In seeking a right attitude toward God, Christians turn to Christ as the fount of new life, and Jews to the teachings of the Torah” (Address to the International Council of Christians and Jews, June 30, 2015).

The fourth section focuses on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments and between Old and New Covenants. “With the existence of the Old Testament as an integral part of the one Christian Bible, there is a deeply rooted sense of intrinsic kinship between Judaism and Christianity” (n. 28). Certainly, Christians interpret the Old Testament Scriptures differently with respect to the Jews, since the event of Christ represents a new interpretative key to understanding them. Augustine summarized it this way: “In the Old Testament, the New is concealed; in the New, the Old is revealed.” And Pope Gregory the Great defines the Old Testament as “prophecy of the New” (cf. n. 29). Christians basically start from the premise that the arrival of Jesus Christ as the Messiah was already contained in the Old Testament prophecies. In light of this concordia testamentorum or the essential agreement between the two Testaments, one understands the very special relationship between the Old and New Testament: “The Covenant offered by God to Israel is irrevocable ... The New Covenant does not revoke previous covenants, but brings them to completion ... For Christians, the New Covenant in Christ is the culmination of the promises of salvation of the Old Covenant and, to that extent, it is never independent of it. The New Covenant has the Old as its basis and foundation, since it is the God of Israel who establishes the Old Covenant with the people of Israel and makes possible the New Covenant in Jesus Christ” (n. 27). It must therefore be borne in mind that there can only be one story of the covenant between God and his people, and God has always renewed his covenant with his people Israel. Within this framework the New Covenant is also inscribed, although it is put in a special relationship with the former: “For Christians, the New Covenant neither abolishes nor replaces, but fulfills, he promises of the Old Covenant” (n. 32).

The fifth section addresses the thorny question of how to understand the fact that Jews can be saved without explicitly believing in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and Son of God. “Since God has never revoked his covenant with his people Israel, there cannot be different paths or approaches to God's salvation ... Confessing the universal and therefore exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith. So too does the confession of the one God, the God of Israel, who through his revelation in Jesus Christ has become

totally manifest as the God of all peoples” (n. 35). “From the Christian confession that there can be only one path to salvation, however, it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God ... God entrusted Israel with a unique mission, and He does not bring his mysterious plan of salvation for all peoples (cf. 1 Tim 2:4) to fulfilment without drawing into it his ‘firstborn son’ (Ex 4:22) ... That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery” (n. 36).

Another thorny issue is dealt with in the sixth section: what should be the attitude of Christians on the issue of evangelization with regard to the Jews? In this regard, we find in the document the following statements: “The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelization to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views. In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God's Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah” (n. 40).

Finally, the seventh section sets out, from a Catholic point of view, the goals of Jewish-Catholic dialogue, which had never been expressed in a document so explicitly. Of course, the main purpose is to allow Catholics and Jews to know and appreciate one another more thoroughly. Among the objectives to be pursued, however, there is also the cooperation in the field of exegesis, or interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, which Jews and Christians have in common. And again: “One important goal of Jewish-Christian dialogue certainly consists in joint engagement throughout the world for justice, peace, conservation of creation and reconciliation” (n. 46). “Justice and peace, however, should not simply be abstractions within dialogue, but should also be evidenced in tangible ways. The social-charitable sphere provides a rich field of activity, as both Jewish and Christian ethics include the imperative to support the poor, disadvantaged and sick” (n. 48). The document adds that, with regard to the education of the younger generation, we should strive to make known the results and progress in Jewish-Catholic dialogue. Finally, reference is made to anti-Semitism: “Another important goal of Catholic-Jewish dialogue consists in jointly combating all manifestations of racial discrimination against Jews and all forms of anti-Semitism” (n. 47).

With this brief overview of the contents of the new document, I have tried to highlight the fact that

16

the dialogue with the Jews, after fifty years, now rests on solid ground, because much has been achieved in this period. Of this we must be grateful to God, without whose help we would not have arrived where we are now: “Unless the Lord builds the house, in vain do its builders labor” (Ps 127,1). We are of course grateful for every effort made by both Jewish and Catholic parties to the promotion of our dialogue. It is equally important, however, to remember that, as the document points out, from the theological point of view in particular, we are just at a new beginning: many questions remain open and require further study. Therefore, I hope that this document is well received by all those either engaged or interested in Jewish-Christian dialogue, and that it can provide them with a stimulating input for reflection, for conversations and for future exchange.

INTERVENTION OF FR NORBERT HOFMANN, SDB

Already for the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of the conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate it was originally intended to publish a document of the

Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews of the Holy See. For various reasons, that was not possible in 2005. Looking back, we can say that it was better to have waited until today, since the theological issues in the current document were discussed in detail and more thoroughly especially in the last ten years.

The document does not at all aim at ending these discussions. Its purpose is rather to give stimulus to the continuation and deepening of the theological dimension of the Catholic-Jewish dialogue. The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews recalls the objective set by Pope Francis himself, namely to guarantee further theological thought with a view to enriching and intensifying the theological dimension of the Jewish-Catholic dialogue. This is one of the main reasons for publishing the document at this particular time: the theological dialogue between Jews and Catholics must generate new stimulus. We hope that Catholic theologians who have long been engaged in the Jewish-Catholic dialogue can receive and develop further the reflections contained in the document. In fact, the document is aimed primarily at all those active in this dialogue. However, it can also be useful to those interested, more generally, in Jewish-Catholic relations.

The document has been drawn up not only on the basis of Catholic faith claims, but also in consideration of the positions of our dialogue partners. In fact, at some point during the preparation of the document, Jewish consultors too were involved and asked to express their opinion on the adequacy of the text regarding Judaism. The text does not refer only to the Old and New Testaments, but also to the Mishna and the Talmud. The preparation of the document lasted a total of two and half years since the first drafts

date back to 2013. Pope Benedict XVI had already consented to the drafting of such a document, but only with the “placet” given by Pope Francis shortly after his election was it possible to start working on it. From the beginning there has been close collaboration with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which obviously is consulted regarding theological texts from the Holy See. In this regard we wish to thank Cardinal Gerhard Müller and his collaborators for their expertise and availability in this joint work.

As Cardinal Koch, Cardinal Müller and myself are native German speakers, the first version of the document was drafted in German. A small group of four people, two representatives of our Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and two representatives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, prepared the first draft of the document before it was translated into English. The text was read by both Cardinals, who proposed some modifications, after which an international gathering of consultors of our Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews was organized. These consultors, on the basis of the English text, proposed some improvements in the document. In light of these observations, the text was edited and sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which, in turn, referred it to its consultants. The English version of the document was further changed taking into account their suggestions. Thus, the document is a collective work, to which many competent people contributed and to whom we are sincerely grateful.

Following the authorization granted in September 2015 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the text was presented to the Secretariat of State, which, shortly after, in October 2015, approved its publication. In December 2014, Pope Francis had already consented to the publication of a document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews for the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of Nostra Aetate (n. 4).

The actual date of the anniversary of Nostra Aetate is October 28, the day on which, fifty years ago, the Declaration was promulgated by the Second Vatican Council. That same day, Pope Francis dedicated the General Audience to the Council Declaration. From the beginning it had been decided not to publish this document – which is the fourth of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews – in the context of the celebration of October 28, but to issue it separately at a different time. The first possible date for us was today, December 10, given that in November we were still finalizing the translations of the text. As already mentioned, the original text is in English, but versions are also available in Italian, French, Spanish and German.

At today’s presentation of the document, we have invited two Jewish friends, who were also involved in the preparation process of the text: Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee in

17

Jerusalem, and Dr. Edward Kessler of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge. The presence of Jewish representatives with whom we conduct the Jewish-Catholic dialogue seems to me an eloquent and positive sign. Public opinion will certainly be interested to know how our Jewish partners receive the document.

I wish to reiterate that this Declaration is a Catholic text, formulated from a Catholic perspective, since evidently, as Christians, we clearly affirm our faith identity also in dialogue with the Jews, as we expect our partners in dialogue to do so also. Only thus can mutual respect and appreciation grow, only then can we know each other better and become a blessing for each other.

REMARKS OF RABBI DAVID ROSEN

Firstly let me express my profound gratitude to Cardinal Koch, Bishop Farrell and Father Hofmann, for the invitation to share the podium at this press conference. As Father Hofmann has noted, the presence here of Jewish representatives is itself a powerful and eloquent testimony of the rediscovered fraternity between Catholics and Jews. And even though the document released is addressed to and for the Catholic faithful, in as much as it concerns the relationship of the Church to the Jewish People, it is graciously respectful to the latter to have a Jewish presence at such a press conference. This is most heartening, reflecting the truly revolutionary change in the Catholic approach towards Jews and Judaism.

Indeed as this document notes, section 4 of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions which deals with the Church’s relationship to the Jewish People (and which this document describes as the “ heart” of Nostra Aetate), was remarkable above all precisely for ushering in this new positive approach of “fundamental esteem” and which has been described as a Copernican revolution in the Church’s attitude towards Judaism and Jewry.

As Cardinal Koch noted in his presentation at the official celebration of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate here in Rome six weeks ago “For the first time in history, (an) ecumenical council expressed itself explicitly and positively with regard to the relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism”, serving as a “compass toward reconciliation between Christians and Jews, valid both for the present and for the future.”

Nostra Aetate opened up the way for subsequent Popes to further affirm the unique bond between the Church and the Jewish People which this text documents, and to see Jewry as a living source of Divine inspiration for the Church. In the words of Pope Francis, “God continues to work among the people of the Old Covenant and to bring forth

treasures of wisdom which flow from their encounter with His word”. (Evangelii Gaudium 249).

The upshot of this positive regard for the Jewish people is the clear repudiation affirmed in this document of any “replacement or supersession theology which sets against one another a Church of the Gentiles (against a) rejected Synagogue whose place it takes.”

What this document reveals accordingly is not only the advancement of the recommendations of the 1974 Guidelines on Nostra Aetate, to appreciate and respect Jewish self-understanding; but also a deepening recognition of the place of Torah in the life of the Jewish people; and (in accordance with the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s work) an acknowledgement of the integrity of Jewish reading of the Bible that is different from the Christian one. Indeed the very fact that the document also quotes extensively from Jewish rabbinical sources is further testimony of this respect.

Allow me to reiterate again the point that both Cardinal Koch and Father Hofmann have made, that this is a Catholic document reflecting Catholic theology. Inevitably then, there are passages in it that do not and cannot resonate with a Jewish theology. However as already mentioned, to its great credit, this document seeks to reflect a sincere comprehension of Jewish self-understanding.

Perhaps then I may be permitted in the spirit of our mutual respect and friendship to point out that to fully respect Jewish self-understanding, it is also necessary to appreciate the centrality that the Land of Israel plays in the historic and contemporary religious life of the Jewish People, and that appears to be missing.

Indeed even in terms of the historical survey of the milestones along this remarkable journey since Nostra Aetate, the establishment of full bilateral relations between the State of Israel and the Holy See (very much guided and promoted by Saint Pope John Paul II) was one of the historic highlights. Moreover, the preamble and the first article of the Fundamental Agreement between the two parties, precisely acknowledges this significance. Without Nostra Aetate, the establishment of these relations would surely not have been feasible. The Fundamental Agreement not only paved the way for the historic papal pilgrimages to the Holy Land and thus to the establishment of the bilateral commission with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, but arguably reflected more than anything else the fact that the Catholic Church had truly repudiated its portrayal of the Jewish people as condemned wanderers to be homeless until the final advent.

The document’s reference to the state of religious minorities as the litmus test regarding Religious Freedom, is particularly pertinent in the Middle East today; and thus the situation of Christians in Israel to which the document refers stands in marked contrast to most other places in the region.

However, allow me to observe that the importance of the Jewish-Christian relationship in the

18

Holy Land is not simply to prove the question of Religious Freedom. It is also a litmus test of the degree to which Nostra Aetate and the subsequent teaching of the Magisterium are internalized precisely where Christians are a minority and Jews are a majority and not only vice-versa; and in this regard there still remains much educational work to be done.

The reference to peace in the Holy land as pertinent to the Catholic-Jewish relationship is also important. The peoples there live in mutual alienation and disappointment, and I believe that the Catholic Church can play an important role in rebuilding trust, such as the initiative of prayer for peace taken by Pope Francis. Let me express the hope that there soon will be further initiatives to enable religion to be a source of healing rather than conflict; and to ensure that these are coordinated with those who have the political authority to pave the way to enable the land and the city of peace to fulfil its name.

Let me express my particular appreciation for the document’s emphasis on the responsibility of “educational institutions, particularly (those for) the training of priests, (to) integrate into their curricula both Nostra Aetate and the subsequent documents of the Holy See regarding the implementation of the Conciliar Declaration”. Arguably this remains the most notable challenge in taking the achievements from their Olympian heights down to the grass roots universally.

Similarly the call for joint action could not be more timely. The document refers to the International Jewish-Catholic Liaison Committee’s collaboration in Argentina in 2004; and I might add that subsequently there was significant collaboration at the ILC meeting in Cape Town, where Jewish and Catholic healthcare organizations and initiatives working particularly with the victims of AIDS, were brought together to facilitate collaboration and become greater than the sum of their different parts. I strongly echo the sentiments in this document that there is much more that we can do together both in addressing the ills of modern society and in combatting prejudice, bigotry and anti-Semitism which the Church has forcefully condemned and which is reiterated in this document.

Finally let me come to the subject of “complimentarity” to which the document refers, based on Pope Francis’ own words in Evangelii Gaudium concerning “read(ing) the text of Hebrew Scriptures together … and “min(ing) the riches of God’s word”. This document further expands the notion of complementarity when it declares that “on the one hand … the Church without Israel would be in danger of losing its locus in the history of salvation”; and then adds “by the same token (!) Jews could … arrive at the insight that Israel without the Church would be in danger of remaining too particularist and of failing to grasp the universality of its experience of God.”

Permit me to note that there is hardly a symmetry in these regards. The former expresses an understanding of the intrinsic character of the Church, while the latter warns against a possible

misunderstanding and maybe even abuse of the Jewish concept of election and loss of a sense of universal responsibility. Not only is there a profound asymmetry between the two in as much as the Church’s need for Israel is a matter of Christianity’s foundational self-understanding; but the real danger of ethnic insularity is hardly something of which Judaism was unaware before the emergence of Christianity and for which Judaism is specifically in “need” of the Church. This warning is most prominent in Hebrew prophetic scripture, perhaps most dramatically in the writing of Amos, and is articulated throughout Talmudic and mediaeval Jewish literature.

And on the other hand, one might note that an assertively universal doctrine is as in just as much danger, as it can become exclusive, imperialist and triumphalist, even more so.

Nevertheless, Jewish luminaries over the centuries have indeed themselves articulated a concept of complementarity in seeing Christianity as a Divine vehicle by which the universal truths that Judaism brought to the world can in fact be more effectively disseminated throughout the universe beyond the limitations posed by Jewish Peoplehood.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, one of the greatest rabbinical leaders of the nineteenth century, even saw the break between Church and Synagogue as a necessary part of that Divine plan to facilitate Christianity’s universal task.

Some have gone a little further in this regard to understand the concept of complementarity in the parallel role in which the Jewish focus on the communal covenant with God and the Christian focus on the individual relationship with God may serve to balance one another. Indeed there are those who have suggested that the communal autonomy that Judaism affirms, may serve more appropriately as a model for a modern multicultural society, while Christianity may provide a better response for individual alienation in the contemporary world.

Another suggestion of some theologians regarding such complementarity relates to the relationship between the Jewish reminder that the Kingdom of Heaven has not yet fully arrived, and the Christian awareness that in some ways that Kingdom has already rooted itself in the here and now.

However the very fact that we can talk about complementarity is itself a powerful demonstration of how far we have come along this remarkable journey of transformation and reconciliation between Catholics and Jews over the last half century. This has been in no small part due to the quotidian work and leadership of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and the document released today is one more significant milestone along this truly wondrous path for which we must all give thanks to the One Creator and Guide of Heaven and Earth.

19

REFLECTIONS OF DR EDWARD KESSLER

Nostra Aetate No 4 marked the beginnings of a fresh approach to Catholic-Jewish relations and the end of the millennial teaching of contempt (l’enseignement du mépris, a term employed by the Holocaust survivor Jules Isaac who met Pope John XXIII) of Jews and Judaism. It unequivocally asserted the Church’s debt to its Jewish heritage and ushered in a new era, fresh attitudes, a new language of discourse never previously heard in the Catholic Church concerning Jews. The concept of a dialogue now entered the relationship.

Now 50 years later, under the leadership of Cardinal Koch, a new document has been issued by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, which considers some key theological questions that lie at the heart of an intimate, intricate and unique relationship. Its theological premis is based on the fact that, as Nostra Aetate stated, ‘from the Jewish people sprang the apostles’, the foundation stones and pillars of the Church who ‘draw sustenance from the root of that good olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild olive branches of the Gentiles’. Christians are therefore rightly reminded in this document of the Jewish origins of Christianity and especially that Jesus was a faithful Jew.

As a result of a soul change, epitomised by Nostra Aetate, the Roman Catholic Church shifted from what was, for the most part, a need to condemn Judaism to one of a condemnation of anti-Judaism. This led not to a separation from all things Jewish but in fact, to a closer relationship with ‘the elder brother’. The new document, which I welcome and commend, reminds Christians of this sibling relationship as it sets out a theological agenda for future discussions. Rabbi Rosen has touched on relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel and the challenges, theological and political, therein. My remarks will therefore focus on topics other than the Holy Land.

In particular, I wish to address a concept which has been deeply troubling to Jewish-Christian relations and one which the new document, commendably, does not avoid: the Christian claim to be the successor covenant people, elected by God to replace Israel because of the latter’s faithlessness, which led to the substitution theory, also known as replacement theology. This is the teaching that, since the time of Jesus, Jews have been replaced by Christians in God’s favour, and that all God’s promises to the Jewish people have been inherited by Christianity.

The new document tackles a dilemma at the heart of today’s Christian understanding of Judaism, demonstrated even by Nostra Aetate. On the one hand, the document states that “the church is the new people of God” while, on the other, “the Jews remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for He does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues (cf. Rom 11:28-29)”.

Discussion of covenantal theology is witnessing a resurgence in contemporary conversations between Christian and Jewish scholars and I welcome the new document’s assertion that “the New Covenant for Christians is therefore neither the annulment nor the replacement, but the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Covenant. However, please allow me to express a warning: fulfillment easily slides into replacement and substitution theory is alive and well in the pews. As a Jewish partner in the dialogue, I welcome further reflection on what fulfillment means in terms of relations with Judaism and how we can ensure the transformation in relations is not limited to the elite, but extends from the citidals of the Vatican to the pews of the Church as well as from the Offices of the Chief Rabbis to the floors of our synagogues.

Related to this is the need, from a Christian perspective, for reflection on the survival of the Jewish People and of the vitality of Judaism over 2000 years – this is the ‘mystery of Israel’, upon which Paul reflected in his Epistle to the Romans. One of the reasons why Nostra Aetate is rightly seen as a milestone in Christian-Jewish relations is that it began an immensely difficult and costly process - namely, to take the ‘Other’ as seriously as one demands to be taken oneself. In other words, as expressed by the 1975 Guidelines, Judaism and Christianity must be understood on their own terms. The new document still has some way to go before I recognise myself in its portrayal of Judaism. For example, there is little discussion about contemporary Judaism – the focus is biblical and rabbinic Judaism.

Just over a century ago, in 1913, the Jewish philosopher-theologian Franz Rosenzweig wrote about the saying of Jesus in John that 'No-one can reach the Father except through Me'. Rosenzweig does not get round this saying by criticism, indeed he asserts that it is true, particularly when one remembers the millions who have been led to God through Jesus Christ. However he continues, “the situation is quite different for one who does not have to reach the Father because he is already with him. Shall I, he asks, become converted, I who have been chosen? Does the alternative of conversion even exist for me?”

Rosenzweig introduces us to a crucial question in today’s relationship – a question we Jews and Christians need to ponder. To what extent can Christians view Judaism as valid in its own terms (and vice versa). The Pontifical Biblical Commission’s statement (extolled in this new document) may point out the way forward when it states “Christians can and must admit that the Jewish reading of the Bible is a possible one, in continuity with the Jewish Scriptures...” .

Of course, questions also need to be considered from the Jewish perspective. What was the divine purpose behind the creation of Christianity? What are the implications for Jews that as a result of the Jew Jesus, 2 billion Christians now read the Jewish Bible? Martin Buber, for instance, considered Jesus as “my elder brother”.

20

For Jews, the covenant promised to Abraham and revealed to Moses demonstrates not only the unique and irrevocable relationship between the Jewish

people and God but perhaps also allows the theological space for Christians to possess their own special relationship with God and also to see their reflection in

a Jewish mirror, which may serve both to deepen Christian faith in Christ and Christian respect for their elder siblings.

These are some of my theological reflections upon reading this new document which I welcome and look forward to further discussions. Indeed, I am very pleased to announce that, in partnership with the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, the Woolf Institute is convening a meeting of a small number of leading Jewish and Catholic theologians in Cambridge next year to explore these and other theological issues. Perhaps we should begin with the contemporary meaning of the election of Israel and the election of the Church? As Pope Francis said in June, “In seeking a right attitude towards God, Christians turn to Christ as the fount of new life and Jews to the teaching of the Torah”.

Further reflection on what this all means, for Christians and Jews – indeed, for all men and women of faith – is urgently required.

The last 50 years have seen a demonstrable shift from a pre Nostra Aetate monologue about Jews to an instructive (and sometimes difficult) dialogue with Jews. A monologue generally fails to understand the

reality of the Other, while a dialogue requires a respect for the Other as it understands itself. The challenge of making the transition from monologue to dialogue remains immense.

It is clear today that many of the main divisive issues have been either eliminated or taken to the furthest point at which agreement is possible. The efforts of Catholics towards respect of Judaism project attitudes that would have been unthinkable half-a-century ago. During the last 5 decades, Jews and Christians have witnessed a massive change and, as the new document demonstrates, giant strides have been made but we are talking of a dynamic and relentless process. We will never be able to sit back and say, “The work is done. The agenda is completed.”

However, on many major issues, Jews and Catholics find themselves on the same side of the theological fence, faced with the same challenges, and we are in the unusual position of seeking to tackle them together.

May our joint endeavour be blessed by the Almighty and in turn may we learn to be a blessing to one another.

21

“THE GIFTS AND THE CALLING OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE” (Rom 11:29)

A REFLECTION ON THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO

CATHOLIC–JEWISH RELATIONS ON THE OCCASION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF “NOSTRA AETATE” (NO.4)

INDEX

1. A brief history of the impact of “Nostra aetate” (No.4) over the last 50 years 2. The special theological status of Jewish-Catholic dialogue 3. Revelation in history as ‘Word of God’ in Judaism and Christianity 4. The relationship between the Old and New Testament and the Old and New Covenant 5. The universality of salvation in Jesus Christ and God’s unrevoked covenant with Israel 6. The Church’s mandate to evangelize in relation to Judaism 7. The goals of dialogue with Judaism

PREFACE

Fifty years ago, the declaration “Nostra aetate” of the Second Vatican Council was promulgated. Its fourth article presents the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people in a new theological framework. The following reflections aim at looking back with gratitude on all that has been achieved over the last decades in the Jewish–Catholic relationship, providing at the same time a new stimulus for the future. Stressing once again the unique status of this relationship within the wider ambit of interreligious dialogue, theological questions are further discussed, such as the relevance of revelation, the relationship between the Old and the New Covenant, the relationship between the universality of salvation in Jesus Christ and the affirmation that the covenant of God with Israel has never been revoked, and the Church’s mandate to evangelize in relation to Judaism. This document presents Catholic reflections on these questions, placing them in a theological context, in order that their significance may be deepened for members of both faith traditions. The text is not a magisterial document or doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church, but is a reflection prepared by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews on current theological questions that have developed since the Second Vatican Council. It is intended to be a starting point for further theological thought with a view to enriching and intensifying the theological dimension of Jewish–Catholic dialogue.

1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IMPACT OF NOSTRA AETATE (NO.4) OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS 1. Nostra aetate (No.4) is rightly counted among those documents of the Second Vatican Council which have been able to effect, in a particularly striking manner, a new direction of the Catholic Church since then. This shift in the relations of the Church with the Jewish people and Judaism becomes apparent only when we recall that there were previously great reservations on both sides, in part because the history of Christianity has been seen to be discriminatory against Jews, even including attempts at forced conversion (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 248). The background

of this complex connection consists inter alia in an asymmetrical relationship: as a minority the Jews were often confronted by and dependent upon a Christian majority. The dark and terrible shadow of the Shoah over Europe during the Nazi period led the Church to reflect anew on her bond with the Jewish people. 2. The fundamental esteem for Judaism expressed in Nostra aetate (No.4) however has enabled communities that once faced one another with scepticism to become – step by step over the years – reliable partners and even good friends, capable of weathering crises together and negotiating conflicts positively. Therefore, the fourth article of Nostra aetate is recognised as the solid foundation for improving the relationship between Catholics and Jews. 3. For the practical implementation of Nostra aetate (No.4), Blessed Pope Paul VI on 22 October 1974 established the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews which, although organisationally attached to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is operationally independent and entrusted with the task of accompanying and fostering religious dialogue with Judaism. From a theological perspective it also makes good sense to link this Commission with the Council for Promoting Christian Unity, since the separation between Synagogue and Church may be viewed as the first and most far-reaching breach among the chosen people. 4. Within a year of its foundation, the Holy See’s Commission published its first official document on 1 December 1974, with the title “Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate (No.4)”. The crucial and new concern of this document consists in becoming acquainted with Judaism as it defines itself, giving expression to the high esteem in which Christianity holds Judaism and stressing the great significance for

22

the Catholic Church of dialogue with the Jews, as stated in the words of the document: “On the practical level in particular, Christians must therefore strive to acquire a better knowledge of the basic components of the religious tradition of Judaism: they must strive to learn by what essential traits the Jews define themselves in the light of their own religious experience” (Preamble). On the basis of the Church’s witness of faith in Jesus Christ, the document reflects upon the specific nature of the Church’s dialogue with Judaism. Reference is made in the text to the roots of Christian liturgy in its Jewish matrix, new possibilities are outlined for rapprochement in the spheres of teaching, education and training, and finally suggestions are made for joint social action. 5. Eleven years later on 24 June 1985, the Holy See’s Commission issued a second document entitled “Notes on the correct way to present the Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church”. This document has a stronger theological-exegetical orientation insofar as it reflects on the relationship of the Old and New Testaments, delineates the Jewish roots of the Christian faith, explicates the manner in which ‘the Jews’ are represented in the New Testament, points out commonalities in liturgy, above all in the great festivals of the church year, and briefly focuses on the relationship of Judaism and Christianity in history. With regard to the “land of the forefathers” the document emphasizes: “Christians are invited to understand this religious attachment which finds its roots in Biblical tradition, without however making their own any particular religious interpretation of this relationship. … The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles of international law.” The permanence of Israel is however to be perceived as an “historic fact and a sign to be interpreted within God’s design” (VI, 1). 6. A third document of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews was presented to the public on 16 March 1998. It deals with the Shoah under the title “We remember. A reflection on the Shoah”. This text delivers the harsh but accurate judgement that the balance of the 2000–year relationship between Jews and Christians is regrettably negative. It recalls the attitude of Christians towards the anti-Semitism of the National Socialists and focuses on the duty of Christians to remember the human catastrophe of the Shoah. In a letter at the beginning of this declaration Saint Pope John Paul II expresses his hope that this document will truly “help to heal the wounds of past misunderstandings and injustices. May it enable memory to play its necessary part in the process of shaping a future in which the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible.”

7. In the series of documents issued by the Holy See, reference must be made to the text published by the Pontifical Biblical Commission on 24 May 2001, which deals explicitly with Jewish-Catholic dialogue: “The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible”. This represents the most significant exegetical and theological document of the Jewish-Catholic dialogue and is a treasure-trove of common issues which have their basis in the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. The Sacred Scriptures of the Jewish people are considered a “fundamental component of the Christian Bible”, the fundamental themes of the Holy Scripture of the Jewish people and their adoption into the faith in Christ are discussed, and the manner in which Jews are represented in the New Testament is illustrated in detail. 8. Texts and documents, as important as they are, cannot replace personal encounters and face–to–face dialogues. While under Blessed Pope Paul VI the first steps in Jewish–Catholic dialogue were undertaken, Saint Pope John Paul II succeeded in fostering and deepening this dialogue through compelling gestures towards the Jewish people. He was the first pope to visit the former concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau to pray for the victims of the Shoah, and he visited the Roman Synagogue to express his solidarity with the Jewish community. In the context of an historical pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was also a guest of the state of Israel where he participated in interreligious encounters, paid a visit to both Chief Rabbis and prayed at the Western Wall. Again and again he met with Jewish groups, whether in the Vatican or during his numerous apostolic journeys. So too Benedict XVI, even before his election to the papacy, engaged in Jewish-Catholic dialogue by offering in a series of lectures important theological reflections on the relationship between the Old and the New Covenant, and the Synagogue and the Church. Following his election and in the footsteps of Saint Pope John Paul II he fostered this dialogue in his own way by reinforcing the same gestures and giving expression to his esteem for Judaism through the power of his words. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was greatly committed to fostering Jewish-Catholic dialogue and had many friends among the Jews of Argentina. Now as Pope he continues, at the international level, to intensify dialogue with Judaism through many friendly encounters. One of his first such encounters was in May 2014 in Israel, where he met with the two Chief Rabbis, visited the Western Wall, and prayed for the victims of the Shoah in Yad Vashem. 9. Even before the establishment of the Holy See’s Commission, there were contacts and links with various Jewish organisations through the then Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. Since Judaism is multi-facetted and not constituted as an organisational unity, the Catholic Church was faced

23

with the challenge of determining with whom to engage, because it was not possible to conduct individual and independent bilateral dialogues with all Jewish groupings and organisations which had declared their readiness to dialogue. To resolve this problem the Jewish organisations took up the suggestion of the Catholic Church to establish a single organisation for this dialogue. The International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) is the official Jewish representative to the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. 10. The IJCIC began its work in 1970, and a year later the first joint conference was organized in Paris. The conferences which have been conducted regularly since are the responsibility of the entity known as the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee (ILC), and they shape the collaboration between the IJCIC and the Holy See’s Commission. In February 2011, once more in Paris, the ILC was able to look back with gratitude on 40 years of institutional dialogue. Much has developed over the past 40 years; the former confrontation has turned into successful cooperation, the previous potential for conflict has become positive conflict management, and the past co–existence marked by tension has been replaced by resilient and fruitful mutuality. The bonds of friendship forged in the meantime have proved to be stable, so that it has become possible to address even controversial subjects together without the danger of permanent damage being done to the dialogue. This was all the more necessary because over the past decades the dialogue had not always been free of tensions. In general, however, one can observe with appreciation that in Jewish-Catholic dialogue since the new millennium above all, intensive efforts have been made to deal openly and positively with any arising differences of opinion and conflicts, in such a way that mutual relations have become stronger. 11. Beside the dialogue with the IJCIC we should also mention the institutional conversation with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which is clearly to be seen as a fruit of the encounter of Saint Pope John Paul II with both Chief Rabbis in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel in March 2000. The first meeting was organised in June 2002 in Jerusalem, and since then such meetings have been conducted annually, taking place in Rome and Jerusalem alternately. The two delegations are relatively small so that a very personal and intensive discussion on various subjects is possible, such as on the sanctity of life, the status of the family, the significance of the Sacred Scriptures for life in society, religious freedom, the ethical foundations of human behaviour, the ecological challenge, the relationship of secular and religious authority and the essential qualities of religious leadership in secular society. The fact that the Catholic representatives taking part in the meetings are bishops and priests and the Jewish representatives almost exclusively rabbis permits individual topics to

be examined from a religious perspective as well. The dialogue with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has to that extent enabled more open relations between Orthodox Judaism and the Catholic Church at a global level. After each meeting a joint declaration is published which in each instance has testified to the richness of the common spiritual heritage of Judaism and Christianity and to what valuable treasures are still to be unearthed. In reviewing over more than ten years of dialogue we can gratefully affirm that a strong friendship has resulted which represents a firm foundation for the future. 12. The efforts of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews cannot of course be restricted to these two institutional dialogues. The Commission aims in fact at being open to all streams within Judaism and at maintaining contact with all Jewish groupings and organisations that wish to establish links with the Holy See. The Jewish side shows a particular interest in audiences with the Pope, which are in every instance prepared by the Commission. Besides direct contacts with Judaism the Holy See’s Commission also strives to provide opportunities within the Catholic Church for dialogue with Judaism and to work together with individual Bishops’ Conferences to support them locally in promoting Jewish-Catholic dialogue. The introduction of the ‘Day of Judaism’ in some European countries is a good example of this. 13. Over the past decades both the ‘dialogue ad extra’ and the ‘dialogue ad intra’ have led with increasing clarity to the awareness that Christians and Jews are irrevocably inter-dependent, and that the dialogue between the two is not a matter of choice but of duty as far as theology is concerned. Jews and Christians can enrich one another in mutual friendship. Without her Jewish roots the Church would be in danger of losing its soteriological anchoring in salvation history and would slide into an ultimately unhistorical Gnosis. Pope Francis states that “while it is true that certain Christian beliefs are unacceptable to Judaism, and that the Church cannot refrain from proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah, there exists as well a rich complementarity which allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another to mine the riches of God’s word. We can also share many ethical convictions and a common concern for justice and the development of peoples” (Evangelii gaudium, 249). 2. THE SPECIAL THEOLOGICAL STATUS OF JEWISH-CATHOLIC DIALOGUE

14. The dialogue with Judaism is for Christians something quite special, since Christianity possesses Jewish roots which determine relations between the two in a unique way (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 247). In spite of the historical breach and the painful conflicts arising

24

from it, the Church remains conscious of its enduring continuity with Israel. Judaism is not to be considered simply as another religion; the Jews are instead our “elder brothers” (Saint Pope John Paul II), our “fathers in faith” (Benedict XVI). Jesus was a Jew, was at home in the Jewish tradition of his time, and was decisively shaped by this religious milieu (cf. Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 20). His first disciples gathered around him had the same heritage and were defined by the same Jewish tradition in their everyday life. In his unique relationship with his heavenly Father, Jesus was intent above all on proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). Within Judaism there were many very different kinds of ideas regarding how the kingdom of God would be realised, and yet Jesus’ central message on the Kingdom of God is in accordance with some Jewish thinking of his day. One cannot understand Jesus’ teaching or that of his disciples without situating it within the Jewish horizon in the context of the living tradition of Israel; one would understand his teachings even less so if they were seen in opposition to this tradition. In Jesus not a few Jews of his time saw the coming of a ‘new Moses’, the promised Christ (Messiah). But his coming nevertheless provoked a drama with consequences still felt today. Fully and completely human, a Jew of his time, descendant of Abraham, son of David, shaped by the whole tradition of Israel, heir of the prophets, Jesus stands in continuity with his people and its history. On the other hand he is, in the light of the Christian faith, himself God – the Son – and he transcends time, history, and every earthly reality. The community of those who believe in him confesses his divinity (cf. Phil 2:6-11). In this sense he is perceived to be in discontinuity with the history that prepared his coming. From the perspective of the Christian faith, he fulfils the mission and expectation of Israel in a perfect way. At the same time, however, he overcomes and transcends them in an eschatological manner. Herein consists the fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity, that is, how the figure of Jesus is to be evaluated. Jews are able to see Jesus as belonging to their people, a Jewish teacher who felt himself called in a particular way to preach the Kingdom of God. That this Kingdom of God has come with himself as God’s representative is beyond the horizon of Jewish expectation. The conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities of his time is ultimately not a matter of an individual transgression of the law, but of Jesus’ claim to be acting with divine authority. The figure of Jesus thus is and remains for Jews the ‘stumbling block’, the central and neuralgic point in Jewish-Catholic dialogue. From a theological perspective, Christians need to refer to the Judaism of Jesus’ time and to a degree also the Judaism that developed from it over the ages for their own self-understanding. Given Jesus’ Jewish origins, coming to terms with Judaism in one way or another is indispensable for Christians. Yet, the history of the

relationship between Judaism and Christianity has also been mutually influenced over time. 15. Dialogue between Jews and Christians then can only be termed ‘interreligious dialogue’ by analogy, that is, dialogue between two intrinsically separate and different religions. It is not the case that two fundamentally diverse religions confront one another after having developed independently of one another or without mutual influence. The soil that nurtured both Jews and Christians is the Judaism of Jesus’ time, which not only brought forth Christianity but also, after the destruction of the temple in the year 70, post-biblical rabbinical Judaism which then had to do without the sacrificial cult and, in its further development, had to depend exclusively on prayer and the interpretation of both written and oral divine revelation. Thus Jews and Christians have the same mother and can be seen, as it were, as two siblings who – as is the normal course of events for siblings – have developed in different directions. The Scriptures of ancient Israel constitute an integral part of the Scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, understood by both as the word of God, revelation, and salvation history. The first Christians were Jews; as a matter of course they gathered as part of the community in the Synagogue, they observed the dietary laws, the Sabbath and the requirement of circumcision, while at the same time confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah sent by God for the salvation of Israel and the entire human race. With Paul the ‘Jewish Jesus movement’ definitively opens up other horizons and transcends its purely Jewish origins. Gradually his concept came to prevail, that is, that a non-Jew did not have to become first a Jew in order to confess Christ. In the early years of the Church, therefore, there were the so-called Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians, the ecclesia ex circumcisione and the ecclesia ex gentibus, one Church originating from Judaism, the other from the Gentiles, who however together constituted the one and only Church of Jesus Christ. 16. The separation of the Church from the Synagogue does not take place abruptly however and, according to some recent insights, may not have been complete until well into the third or fourth centuries. This means that many Jewish Christians of the first period did not perceive any contradiction between living in accordance with some aspects of the Jewish tradition and yet confessing Jesus as the Christ. Only when the number of Gentile Christians represented the majority, and within the Jewish community the polemics regarding the figure of Jesus took on sharper contours, did a definitive separation appear to be no longer avoidable. Over time the siblings Christianity and Judaism increasingly grew apart, becoming hostile and even defaming one another. For Christians, Jews were often represented as damned by God and blind since they were unable to recognise in Jesus the Messiah and bearer of salvation. For Jews, Christians

25

were often seen as heretics who no longer followed the path originally laid down by God but who went their own way. It is not without reason that in the Acts of the Apostles Christianity is called ‘the way’ (cf. Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 24:14,22) in contrast to the Jewish Halacha which determined the interpretation of the law for practical conduct. Over time Judaism and Christianity became increasingly alienated from one another, even becoming involved in ruthless conflicts and accusing one another of abandoning the path prescribed by God. 17. On the part of many of the Church Fathers the so-called replacement theory or supersessionism steadily gained favour until in the Middle Ages it represented the standard theological foundation of the relationship with Judaism: the promises and commitments of God would no longer apply to Israel because it had not recognised Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, but had been transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ which was now the true ‘new Israel’, the new chosen people of God. Arising from the same soil, Judaism and Christianity in the centuries after their separation became involved in a theological antagonism which was only to be defused at the Second Vatican Council. With its Declaration Nostra aetate (No.4) the Church unequivocally professes, within a new theological framework, the Jewish roots of Christianity. While affirming salvation through an explicit or even implicit faith in Christ, the Church does not question the continued love of God for the chosen people of Israel. A replacement or supersession theology which sets against one another two separate entities, a Church of the Gentiles and the rejected Synagogue whose place it takes, is deprived of its foundations. From an originally close relationship between Judaism and Christianity a long-term state of tension had developed, which has been gradually transformed after the Second Vatican Council into a constructive dialogue relationship. 18. There have often been attempts to identify this replacement theory in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Epistle, however, is not directed to the Jews but rather to the Christians of Jewish background who have become weary and uncertain. Its purpose is to strengthen their faith and to encourage them to persevere, by pointing to Christ Jesus as the true and ultimate high priest, the mediator of the new covenant. This context is necessary to understand the Epistle’s contrast between the first purely earthly covenant and a second better (cf. Heb 8:7) and new covenant (cf. 9:15, 12:24). The first covenant is defined as outdated, in decline and doomed to obsolescence (cf. 8:13), while the second covenant is defined as everlasting (cf. 13:20). To establish the foundations of this contrast the Epistle refers to the promise of a new covenant in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34 (cf. Heb 8:8-12). This demonstrates that the Epistle to the Hebrews has no intention of proving the promises of the Old

Covenant to be false, but on the contrary treats them as valid. The reference to the Old Testament promises is intended to help Christians to be sure of their salvation in Christ. At issue in the Epistle to the Hebrews is not the contrast of the Old and New Covenants as we understand them today, nor a contrast between the church and Judaism. Rather, the contrast is between the eternal heavenly priesthood of Christ and the transitory earthly priesthood. The fundamental issue in the Epistle to the Hebrews in the new situation is a Christological interpretation of the New Covenant. For exactly this reason, Nostra aetate (No.4) did not refer to the Epistle to the Hebrews, but rather to Saint Paul’s reflections in his letter to the Romans 9–11. 19. For an outside observer, the Conciliar Declaration Nostra aetate could give the impression that the text deals with the relations of the Catholic Church with all world religions in a relationship based on parity, but the history of its development and the text itself point in a different direction. Originally Saint Pope John XXIII proposed that the Council should promulgate a Tractatus de Iudaeis, but in the end the decision was made to give consideration to all world religions in Nostra aetate. However, the fourth article of this Conciliar Declaration, which deals with a new theological relationship with Judaism, represents almost the heart of the document, in which a place is also made for the Catholic Church’s relationship with other religions. The relationship with Judaism can in that sense be seen as the catalyst for the determination of the relationship with the other world religions. 20. Nevertheless, from the theological perspective the dialogue with Judaism has a completely different character and is on a different level in comparison with the other world religions. The faith of the Jews testified to in the Bible, found in the Old Testament, is not for Christians another religion but the foundation of their own faith, although clearly the figure of Jesus is the sole key for the Christian interpretation of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The cornerstone of the Christian faith is Jesus (cf. Acts 4:11; 1 Pt 2:4–8). However, the dialogue with Judaism occupies a unique position for Christians; Christianity is by its roots connected with Judaism as with no other religion. Therefore the Jewish-Christian dialogue can only with reservations be termed ‘interreligious dialogue’ in the true sense of the expression; one could however speak of a kind of ‘intra-religious’ or ‘intra–familial’ dialogue sui generis. In his address in the Roman Synagogue on 13 April 1986 Saint Pope John Paul II expressed this situation in these words: “The Jewish religion is not ‘extrinsic’ to us but in a certain way is ‘intrinsic’ to our own religion. With Judaism therefore we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.”

26

3. REVELATION IN HISTORY AS ‘WORD OF GOD’ IN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

21. We find in the Old Testament God’s plan of salvation presented for his people (cf. “Dei verbum”, 14). This plan of salvation is expressed in an enlightening way at the beginning of biblical history in the call to Abraham (Gen 12ff). In order to reveal himself and speak to humankind, redeeming it from sin and gathering it together as one people, God began by choosing the people of Israel through Abraham and setting them apart. To them God revealed himself gradually through his emissaries, his prophets, as the true God, the only God, the living God, the redeeming God. This divine election was constitutive of the people of Israel. Only after the first great intervention of the redeeming God, the liberation from slavery in Egypt (cf. Ex 13:17ff) and the establishment of the covenant at Sinai (Ex 19ff), did the twelve tribes truly become a nation and become conscious of being the people of God, the bearers of his message and his promises, witnesses of his merciful favour in the midst of the nations and also for the nations (cf. Is 26:1-9; 54; 60; 62). In order to instruct his people on how to fulfil their mission and how to pass on the revelation entrusted to them, God gave Israel the law which defines how they are to live (cf. Ex 20; Deut 5), and which distinguishes them from other peoples. 22. Like the Church itself even in our own day, Israel bears the treasure of its election in fragile vessels. The relationship of Israel with its Lord is the story of its faithfulness and its unfaithfulness. In order to fulfil his work of salvation despite the smallness and weakness of the instruments he chose, God manifested his mercy and the graciousness of his gifts, as well as his faithfulness to his promises which no human infidelity can nullify (cf. Rom 3:3; 2 Tim 2:13). At every step of his people along the way God set apart at least a ‘small number’ (cf. Deut 4:27), a ‘remnant’ (cf. Is 1:9; Zeph 3:12; cf. also Is 6:13; 17:5-6), a handful of the faithful who ‘have not bowed the knee to Baal’ (cf. 1 Kings 19:18). Through this remnant, God realized his plan of salvation. Constantly the object of his election and love remained the chosen people as through them – as the ultimate goal – the whole of humanity is gathered together and led to him. 23. The Church is called the new people of God (cf. Nostra aetate, No.4) but not in the sense that the people of God of Israel has ceased to exist. The Church “was prepared in a remarkable way throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant” (“Lumen gentium”, 2). The Church does not replace the people of God of Israel, since as the community founded on Christ it represents in him the fulfilment of the promises made to Israel. This does not mean that Israel, not having achieved such a fulfilment, can no longer be considered to be the people of God. “Although the Church is the new

people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures” (“Nostra aetate”, No.4). 24. God revealed himself in his Word, so that it may be understood by humanity in actual historical situations. This Word invites all people to respond. If their responses are in accord with the Word of God they stand in right relationship with him. For Jews this Word can be learned through the Torah and the traditions based on it. The Torah is the instruction for a successful life in right relationship with God. Whoever observes the Torah has life in its fullness (cf. Pirqe Avot II, 7). By observing the Torah the Jew receives a share in communion with God. In this regard, Pope Francis has stated: “The Christian confessions find their unity in Christ; Judaism finds its unity in the Torah. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh in the world; for Jews the Word of God is present above all in the Torah. Both faith traditions find their foundation in the One God, the God of the Covenant, who reveals himself through his Word. In seeking a right attitude towards God, Christians turn to Christ as the fount of new life, and Jews to the teaching of the Torah.” (Address to members of the International Council of Christians and Jews, 30 June 2015). 25. Judaism and the Christian faith as seen in the New Testament are two ways by which God’s people can make the Sacred Scriptures of Israel their own. The Scriptures which Christians call the Old Testament is open therefore to both ways. A response to God’s word of salvation that accords with one or the other tradition can thus open up access to God, even if it is left up to his counsel of salvation to determine in what way he may intend to save mankind in each instance. That his will for salvation is universally directed is testified by the Scriptures (cf. eg. Gen 12:1-3; Is 2:2-5; 1 Tim 2:4). Therefore there are not two paths to salvation according to the expression “Jews hold to the Torah, Christians hold to Christ”. Christian faith proclaims that Christ’s work of salvation is universal and involves all mankind. God’s word is one single and undivided reality which takes concrete form in each respective historical context. 26. In this sense, Christians affirm that Jesus Christ can be considered as ‘the living Torah of God’. Torah and Christ are the Word of God, his revelation for us human beings as testimony of his boundless love. For Christians, the pre-existence of Christ as the Word and Son of the Father is a fundamental doctrine, and according to rabbinical tradition the Torah and the name of the Messiah exist already before creation (cf. Genesis Rabbah 1,1). Further, according to Jewish understanding God himself interprets the Torah in the Eschaton, while in Christian understanding everything is recapitulated in Christ in the end (cf. Eph 1:10; Col 1:20). In the gospel of Matthew Christ is seen as it

27

were as the ‘new Moses’. Matthew 5:17–19 presents Jesus as the authoritative and authentic interpreter of the Torah (cf. Lk 24:27, 45–47). In the rabbinical literature, however, we find the identification of the Torah with Moses. Against this background, Christ as the ‘new Moses’ can be connected with the Torah. Torah and Christ are the locus of the presence of God in the world as this presence is experienced in the respective worship communities. The Hebrew dabar means word and event at the same time – and thus one may reach the conclusion that the word of the Torah may be open for the Christ event. 4. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT AND THE OLD AND NEW COVENANT

27. The covenant that God has offered Israel is irrevocable. “God is not man, that he should lie” (Num 23:19; cf. 2 Tim 2:13). The permanent elective fidelity of God expressed in earlier covenants is never repudiated (cf. Rom 9:4; 11:1–2). The New Covenant does not revoke the earlier covenants, but it brings them to fulfilment. Through the Christ event Christians have understood that all that had gone before was to be interpreted anew. For Christians the New Covenant has acquired a quality of its own, even though the orientation for both consists in a unique relationship with God (cf. for example, the covenant formula in Lev 26:12, “I will be your God and you will be my people”). For Christians, the New Covenant in Christ is the culminating point of the promises of salvation of the Old Covenant, and is to that extent never independent of it. The New Covenant is grounded in and based on the Old, because it is ultimately the God of Israel who concludes the Old Covenant with his people Israel and enables the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Jesus lives during the period of the Old Covenant, but in his work of salvation in the New Covenant confirms and perfects the dimensions of the Old. The term covenant, therefore, means a relationship with God that takes effect in different ways for Jews and Christians. The New Covenant can never replace the Old but presupposes it and gives it a new dimension of meaning, by reinforcing the personal nature of God as revealed in the Old Covenant and establishing it as openness for all who respond faithfully from all the nations (cf. Zech 8:20-23; Ps 87). 28. Unity and difference between Judaism and Christianity come to the fore in the first instance with the testimonies of divine revelation. With the existence of the Old Testament as an integral part of the one Christian Bible, there is a deeply rooted sense of intrinsic kinship between Judaism and Christianity. The roots of Christianity lie in the Old Testament, and Christianity constantly draws nourishment from these roots. However, Christianity is grounded in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is recognised as the Messiah promised to the Jewish people, and as the only

begotten Son of God who has communicated himself through the Holy Spirit following his death on the cross and his resurrection. With the existence of the New Testament, the question naturally arose quite soon of how the two testaments are related to one another, whether for example the New Testament writings have not superseded the older writings and nullified them. This position was represented by Marcion, who in the second century held that the New Testament had made the Old Testament book of promises obsolete, destined to fade away in the glow of the new, just as one no longer needs the light of the moon as soon as the sun has risen. This stark antithesis between the Hebrew and the Christian Bible never became an official doctrine of the Christian Church. By excluding Marcion from the Christian community in 144, the Church rejected his concept of a purely “Christian” Bible purged of all Old Testament elements, bore witness to its faith in the one and only God who is the author of both testaments, and thus held fast to the unity of both testaments, the concordia testamentorum. 29. This is of course only one side of the relationship between the two testaments. The common patrimony of the Old Testament not only formed the fundamental basis of a spiritual kinship between Jews and Christians but also brought with it a basic tension in the relationship of the two faith communities. This is demonstrated by the fact that Christians read the Old Testament in the light of the New, in the conviction expressed by Augustine in the indelible formula: “In the Old Testament the New is concealed and in the New the Old is revealed” (Quaestiones in Heptateuchum 2, 73). Pope Gregory the Great also spoke in the same sense when he defined the Old Testament as “the prophecy of the New” and the latter as the “best exposition of the Old” (Homiliae in Ezechielem I, VI, 15; cf. Dei verbum, 16). 30. This Christological exegesis can easily give rise to the impression that Christians consider the New Testament not only as the fulfilment of the Old but at the same time as a replacement for it. That this impression cannot be correct is evident already from the fact that Judaism too found itself compelled to adopt a new reading of Scripture after the catastrophe of the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70. Since the Sadducees who were bound to the temple did not survive this catastrophe, the rabbis, following in the footsteps of the Pharisees, who had already developed their particular mode of reading and interpreting Scripture, now did so without the temple as the centre of Jewish religious devotion. 31. As a consequence there were two responses to this situation, or more precisely, two new ways of reading Scripture, namely the Christological exegesis of the Christians and the rabbinical exegesis of that form of Judaism that developed historically. Since each mode

28

involved a new interpretation of Scripture, the crucial new question must be precisely how these two modes are related to each other. But since the Christian Church and post-biblical rabbinical Judaism developed in parallel, but also in opposition and mutual ignorance, this question cannot be answered from the New Testament alone. After centuries of opposing positions it has been the duty of Jewish-Catholic dialogue to bring these two new ways of reading the Biblical writings into dialogue with one another in order to perceive the “rich complementarity” where it exists and “to help one another to mine the riches of God’s word” (Evangelii gaudium, 249). The document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission “The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible” in 2001 therefore stated that Christians can and must admit “that the Jewish reading of the Bible is a possible one, in continuity with the Jewish Scriptures from the Second Temple period, a reading analogous to the Christian reading which developed in parallel fashion”. It then draws the conclusion: “Both readings are bound up with the vision of their respective faiths, of which the readings are the result and expression. Consequently, both are irreducible” (No.22). 32. Since each of the two readings serves the purpose of rightly understanding God’s will and word, it becomes evident how important is the awareness that the Christian faith is rooted in the faith of Abraham. That raises the further question of how the Old and the New Covenant stand in relation to one another. For the Christian faith it is axiomatic that there can only be one single covenant history of God with humanity. The covenant with Abraham, with circumcision as its sign (cf. Gen 17), and the covenant with Moses restricted to Israel regarding obedience to the law (cf. Ex 19:5; 24:7-8) and in particular the observance of the Sabbath (cf. Ex 31:16-17) had been extended in the covenant with Noah, with the rainbow as its sign (cf. “Verbum Domini”, 117), to the whole of creation (cf. Gen 9:9 ff). Through the prophets God in turn promises a new and eternal covenant (cf. Is 55:3; 61:8; Jer 31:31-34; Ez 36:22-28). Each of these covenants incorporates the previous covenant and interprets it in a new way. That is also true for the New Covenant which for Christians is the final eternal covenant and therefore the definitive interpretation of what was promised by the prophets of the Old Covenant, or as Paul expresses it, the “Yes” and “Amen” to “all that God has promised” (2 Cor 1:20). The Church as the renewed people of God has been elected by God without conditions. The Church is the definitive and unsurpassable locus of the salvific action of God. This however does not mean that Israel as the people of God has been repudiated or has lost its mission (cf. Nostra aetate, No.4). The New Covenant for Christians is therefore neither the annulment nor the replacement, but the fulfilment of the promises of the Old Covenant.

33. For Jewish-Christian dialogue in the first instance God’s covenant with Abraham proves to be constitutive, as he is not only the father of Israel but also the father of the faith of Christians. In this covenant community it should be evident for Christians that the covenant that God concluded with Israel has never been revoked but remains valid on the basis of God’s unfailing faithfulness to his people, and consequently the New Covenant which Christians believe in can only be understood as the affirmation and fulfilment of the Old. Christians are therefore also convinced that through the New Covenant the Abrahamic covenant has obtained that universality for all peoples which was originally intended in the call of Abram (cf. Gen 12:1-3). This recourse to the Abrahamic covenant is so essentially constitutive of the Christian faith that the Church without Israel would be in danger of losing its locus in the history of salvation. By the same token, Jews could with regard to the Abrahamic covenant arrive at the insight that Israel without the Church would be in danger of remaining too particularist and of failing to grasp the universality of its experience of God. In this fundamental sense Israel and the Church remain bound to each other according to the covenant and are interdependent. 34. That there can only be one history of God’s covenant with mankind, and that consequently Israel is God’s chosen and beloved people of the covenant which has never been repealed or revoked (cf. Rom 9:4; 11:29), is the conviction behind the Apostle Paul’s passionate struggle with the dual fact that while the Old Covenant from God continues to be in force, Israel has not adopted the New Covenant. In order to do justice to both facts Paul coined the expressive image of the root of Israel into which the wild branches of the Gentiles have been grafted (cf. Rom 11:16-21). One could say that Jesus Christ bears in himself the living root of the “green olive tree”, and yet in a deeper meaning that the whole promise has its root in him (cf. Jn 8:58). This image represents for Paul the decisive key to thinking of the relationship between Israel and the Church in the light of faith. With this image Paul gives expression to the duality of the unity and divergence of Israel and the Church. On the one hand the image is to be taken seriously in the sense that the grafted wild branches have not their origin as branches in the plant onto which they are grafted and their new situation represents a new reality and a new dimension of God’s work of salvation, so that the Christian Church cannot merely be understood as a branch or a fruit of Israel (cf. Mt 8:10-13). On the other hand, the image is also to be taken seriously in the sense that the Church draws nourishment and strength from the root of Israel, and that the grafted branches would wither or even die if they were cut off from the root of Israel (cf. Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 21).

29

5. THE UNIVERSALITY OF SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST AND GOD’S UNREVOKED COVENANT WITH ISRAEL

35. Since God has never revoked his covenant with his people Israel, there cannot be different paths or approaches to God’s salvation. The theory that there may be two different paths to salvation, the Jewish path without Christ and the path with the Christ, whom Christians believe is Jesus of Nazareth, would in fact endanger the foundations of Christian faith. Confessing the universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith. So too does the confession of the one God, the God of Israel, who through his revelation in Jesus Christ has become totally manifest as the God of all peoples, insofar as in him the promise has been fulfilled that all peoples will pray to the God of Israel as the one God (cf. Is 56:1-8). The document “Notes on the correct way to present the Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church” published by the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews in 1985 therefore maintained that the Church and Judaism cannot be represented as “two parallel ways to salvation”, but that the Church must “witness to Christ as the Redeemer for all” (No. I, 7). The Christian faith confesses that God wants to lead all people to salvation, that Jesus Christ is the universal mediator of salvation, and that there is no “other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12). 36. From the Christian confession that there can be only one path to salvation, however, it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God. Such a claim would find no support in the soteriological understanding of Saint Paul, who in the Letter to the Romans not only gives expression to his conviction that there can be no breach in the history of salvation, but that salvation comes from the Jews (cf. also Jn 4:22). God entrusted Israel with a unique mission, and He does not bring his mysterious plan of salvation for all peoples (cf. 1 Tim 2:4) to fulfilment without drawing into it his “first-born son” (Ex 4:22). From this it is self-evident that Paul in the Letter to the Romans definitively negates the question he himself has posed, whether God has repudiated his own people. Just as decisively he asserts: “For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery. It is therefore no accident that Paul’s soteriological reflections in Romans 9-11 on the irrevocable redemption of Israel against the background of the Christ-mystery culminate in a magnificent doxology: “Oh, the depth of the riches and

wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways” (Rom 11:33). Bernard of Clairvaux (De cons. III/I,3) says that for the Jews “a determined point in time has been fixed which cannot be anticipated”. 37. Another focus for Catholics must continue to be the highly complex theological question of how Christian belief in the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ can be combined in a coherent way with the equally clear statement of faith in the never-revoked covenant of God with Israel. It is the belief of the Church that Christ is the Saviour for all. There cannot be two ways of salvation, therefore, since Christ is also the Redeemer of the Jews in addition to the Gentiles. Here we confront the mystery of God’s work, which is not a matter of missionary efforts to convert Jews, but rather the expectation that the Lord will bring about the hour when we will all be united, “when all peoples will call on God with one voice and ‘serve him shoulder to shoulder’ ” (Nostra aetate, No.4). 38. The Declaration of the Second Vatican Council on Judaism, that is the fourth article of Nostra aetate, is located within a decidedly theological framework regarding the universality of salvation in Jesus Christ and God’s unrevoked covenant with Israel. That does not mean that all theological questions which arise in the relationship of Christianity and Judaism were resolved in the text. These questions were introduced in the Declaration, but require further theological reflection. Of course, there had been earlier magisterial texts which focussed on Judaism, but Nostra aetate (No.4) provides the first theological overview of the relationship of the Catholic Church to the Jews. 39. Because it was such a theological breakthrough, the Conciliar text is not infrequently over–interpreted, and things are read into it which it does not in fact contain. An important example of over–interpretation would be the following: that the covenant that God made with his people Israel perdures and is never invalidated. Although this statement is true, it cannot be explicitly read into Nostra aetate (No.4). This statement was instead first made with full clarity by Saint Pope John Paul II when he said during a meeting with Jewish representatives in Mainz on 17 November 1980 that the Old Covenant had never been revoked by God: “The first dimension of this dialogue, that is, the meeting between the people of God of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God … and that of the New Covenant, is at the same time a dialogue within our Church, that is to say, between the first and the second part of her Bible” (No.3). The same conviction is stated also in the Catechism of the Church in 1993: “The Old Covenant has never been revoked” (121).

30

6. THE CHURCH’S MANDATE TO EVANGELIZE IN RELATION TO JUDAISM

40. It is easy to understand that the so–called ‘mission to the Jews’ is a very delicate and sensitive matter for Jews because, in their eyes, it involves the very existence of the Jewish people. This question also proves to be awkward for Christians, because for them the universal salvific significance of Jesus Christ and consequently the universal mission of the Church are of fundamental importance. The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelisation to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views. In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God’s Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah. 41. The concept of mission must be presented correctly in dialogue between Jews and Christians. Christian mission has its origin in the sending of Jesus by the Father. He gives his disciples a share in this call in relation to God’s people of Israel (cf. Mt 10:6) and then as the risen Lord with regard to all nations (cf. Mt 28:19). Thus the people of God attains a new dimension through Jesus, who calls his Church from both Jews and Gentiles (cf. Eph 2:11-22) on the basis of faith in Christ and by means of baptism, through which there is incorporation into his Body which is the Church (Lumen gentium, 14). 42. Christian mission and witness, in personal life and in proclamation, belong together. The principle that Jesus gives his disciples when he sends them out is to suffer violence rather than to inflict violence. Christians must put their trust in God, who will carry out his universal plan of salvation in ways that only he knows, for they are witnesses to Christ, but they do not themselves have to implement the salvation of humankind. Zeal for the “house of the Lord” and confident trust in the victorious deeds of God belong together. Christian mission means that all Christians, in community with the Church, confess and proclaim the historical realisation of God’s universal will for salvation in Christ Jesus (cf. Ad gentes, 7). They experience his sacramental presence in the liturgy and make it tangible in their service to others, especially those in need. 43. It is and remains a qualitative definition of the Church of the New Covenant that it consists of Jews and Gentiles, even if the quantitative proportions of Jewish and Gentile Christians may initially give a different impression. Just as after the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ there were not two unrelated covenants, so too the people of the covenant of Israel are not disconnected from ‘the people of God drawn from the Gentiles’. Rather, the enduring role of the covenant people of Israel in God’s plan of salvation is to relate dynamically to the ‘people of God of Jews and Gentiles, united in Christ’, he whom the Church confesses as the universal mediator of creation and salvation. In the context of God’s universal will of salvation, all people who have not yet received the gospel are aligned with the people of God of the New Covenant. “In the first place there is the people to whom the covenants and promises were given and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh (cf. Rom 9:4-5). On account of their fathers this people remains most dear to God, for he does not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls he issues (cf. Rom 11:28-29)” (Lumen gentium, 16). 7. THE GOALS OF DIALOGUE WITH

JUDAISM

44. The first goal of the dialogue is to add depth to the reciprocal knowledge of Jews and Christians. One can only learn to love what one has gradually come to know, and one can only know truly and profoundly what one loves. This profound knowledge is accompanied by a mutual enrichment whereby the dialogue partners become the recipients of gifts. The Conciliar declaration Nostra aetate (No.4) speaks of the rich spiritual patrimony that should be further discovered step by step through biblical and theological studies and through dialogue. To that extent, from the Christian perspective, an important goal is the mining of the spiritual treasures concealed in Judaism for Christians. In this regard one must mention above all the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures. In the foreword by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the 2001 document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission “The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible”, the respect of Christians for the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament is stressed. It highlights that “Christians can learn a great deal from a Jewish exegesis practised for more than 2000 years; in return Christians may hope that Jews can profit from Christian exegetical research.” In the field of exegesis many Jewish and Christian scholars now work together and find their collaboration mutually fruitful precisely because they belong to different religious traditions. 45. This reciprocal acquiring of knowledge must not be limited to specialists alone. Therefore it is important that Catholic educational institutions, particularly in the training of priests, integrate into their curricula both Nostra aetate and the subsequent documents of the Holy See regarding the implementation of the Conciliar declaration. The Church is also grateful for the analogous efforts within the Jewish community. The fundamental changes in relations between Christians and Jews which were

31

initiated by Nostra aetate (No. 4) must also be made known to the coming generations and be received and disseminated by them. 46. One important goal of Jewish-Christian dialogue certainly consists in joint engagement throughout the world for justice, peace, conservation of creation, and reconciliation. In the past, it may have been that the different religions – against the background of a narrowly understood claim to truth and a corresponding intolerance – contributed to the incitement of conflict and confrontation. But today religions should not be part of the problem, but part of the solution. Only when religions engage in a successful dialogue with one another, and in that way contribute towards world peace, can this be realised also on the social and political levels. Religious freedom guaranteed by civil authority is the prerequisite for such dialogue and peace. In this regard, the litmus-test is how religious minorities are treated, and which rights of theirs are guaranteed. In Jewish-Christian dialogue the situation of Christian communities in the state of Israel is of great relevance, since there – as nowhere else in the world – a Christian minority faces a Jewish majority. Peace in the Holy Land – lacking and constantly prayed for – plays a major role in dialogue between Jews and Christians. 47. Another important goal of Jewish–Catholic dialogue consists in jointly combatting all manifestations of racial discrimination against Jews and all forms of anti-Semitism, which have certainly not yet been eradicated and re-emerge in different ways in various contexts. History teaches us where even the slightest perceptible forms of anti-Semitism can lead: the human tragedy of the Shoah in which two-thirds of European Jewry were annihilated. Both faith traditions are called to maintain together an unceasing vigilance and sensitivity in the social sphere as well. Because of the strong bond of friendship between Jews and Catholics, the Catholic Church feels particularly obliged to do all that is possible with our Jewish friends to repel anti-Semitic tendencies. Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed that a Christian can never be an anti-Semite, especially because of the Jewish roots of Christianity. 48. Justice and peace, however, should not simply be abstractions within dialogue, but should also be evidenced in tangible ways. The social-charitable sphere provides a rich field of activity, since both Jewish and Christian ethics include the imperative to support the poor, disadvantaged and sick. Thus, for example, the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) worked together in 2004 in Argentina during the financial crisis in that country to organise joint soup kitchens for the poor and homeless, and to enable impoverished children to attend school by providing meals for them. Most

Christian churches have large charitable organisations, which likewise exist within Judaism. These would be able to work together to alleviate human need. Judaism teaches that the commandment “to walk in His ways” (Deut 11:22) requires the imitation of the Divine Attributes (Imitatio Dei) through care for the vulnerable, the poor and the suffering (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 14a). This principle accords with Jesus’ instruction to support those in need (cf. eg. Mt 25:35–46). Jews and Christians cannot simply accept poverty and human suffering; rather they must strive to overcome these problems. 49. When Jews and Christians make a joint contribution through concrete humanitarian aid for justice and peace in the world, they bear witness to the loving care of God. No longer in confrontational opposition but cooperating side by side, Jews and Christians should seek to strive for a better world. Saint Pope John Paul II called for such cooperation in his address to the Central Council of German Jewry and to the Conference of Rabbis in Mainz on 17 November 1980: “Jews and Christians, as children of Abraham, are called to be a blessing for the world … , by committing themselves together for peace and justice among all men and peoples, with the fullness and depth that God himself intended us to have, and with the readiness for sacrifices that this goal may demand”.

10 December 2015 Cardinal KURT KOCH President The Most Reverend BRIAN FARRELL Vice–President The Reverend NORBERT HOFMANN, SDB Secretary

32

DOCUMENTATION SUPPLEMENT

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2017

LETTER OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY TO THE ECUMENICAL COMMISSIONS OF THE

EPISCOPAL CONFERENCES AND OF THE SYNODS OF THE ORIENTAL CATHOLIC CHURCHES

On behalf of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, I am pleased to send you the enclosed resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017. These materials have been prepared by an international committee comprising representatives from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, working from material provided by an ecumenical group representing Christians from diverse traditions in Germany.

The biblical theme, which provides the focus for the material, is “Reconciliation. The love of Christ compels us,” St Paul’s words to the community of Corinth (2 Cor. 5: 14). Through this choice the Christian communities of Germany, marking this 500th anniversary year of the Reformation, direct our attention not towards the painful divisions that originated in that period, but to our relationship with Christ now. It is by deepening this relationship that divisions are overcome: our love of Christ compels us to recognise the faith of other Christians and to love them as our sisters and brothers.

The Worship Service prepared by the German Christians recalls the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and places great emphasis on reconciliation as a gift from God. That historic event was precipitated by the Peace Prayer Movement in the German Democratic Republic, in which people placed candles in windows and doorways and prayed for freedom. Horst Sindermann, a member of the GDR Leadership until 1989 noted, “We had planned for everything. We were prepared for everything, just not for candles and prayers.” The reconciliation that removes walls is a gift from God, and as Christians who have received this

gift, we must become ambassadors of reconciliation, calling on the Lord to give his grace in every situation where there is division. This is the path to Christian Unity.

The materials include an introduction to the theme, an ecumenical worship service, a selection of readings and reflections for the eight days of the Week of Prayer octave, and an account of the ecumenical context in Germany. The resources can be drawn upon in many ways, and are intended for use not only during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but throughout the year 2017. The materials are also available online, and in translation, at:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/sub-index/index_weeks-prayer.htm.

The Pontifical Council for the Promoting of Christian Unity requests that you bring these resources to the attention of those responsible for coordinating Prayer for Christian Unity events. We strongly encourage the regional or local adaptation of the material, so that it may effectively address the local social and cultural context, and to put it on line on the website of your episcopal conference if available. It is also hoped that the material will be adapted and made available to young people, youth groups and associations. This process will provide a further valuable opportunity for collaboration between Christians at the local level.

With every good wish, and in appreciation of your efforts for the cause of Christian Unity, I remain

Yours sincerely in Christ,

+ Brian Farrell Secretary

33

IMPORTANT

This is the international version of the text of the Week of Prayer 2017

Kindly contact your local Bishops’ Conference or Synod of your Church

to obtain an adaptation of this text for your local context

Resources for THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

and throughout the year 2017

Reconciliation - The Love of Christ Compels Us

(cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-20)

Jointly prepared and published by The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

The Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches

Scripture quotations: The scripture quotations contained herein are from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, 1995, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used with permission. All rights reserved.

34

TO THOSE ORGANIZING THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR

CHRISTIAN UNITY

THE SEARCH FOR UNITY: THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

The traditional period in the northern hemisphere for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is 18-25 January. Those dates were proposed in 1908 by Paul Wattson to cover the days between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul, and therefore have a symbolic significance. In the southern hemisphere where January is a vacation time churches often find other days to celebrate the week of prayer, for example around Pentecost (suggested by the Faith and Order movement in 1926), which is also a symbolic date for the unity of the Church.

Mindful of the need for flexibility, we invite you to use this material throughout the whole year to express the degree of communion which the churches have already reached, and to pray together for that full unity which is Christ’s will.

ADAPTING THE TEXT

This material is offered with the understanding that, whenever possible, it will be adapted for use in local situations. Account should be taken of local liturgical and devotional practice, and of the whole social and cultural context. Such adaptation should ideally take place ecumenically. In some places ecumenical structures are already set up for adapting the material; in other places, we hope that the need to adapt it will be a stimulus to creating such structures.

USING THE WEEK OF PRAYER MATERIAL

For churches and Christian communities which observe the week of prayer together through a single common service, an order for an ecumenical worship service is provided.

Churches and Christian communities may also incorporate material from the week of prayer into their own services. Prayers from the ecumenical worship service, the “eight days’, and the selection of additional prayers can be used as appropriate in their own setting.

Communities which observe the week of prayer in their worship for each day during the week may draw material for these services from the “eight days’.

Those wishing to undertake bible studies on the week of prayer theme can use as a basis the biblical texts and reflections given in the eight days. Each day the discussions can lead to a closing period of intercessory prayer.

Those who wish to pray privately may find the material helpful for focusing their prayer intentions. They can be mindful that they are in communion with others praying all around the world for the greater visible unity of Christ’s Church.

BIBLICAL TEXT FOR 2017

2 Corinthians 5:14-20

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

The text used above is from the New Revised Standard Version which is the agreed English translation always used for our materials. However, the writers felt that “the love of Christ compels us,” the rendering of verse 14 from the New International Version made a stronger title, and therefore we use this title and phrase in these materials.

35

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME FOR THE YEAR 2017

Reconciliation – The Love of Christ Compels Us

(cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-20)

GERMANY: THE LAND OF THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION

In 1517 Martin Luther raised concerns about what he saw as abuses in the Church of his time by making public his 95 theses. 2017 is the 500th anniversary of this key event in the reformation movements that marked the life of the Western Church over several centuries. This event has been a controversial theme in the history of inter-church relations in Germany, not least over the last few years. The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has been building up to this anniversary since 2008, by focusing each year on one particular aspect of the Reformation, for example: the Reformation and Politics, or the Reformation and Education. The EKD also invited its ecumenical partners at various levels to help commemorate the events of 1517.

After extensive, and sometimes difficult, discussions, the churches in Germany agreed that the way to commemorate ecumenically this Reformation event should be with a Christusfest – a Celebration of Christ. If the emphasis were to be placed on Jesus Christ and his work of reconciliation as the center of Christian faith, then all the ecumenical partners of the EKD (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, Mennonite and others) could participate in the anniversary festivities.

Given the fact that the history of the Reformation was marked by painful division, this is a very remarkable achievement. The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity has worked hard to produce a shared understanding of the commemoration. Its important report, From Conflict to Communion, recognizes that both traditions approach this anniversary in an ecumenical age, with the achievements of fifty years of dialogue behind them, and with new understandings of their own history and theology. Separating that which is polemical from the theological insights of the Reformation, Catholics are now able to hear Luther’s challenge for the Church of today, recognising him as a “witness to the gospel” (From Conflict to Communion 29). And so after centuries of mutual condemnations and vilification, in 2017 Lutheran and Catholic Christians will for the first time commemorate together the beginning of the Reformation.

From this agreement and the wider ecumenical context emerges the strong theme of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: “Reconciliation – The Love of Christ Compels Us” (cf. 2 Cor 5:14-20).

THE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN GERMANY (ACK) AND THE REFORMATION ANNIVERSARY 2017 The Council of Churches in Germany launched several projects to commemorate 1517. One was entitled “Discover Anew the Bible´s Treasures”. Here, in a manner reminiscent of the importance Martin Luther placed on the meaning of the Bible, all ACK member churches wrote texts describing their approach to the Bible. These were later published in a brochure. In addition, the ACK conducted a symbolic “pilgrimage” to various member churches in Wittenberg. Each community visited, expressed and celebrated its own unique relationship to the Bible. In April 2015, the ACK also organized a conference entitled: “Irreparably Divided? Blessed Renewal? – 500 Years of Reformation in Various Ecumenical Perspectives”, the proceedings of which have been published.

It was in the context of the anniversary that the Council of Churches in Germany (ACK), invited by the World Council of Churches, took up the work of creating the resources for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. A committee comprised of ten members representing different churches met three times in 2014/2015 to develop the necessary texts. A particular emphasis was placed on the preparation of the ecumenical worship service for the Week (see pp. 11 to 24). The resources should serve the general purpose of the Week of Prayer, while at the same time commemorating the Lutheran Reformation.

THE THEME OF THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2017 When the German national planning committee met in the autumn of 2014, it quickly became clear that the materials for this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity would need to have two accents: on the one hand, there should be a celebration of God’s love and grace, the “justification of humanity through grace alone”, reflecting the main concern of the churches marked by Martin Luther’s Reformation. On the other hand, the materials should also recognize the pain of the subsequent deep divisions which afflicted the Church, openly name the guilt, and offer an opportunity to take steps toward reconciliation.

Ultimately it was Pope Francis’ 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) which provided the theme for this year, when it used the quote: “The Love of Christ Compels Us” (Paragraph 9). With this scripture verse (2 Cor 5:14), taken in the context of the entire fifth chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians, the German committee formulated the theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017.

36

THE BIBLICAL TEXT: 2 COR 5:14-20

This biblical text emphasizes that reconciliation is a gift from God, intended for the entire creation. “God was reconciling the world (kosmos) to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us” (v. 19). As a result of God´s action, the person who has been reconciled in Christ is called in turn to proclaim this reconciliation in word and deed: “The love of Christ compels us” (v. 14, NIV). “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (v. 20). The text stresses that this reconciliation is not without sacrifice. Jesus gives his life; he died for all. The ambassadors of reconciliation are called, in his name, to give their lives similarly. They no longer live for themselves; they live for him who died for them.

THE EIGHT DAYS AND THE WORSHIP SERVICE

The text, 2 Cor 5:14-20, shapes the reflections of the eight days, which develop some of the theological insights of the individual verses, as follows:

Day 1: One has died for all Day 2: Live no longer for themselves Day 3: We regard no one from a human point of

view Day 4: Everything old has passed away Day 5: Everything has become new Day 6: God reconciled us to himself Day 7: The ministry of reconciliation Day 8: Reconciled to God In the Ecumenical Worship Service, the fact that

God in Christ has reconciled the world to himself is a reason to celebrate. But this must also include our confession of sin before we hear the Word proclaimed and draw from the deep wellspring of God´s forgiveness. Only then are we able to testify to the world that reconciliation is possible.

COMPELLED TO WITNESS The love of Christ compels us to pray, but also to move beyond our prayers for unity among Christians. Congregations and churches need the gift of God´s reconciliation as a wellspring of life. But above all, they need it for their common witness to the world: “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21).

The world needs ministers of reconciliation, who will break down barriers, build bridges, make peace, and open doors to new ways of life in the name of the one who reconciled us to God, Jesus Christ. His Holy

Spirit leads the way on the path to reconciliation in his name.

As this text was being written in 2015, many people and churches in Germany were practising reconciliation by offering hospitality to the numerous refugees arriving from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, as well as countries of the Western Balkans, in search of protection and a new life. The practical help and powerful actions against hatred for the foreigner were a clear witness to reconciliation for the German population. As ministers of reconciliation, the churches actively assisted the refugees in finding new homes, while at the same time trying to improve the living conditions in the countries they had left behind. Concrete acts of help are just as necessary as praying together for reconciliation and peace, if those who are fleeing their terrible situations are to know some hope and consolation.

May the wellspring of God´s gracious reconciliation overflow in this year’s Week of Prayer, so that many people may find peace, and so that bridges may be built. May people and churches be compelled by the love of Christ to live reconciled lives and to break down the walls that divide!

THE PREPARATION OF THE MATERIAL FOR THE WEEK OF

PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2017

The preparatory work on the theme for this year’s week of prayer material was undertaken by a group of representatives of different Christian communities in Germany. This National Committee was brought together by the working group of Christian Churches in Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen/ACK), led by Dr Elisabeth Dieckmann.

Gratitude is extended in particular to the leaders of ACK, the members of its National Committee, and those who contributed to these resources:

Revd Dr. Eberhard Amon (Prelate, German Bishops Conference)

Pastor Bernd Densky (Baptist Pastor, Consultant of ACK)

Dr Elisabeth Dieckmann (Secretary of ACK, Catholic Church)

Revd Leonie Grüning (Pastor, Evangelical Church of Germany/EKD)

Revd Anette Gruschwitz (Pastor, Methodist Church)

Archpriest Constantin Miron (Orthodox Bishops Conference)

Revd Scott Morrison (Pastor, Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church)

Mrs Ruth Raab-Zerger (Mennonite Church)

37

Dr Dagmar Stoltmann-Lukas (Consultant of the Bischöfliches Generalvikariat, Bishop’s Vicariate General)

Revd Jan-Henry Wanink (Pastor, Reformed Church in Germany)

Revd Allison Werner-Hoenen (Pastor, Evangelical Church of Germany/EKD)

Mr Marc Witzenbacher (Consultant of the Evangelical Church of Germany/EKD) The texts proposed in this booklet were finalized

during a meeting of the International Committee nominated by Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The members of the Committee met the National Committee in September 2015 in the Luther-Hotel of Wittenberg/Germany. They thank the ACK for generously hosting the meeting and for the very kind hospitality. In particular they wish to thank Pastor Bernd Densky whose assistance greatly facilitated their work. The working group was also accompanied and guided on a visit to Wittenberg and Eisleben by Revd Jürgen Dittrich, a local Lutheran pastor, who is responsible for the ecumenical work in the local church of Saxony-Anhalt. The visit started with visiting Wittenberg, where Martin Luther lived with his family and worked after he had left the monastery in Erfurt. The group also went to the famous castle church, where the German Reformer probably nailed the 95 thesis. It also visited Luther’s birthplace and the church of his baptism in Eisleben. These visits gave deep insights into the meaning and influence of Martin Luther for the Reformation in Germany.

An evening meeting with local representatives of different Christian communities was very helpful to understand the religious landscape in Germany, especially in Eastern Germany.

38

ECUMENICAL WORSHIP SERVICE

INTRODUCTION TO THE WORSHIP

Reconciliation – The Love of Christ Compels Us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-20)

COMMEMORATION OF THE 500TH

ANNIVERSARY OF THE REFORMATION

The churches in Germany decided to commemorate this anniversary as a Christusfest (an ecumenical celebration of Christ). The Reformation was the occasion of a renewed focus on salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We rejoice in God’s salvation centered on the cross of Christ, who overcomes division and draws us together. This worship openly confesses and asks forgiveness for the sins of division which followed the Reformation. The service will celebrate Christ and his act of reconciliation, which moves the hearts of divided Christians to become ambassadors for Christ as ministers of reconciliation.

THE CONTENTS OF THE WORSHIP SERVICE

The theme “Reconciliation – the Love of Christ Compels Us” celebrates the irrevocable reconciliation that we have received through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ´s love becomes the driving force that moves us beyond our division toward acts of reconciliation.

Through psalms and songs we gather in Jesus’ name in praise of God’s wondrous deeds. We confess our sins of division and make our plea for forgiveness. The proclamation of the Word highlights the reconciling action of Christ as “One who died for all” (v. 14). The faithful respond to this good news by accepting the call to be ministers of reconciliation .

SYMBOLIC ACTIONS IN THE SERVICE THE WALL

1989 saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, that began with the Peace Prayer Movement in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in which people placed candles in windows and doorways and prayed for freedom. Horst Sindermann, a member of the GDR Leadership until 1989, noted “We had planned everything. We were prepared for everything, just not for candles and prayers.” This is why the division of Christians and the reconciliation we seek are represented by the construction and dismantling of a wall. This can become a symbol of hope for any situation in which a division seems insurmountable. Thus the construction of a symbolic wall at the confession of sin, the visible presence of this wall

during the proclamation of the Word, and finally the dismantling of this wall to form a cross as a sign of hope, give us courage to name these terrible divisions and to overcome them with the help of God.

DIRECTIONS/MATERIAL: BUILDING UP AND TEARING DOWN THE WALL

“Division due to our sin”: after a brief introduction some members of the congregation will construct a wall of separation representing the sins and division that we confess. The wall remains standing during the service until the section headed “Respond in faith – live in reconciliation.” At this point the stones will be removed from the wall and placed in the shape of a cross.

Depending on the size of the worship space, the following materials will be necessary for this symbolic action: 12 boxes of the same size (i.e. shoe boxes, transport boxes) covered in packing paper to make the “stones.” On the front side of each box a key term will be noted (lack of love, hate and contempt, false accusation, discrimination, persecution, broken communion, intolerance, religious wars, division, abuse of power, isolation, and pride). As each sin is named the stone is brought forward to build the wall. Following a moment of silence, the stone bearer makes the plea for forgiveness, to which the congregation responds “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

After the proclamation of God’s word which concludes with the sermon, a prayer for reconciliation follows. As the wall is dismantled and the stones are laid in the form of the cross, a song of reconciliation or a hymn of the glory of the cross is sung.

For worship services in small groups, an alternative liturgical action could be either to expand upon or to replace the wall with personal testimonies. These testimonies in the first part should name situations which have been hurtful to others. In the second part concerning the faith response, stories about reconciliation and acts of healing could be told.

CANDLES

Following the creed, four intercessory prayers are offered. After each petition, three people light their candles from a central source of light (for example a Paschal candle) and remain standing around the cross until the section headed “Christ’s commission.” After the commission, the twelve pass the light throughout the congregation until each person has a lighted candle. The service concludes with a blessing and sending out.

ORDER OF SERVICE

Reconciliation – The Love of Christ Compels Us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-20)

L Leader C Congregation R Reader

39

I. GATHERED IN JESUS´ NAME

HYMNS FOR GATHERING (will be chosen locally)

Procession with Bible/Lectionary

OPENING

L In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C Amen.

L Grace and peace from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, be with you all. (2 Cor. 5:18)

C And also with you.

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

L Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this year many Christians and churches will be commemorating the anniversary of the Reformation. Saint Paul reminds us that God has reconciled us through Jesus Christ and that the love of Christ compels us to be ministers of reconciliation. Let us worship and praise God together in the unity of the Holy Spirit!

PSALM 98 (SUNG) OR A HYMN OF PRAISE

II. DIVIDED BY OUR SINS (CONFESSION) INVITATION TO CONFESSION

L In the course of history, there have been many renewal movements in the Church, which is always in need of deeper conversion to her head, Jesus Christ. Sometimes these movements have led to unintended divisions. This fact contradicts what Jesus asks the Father in John 17:23: “that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Let us confess our sins and pray for forgiveness and healing for the wounds which have resulted from our divisions. As we name these sins we will see how they become a wall which divides us.

SILENCE

L Let us pray: God and Father in heaven, we come to you in Jesus´ name. We experience renewal through your Holy Spirit, and yet we still construct walls that divide us, walls which hinder community and unity. We bring before you now the stones with which we erect our walls and pray for your forgiveness and healing.

C Amen.

(As each sin is named the corresponding stone is brought forward to build the wall. Following a moment of silence, the stone bearer [R] makes the plea for forgiveness as the congregation responds “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”) L One stone in our wall is “lack of love”.

(The stone with the key term “lack of love” is placed.)

R1 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for whenever we have failed to love. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “hate and contempt”. (The stone with the key term “hate and contempt” is placed.)

R2 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for our hate and contempt for one another. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “false accusation.” (The stone with the key term “false accusation” is placed.)

R3 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for denouncing and falsely accusing one another. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “discrimination.” (The stone with the key term “discrimination” is placed.)

R4 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for all forms of prejudice and discrimination against one another. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

SUNG RESPONSE: “LORD, FORGIVE US”.

(Local Committees choose their own sung responses)

L One stone in our wall is “persecution”. (The stone with the key term “persecution” is placed.)

R5 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for persecuting and torturing one another. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “broken communion.” (The stone with the key term “broken communion” is placed.)

40

R6 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for perpetuating broken communion among our churches. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “intolerance”. (The stone with the key term “intolerance” is placed.)

R7 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for banishing our brothers and sisters from our common homeland in the past and for acts of religious intolerance today. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “religious wars”. (The stone with the key term “religious wars” is placed.)

R8 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for all wars that we have waged against one another in your name. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

SUNG RESPONSE: “LORD, FORGIVE US”.

L One stone in our wall is “division.”

(The stone with the key term “division” is placed.)

R9 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for living our Christian lives divided from one another and astray from our common calling for the healing of all creation. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “abuse of power.” (The stone with the key term “abuse of power” is placed.)

R10 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for our abuse of power. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “isolation.” (The stone with the key term “isolation” is placed.)

R11 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for the times when we have isolated ourselves from our Christian sisters and brothers and from the communities in which we live. We humbly pray:

C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

L One stone in our wall is “pride”. (The stone with the key term “pride” is placed.)

R12 Gracious God, the love of Christ compels us to ask forgiveness for our pride.

We humbly pray: C Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin

against us.

SUNG RESPONSE: “LORD, FORGIVE US”. L Let us pray: Lord, our God, look upon this wall that

we have built, which separates us from you and from one another. Forgive us our sins. Heal us. Help us to overcome all walls of division and make us one in you.

C. Amen.

HYMN/SONG/MEDITATIVE MUSIC

III. BE RECONCILED TO GOD – HEAR GOD´S WORD

FIRST READING: EZEKIEL 36:25-27 RESPONSORIAL PSALM: 18:25-32 (Sung) Response: I love you, O Lord, my strength. With the loyal you show yourself loyal; with the blameless you show yourself blameless; with the pure you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you show yourself perverse. For you deliver a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.

Response: I love you, O Lord, my strength. It is you who light my lamp; the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness. By you I can crush a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God — his way is perfect; the promise of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God except the LORD? And who is a rock besides our God?— the God who girded me with strength, and made my way safe.

Response: I love you, O Lord, my strength.

SECOND READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-20 ALLELUIA (sung)

GOSPEL READING: LUKE 15:11-24 ALLELUIA (sung)

SERMON

IV. RESPOND IN FAITH – LIVE RECONCILED

(As the wall is dismantled and the stones are laid in the form of a cross, a song of reconciliation or a hymn of the glory of the cross is sung.)

41

L Let us pray: Gracious God and Father in Heaven, we have heard your word that you have reconciled us to yourself through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. By the power of the Holy Spirit transform our hearts of stone. Help us to become ministers of reconciliation and heal our churches’ divisions so that we may better serve as instruments of your peace in the world.

C Amen.

THE PEACE

L The peace of the Lord be with you always. Let us give one another a sign of peace.

HYMN/SONG (Collection/Offering)

V. RESPOND IN FAITH – PROCLAIM RECONCILIATION CREED INTERCESSORY PRAYERS (After each petition, three people light their candles from a central source of light (for example a Paschal candle) and remain standing around the cross until the section headed “Christ’s commission.”) R1 Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to

reconcile the world to yourself. We praise you for those whom you sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labours, and that in every place your servants call upon your name. May your Spirit awaken in every community a hunger and thirst for unity in you. Let us pray to the Lord:

Spoken/Sung response: Lord, hear our prayer. (Allow enough time for the assistants to light their candles from the Paschal candle.)

R2 Gracious God, we pray for our churches. Fill them with all truth and peace. Where faith is corrupted, purify it; where people go astray, redirect them; where they fail to proclaim your Gospel, reform them; where they witness to what is right, strengthen them; where they are in need, provide for them; and where they are divided, reunite them. Let us pray to the Lord:

Spoken/Sung response: Lord, hear our prayer. (Allow enough time for the assistants to light their candles from the Paschal candle.)

R3 Creator God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus Christ, your Son. Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred that infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love. And even in our

weaknesses, work to accomplish your purposes on earth, so that every people and nation may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne. Let us pray to the Lord:

Spoken/Sung response: Lord, hear our prayer. (Allow enough time for the assistants to light their candles from the Paschal candle.)

R4 Holy Spirit, Giver of Life, we are created to become whole in you and to share this life on earth with our brothers and sisters. Awaken in each of us your compassion and love. Give us strength and courage to work for justice in our neighborhoods, to create peace within our families, to comfort the sick and the dying, and to share all we have with those who are in need. For the transformation of every human heart, let us pray to the Lord:

Spoken/Sung response: Lord, hear our prayer. (Allow enough time for the assistants to light their candles from the Paschal candle.) THE LORD´S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, Forgive us our sins As we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial And deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are

yours, Now and forever. Amen.

VI. AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST –

MINISTERS OF RECONCILIATION CHRIST´S COMMISSION

(The twelve pass the candlelight throughout the congregation until each person has a lighted candle.)

L A lighted candle is a deeply human symbol: it enlightens the darkness, creates warmth, security and community. It symbolizes Christ, the light of the world. As ambassadors for Christ we will carry this light into the world, into the dark places where fighting, discord and division impede our united witness. May Christ´s light effect reconciliation in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Receive the Light of Christ and carry it into the dark places of our world! Be ministers of reconciliation! Be ambassadors for Christ!

BLESSING AND SENDING

L We call out to you, most merciful God: Let all who seek reconciliation experience your help

so they may proclaim your mighty deeds of Love!

42

We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

C Amen.

L May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit come upon you and remain with you forever.

C Amen.

L Go in God´s Peace.

C Thanks be to God.

Hymn/Song “Sonne der Gerechtigkeit”, by Christian David (“Rise, O Sun of Righteousness”, translated by Frank W. Stoldt), or other song to be selected by the local planning committee.

BIBLICAL COMMENTARIES

AND PRAYERS FOR THE EIGHT DAYS

DAY 1 ONE HAS DIED FOR ALL (2 Corinthians 5:14)

Isaiah 53:4-12 He gave his life as an atoning sacrifice Psalm 118: 1.14-29 God did not abandon me to death 1 John 2:1-2 Christ died for all John 15:13-17 Giving his life for his friends

COMMENTARY

When Paul was converted to Christ he came to a radical new understanding: one person has died for all. Jesus did not just die for his own people, nor merely for those who sympathized with his teachings. He died for all people, past, present and future. Faithful to the Gospel, many Christians down the centuries have laid down their lives for their friends. One such person was the Franciscan Maximilian Kolbe, who was imprisoned in the concentration camp at Auschwitz and who in 1941 willingly gave up his life so that a fellow prisoner could live.

Because Jesus died for all, all have died with him (2 Cor 5:14). In dying with Christ our old way of life becomes a thing of the past and we enter into a new form of existence: abundant life – a life in which we can experience comfort, trust and forgiveness, even today – a life which continues to have meaning even after death. This new life is life in God.

Having come to this realization, Paul felt compelled by the love of Christ to preach the Good News of reconciliation with God. Christian churches share in this same commission of proclaiming the Gospel message. We need to ask ourselves how we can

proclaim this gospel of reconciliation in view of our divisions.

QUESTIONS

What does it mean to say that Jesus died for all?

The German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.” How does this affect how I view others?

What are the consequences of this for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue?

PRAYER

God our Father, in Jesus you gave us the one who died for all. He lived our life and died our death. You accepted his sacrifice and raised him to new life with you. Grant that we, who have died with him, may be made one by the Holy Spirit and live in the abundance of your divine presence now and for ever. Amen.

DAY 2 LIVE NO LONGER FOR

THEMSELVES (2 Corinthians 5:15)

Micah 6:6-8 God has told you what is good Psalm 25:1-5 God of my salvation, show me your ways 1 John 4:19-21 We love because God first loved us Matthew 16:24-26 Those who lose their life for my sake will find it COMMENTARY

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been freed from the need to create our own meaning and from living only out of our own strength. Rather, we live in the life-giving power of Christ, who lived, died, and rose again for us. When we ‘lose’ our life for his sake, we gain it.

The prophets were constantly faced with questions concerning the right way to live before God. The prophet Micah found a very clear answer to this question: “To do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” The author of Psalm 25 knew that we cannot do this by ourselves and cried out to God for guidance and strength.

In recent years, social isolation and increasing loneliness have become important issues in Germany as in many contemporary societies. Christians are called to develop new forms of community life in which we share our means of livelihood with others and nurture support between generations. The Gospel call to live not for ourselves but for Christ is also a call to reach out to others and to break down the barriers of isolation.

43

QUESTIONS

How does our culture tempt us to live only for ourselves rather than for others?

In what ways can we live for others in our daily life?

What are the ecumenical implications of the call to live no longer for ourselves?

PRAYER

God our Father, in Jesus Christ you have freed us for a life that goes beyond ourselves. Guide us with your Spirit and help us to orient our lives as sisters and brothers in Christ, who lived, suffered, died and rose again for us, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

DAY 3 WE REGARD NO ONE FROM A

HUMAN POINT OF VIEW (2 Corinthians 5:16)

1 Samuel 16:1. 6-7 The Lord looks not at outward

appearances but at the heart Psalm 19:7-13 The commandment of the Lord is

clear, enlightening the eyes Acts 9:1-19 Saul becomes Paul Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes COMMENTARY

Encountering Christ turns everything upside down. Paul had that experience on the road to Damascus. For the first time he could see Jesus for who he really was: the Saviour of the world. His point of view was changed completely. He had to lay his human, worldly judgment aside.

Encountering Christ changes our perspective as well. Nevertheless, we often linger in the past and judge according to human standards. We make claims or do things “in the name of the Lord” that in reality may be self-serving. Throughout history, in Germany and in many other countries, both rulers and the churches themselves have misused their power and influence to pursue unjust political goals.

Transformed by their encounter with Christ, in 1741, the Christians of the Moravian Church (Herrnhuter) answered the call to regard no-one from a human point of view by choosing to ‘submit to Christ’s Rule’. In submitting ourselves to the rule of Christ today, we are called to see others as God sees them, without mistrust or prejudice.

QUESTIONS

Where can I identify Damascus experiences in my life?

What changes when we view other Christians or people of other faiths as God views them?

PRAYER

Triune God, you are the origin and goal of all living things. Forgive us when we only think of ourselves and are blinded by our own standards. Open our hearts and our eyes. Teach us to be loving, accepting and gracious, so that we may grow in the unity which is your gift. To you be honour and praise, now and for ever. Amen.

DAY 4 EVERYTHING OLD HAS PASSED

AWAY (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Genesis 19:15-26 Don’t look back Psalm 77: 5-15 God is always faithful Philippians 3: 7-14 Forgetting what lies behind Luke 9:57-62 Keep your hand on the plough COMMENTARY

We often live out of the past. Looking back can be helpful, and is often necessary for the healing of memories. It can also paralyze us and prevent us from living in the present. Paul’s message here is liberating: “everything old has passed away”.

The Bible encourages us to keep the past in mind, to draw strength from our memories, and to remember what good God has done. However, it also asks us to leave the old, even what was good, in order to follow Christ and live a new life in him.

During this year, the work of Martin Luther and other reformers is being commemorated by many Christians. The Reformation changed much in the life of the Western Church. Many Christians showed heroic witness and many were renewed in their Christian lives. At the same time, as scripture shows, it is important not to be limited by what happened in the past, but rather to allow the Holy Spirit to open us to a new future in which division is overcome and God’s people is made whole. QUESTIONS

What could we learn by reading together the history of our divisions and mutual mistrust?

What must change in my church so that divisions can be overcome and that which unites can be strengthened?

PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today and for ever. Heal the wounds of our past, bless our pilgrimage towards unity today and guide us into your future, when you will be all in all, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

44

DAY 5 EVERYTHING HAS BECOME

NEW (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Ezekiel 36:25-27 Receiving a new heart from God Psalm 126 Being filled with joy Colossians 3:9-17 Being renewed in Christ John 3:1-8 Being born in the Spirit COMMENTARY

Paul encountered Christ, the risen Lord, and became a renewed person—just as everyone does who believes in Christ. This new creation is not visible to the naked eye. Instead it is a reality of faith. God lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit and lets us share in the life of the Trinity.

By this act of new creation, the Fall is overcome and we are brought into a saving relationship with God. Truly amazing things can be said about us: as Paul said, in Christ we are a new creation; in his resurrection death is overcome; no person or thing can snatch us out of the hand of God; we are one in Christ and he lives in us; in Christ we are “a kingdom and priests” (Rev 5:10) as we give thanks to him for overcoming death and we proclaim the promise of the new creation.

This new life becomes visible when we allow it to take shape and live it out in “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” It must also become apparent in our ecumenical relationships. A common conviction in many churches is that the more we are in Christ, the closer we are to each other. Especially on this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we are reminded of both the achievements and tragedies of our history. The love of Christ compels us to live as renewed beings in actively seeking unity and reconciliation.

QUESTIONS

What helps me to recognize that I am a new creation in Christ?

What are the steps I need to take to live out my new life in Christ?

What are the ecumenical implications of being a new creation?

PRAYER

Triune God, you reveal yourself to us as Father and creator, as Son and Saviour, and as Spirit and giver of life, and yet you are one. You break through our human boundaries and renew us. Give us a new heart to overcome all that endangers our unity in you. We pray in the name of Christ Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

DAY 6 GOD RECONCILED US TO

HIMSELF (2 Corinthians 5:18)

Genesis 17:1-8 God makes a covenant with Abraham Psalm 98 The world has seen the victory of God Romans 5:6-11 God reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ Luke 2:8-14 Proclamation of the good news

COMMENTARY

Reconciliation has two sides: it is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. It draws us in so that we desire it: within ourselves, with one another, and between our different confessional traditions. We see the price and it scares us. For reconciliation means renouncing our desire for power and recognition. In Christ God graciously reconciles us to himself even though we have turned away from him. God´s action goes beyond even this: God reconciles not only humanity, but the whole of creation to himself.

In the Old Testament God was faithful and merciful to the people of Israel, with whom he established a covenant. This covenant remains: “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). Jesus, who inaugurated the new covenant in his blood, was a son of Israel. Too often in history our churches have failed to honor this. After the Holocaust, it is the distinctive task of the German churches to combat antisemitism. Similarly all churches are called to bring forth reconciliation in their communities and resist all forms of human discrimination, for we are all part of God’s covenant.

QUESTIONS

How do we as Christian communities understand being part of God’s covenant?

What forms of discrimination do our churches need to address today in our societies?

PRAYER

Merciful God, out of love you made a covenant with your people. Empower us to resist all forms of discrimination. Let the gift of your loving covenant fill us with joy and inspire us to greater unity. Through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.

DAY 7 THE MINISTRY OF

RECONCILIATION (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

Genesis 50:15-21 Joseph is reconciled with his brothers

45

Psalm 72 God’s kingdom brings righteousness and peace

1 John 3:16b-21 God’s love compels us to love one another

John 17:20-26 Jesus prays for the unity of his church

COMMENTARY

Reconciliation between God and human beings is the key reality of our Christian faith. Paul was convinced that the love of Christ compels us to bring God’s reconciliation to bear in all aspects of our life. Today this leads us to examine our consciences in relation to our divisions. As the story of Joseph demonstrates, God always gives the grace needed for the healing of broken relationships.

The great reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, as well as many who remained Catholics, such as Ignatius of Loyola, Francis de Sales and Charles Borromeo, sought to bring about renewal in the Western church. However, what should have been a story of God’s grace was also marred by human sinfulness and became a story of the rending of the unity of God’s people. Compounded by sin and warfare, mutual hostility and suspicion deepened over the centuries.

The ministry of reconciliation includes the work of overcoming divisions within Christianity. Today, many Christian churches work together in mutual trust and respect. One positive example of ecumenical reconciliation is the dialogue between the Lutheran World Federation and the Mennonite World Conference. After the dialogue results were published in the document “Healing Memories: Reconciling in Christ”, the two organizations held a penitential service together in 2010 followed by further reconciliation services throughout Germany and in many other countries. QUESTIONS

Where do we see the need for a ministry of reconciliation in our context?

How are we responding to this need? PRAYER

God of all goodness, we give you thanks for reconciling us and the whole world to yourself in Christ. Empower us, our congregations and our churches in ministries of reconciliation. Heal our hearts and help us to spread your peace. “Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy”. We pray in the name of Christ Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. DAY 8 RECONCILED TO GOD

(2 Corinthians 5:20)

Micah 4:1-5 In the last days justice will reign Psalm 87 Glorious things are spoken of God Revelation 21:1-5a God will make a new heaven and a new earth John 20:11-18 Meeting the risen Christ leads to personal mission COMMENTARY

What if? What if the prophecies in the Bible actually came true? If the wars between people stopped and if life-giving things were to be made out of the weapons of war? What if God’s justice and peace reigned, a peace which was more than simply the absence of war? If all of humanity came together for a celebration in which not a single person was marginalized? What if there really was no more mourning, no more tears, and no more death? It would be the culmination of the reconciliation that God brought about in Jesus Christ. It would be heaven!

Psalms, canticles, and hymns sing of the day when the whole perfected creation finally arrives at its goal, the day when God will be “all in all”. They tell about the Christian hope for the fulfilment of God´s reign, when suffering will be transformed into joy. On that day, the Church will be revealed in her beauty and grace as the one body of Christ. Wherever we gather in the Spirit to sing together about the fulfilment of God’s promises, the heavens break open and we begin here and now to dance to the melody of eternity.

As we can already experience this presence of heaven, let us celebrate together. We may be inspired to share images, poems and songs from our particular traditions. These materials can open up spaces for us to experience our common faith in and hope for God’s Kingdom. QUESTIONS

How do you envision heaven?

Which songs, stories, poems, and pictures from your tradition give you the feeling of participating in the reality of God´s eternity?

PRAYER

Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we thank you for this week of prayer, for being together as Christians and for the different ways we have experienced your presence. Let us always praise your holy name together

46

so that we may continue to grow in unity and reconciliation. Amen. Lamb of God, the heavens adore you, the saints and angels sing before you with harp and cymbals' clearest tone. Of one pearl each shining portal, where, joining with the choir immortal, we gather round your radiant throne. No eye has seen that light, no ear the echoed might of your glory; yet there shall we in victory sing shouts of joy eternally! [German: “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” author: Philipp Nicolai (1599); English: “Wake, awake, the night is flying” (third stanza), translated by Catherine Winkworth]

THE ECUMENICAL SITUATION

IN GERMANY

WORKING TOGETHER IN A CHANGING SOCIETY

Of the 81 million inhabitants in Germany today, 50 million are Christian. Most of them belong either to the Roman Catholic Church or to one of the Protestant regional churches which together make up the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Although small by comparison, there are also “Free Churches”, the Orthodox Church and, indeed, all major Christian traditions are present in Germany today.

Centuries ago, Germany consisted of many kingdoms and principalities but was united by a common church. The Reformation, led among others by Martin Luther, resulted in schisms within Western Christianity and ultimately in wars between Catholic and Protestant forces. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) temporarily put an end to these conflicts by stipulating that the people of a kingdom or principality were to adhere to the faith of their ruler. Those who believed differently were forced to convert or move to a different region. These provisions applied to Lutherans and Catholics, but not to the followers of Calvin and the Anabaptists, who were thus subject to persecution. The Peace of Augsburg held for over six decades until the outbreak of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Peace was re-established by the Peace of Westphalia which affirmed the Peace of Augsburg, this time, however, with provision for Calvinists. As a result, the German people lived in regional denominational isolation. Confessional diversity within a sovereign land was unthinkable, and, driven by the horrors of war, mistrust

This text is reproduced under the sole authority and responsibility of the Council of Churches in Germany (ACK).

and animosity between the denominations were rampant.

The 19th century saw the advent of other churches and denominations in Germany, among them the Baptist and Methodist as well as old-confessional churches (the Old Lutheran, Old Reformed and Old Catholic churches). Their rise was often due to inner church protest movements. As a result, these churches were relatively small in number and mostly disinclined to ecumenical relations.

After World War II, the situation of the Christian churches in Germany changed significantly. About 12 million people of German ancestry fled or were expelled from Eastern Europe. When they were settled in Germany no consideration was given to the question of which Christian tradition they belonged to. Protestants came to live in Catholic areas and vice versa. As a result, Protestants and Catholics came in closer contact with each other.

Post-War economic and industrial growth created a demand for labour, resulting in agreements between the German government and many Mediterranean countries concerning “guest workers”. In this way people from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia came to Germany, which increased the confessional and religious diversity of the country. This saw in particular an increase in the Orthodox presence in Germany. Although it was initially thought that they would return to their home countries after a couple of years (hence the name “guest workers”), many stayed and left their mark on German life and culture. The 1980s saw an increase of immigrants with German roots from the former Soviet Union, many of whom were Orthodox, Baptist or Jewish. In recent years war, terror and social unrest in the Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan, Ukraine and many other countries have generated a large flow of refugees. While most of these flee to neighbouring regions, there are increasing numbers of migrants seeking refuge in Germany and in other European countries.

In former Eastern Germany the churches, most especially the Protestant church, played a key role in the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall (1989) and the downfall of the Communist government. Even that, however, did not prevent the Christian faith from losing its significance in East Germany. The British newspaper, The Guardian, went so far as to describe East Germany as “the most godless place on earth”. The rule of the Communist government was by no means the only reason for the lack of religiosity there; the Christian faith had been on the decline in East Germany even before the communists came to power. The atheism there is not at all aggressive in nature, like that of the so-called “new atheists”. Instead, it is characterized by a deep-rooted indifference to any kind of faith. When people in Berlin were asked whether they considered themselves to be believers or unbelievers, one person responded: “I’m neither, I’m normal”.

47

Today Germany is home to people of many different cultural backgrounds and of different – or no – beliefs. About one third of the population belongs to one of the Protestant regional churches in the EKD, one third is Roman Catholic and just under one third does not adhere to any faith. 1,7% of the population are Orthodox Christians, another 1,8% are members of one of the free churches. These are mostly churches which have strong historical and theological links to the Reformation but do not have ties to the state like the Roman Catholic Church and the EKD. 4,9% of the people in Germany are Muslim, 0,1% are Jewish.

The churches in Germany have not yet overcome all their differences, but they have learned to work together. During the rule of the National Socialists there were Christians who collaborated with the government. Others, however, offered resistance and were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. The common experience of living and suffering under the dictatorship of the Nazis brought Christians of different traditions closer together. Today, German churches do a much better job of cooperating in order to fulfil the mission of the Church and witness to the Gospel in word and deed. Because the Roman Catholic Church and the EKD each have many members, they also make up a large part of the ecumenical cooperation that takes place in Germany.

Much of the ecumenism in Germany occurs at the grassroots level, for example the Prayer Week of the Evangelical Alliance and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Neighbouring parishes and congregations often organize ecumenical activities like Bible study, discussing theological topics, celebrating festivals, creating a common website, visiting people who are new to the community and distributing leaflets at a local train station that contain information about the Christian churches. This kind of work is usually done by volunteers who are members of the local churches. In some regions congregations and parishes enter into local ecumenical partnerships, signing a formal agreement that shapes their cooperation. These agreements are usually based on similar written agreements between the leaders of the churches concerned.

Ecumenical co-operation also occurs on the level of church leadership. For example, a group of Catholic and Protestant bishops from the EKD meets twice a year to discuss current topics that affect the churches. Another group discusses theological issues – such as the concept of human dignity. In addition to these bilateral meetings, there are also regular meetings between representatives of the Orthodox Bishops’ Conference with Roman Catholic and with Protestant bishops, respectively, and between the Association of Free Churches and the EKD.

Large church conventions or gatherings for the members of a church are a typical feature of the German Christian landscape. For Catholics they are called Katholikentage, and for Protestants, Kirchentage. Both take

place every two years, and are organized by the Central Committee of German Catholics and the German Evangelical Kirchentag (DEKT), respectively. In principle, they are primarily gatherings for the members of one church, but for many years now members of different churches have attended or have even been invited as guest speakers.

In 2003 and in 2010 all the member churches of the German Council of Churches joined together to organise a similar convention on an ecumenical level called an Ökumenischer Kirchentag. Many issues that are important to German society were discussed (the global financial crisis, climate change, ethical questions concerning human life, justice, etc.). Of equal importance were the many Bible studies, theological discussions, and ecumenical worship services. Holding these gatherings, especially the ecumenical Kirchentage, is an excellent opportunity for Christians in Germany to demonstrate not only that they are still active, but also that they are prepared to work together and to engage the rest of German society in dialogue.

THE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN GERMANY

The Council of Churches in Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen, ACK) was founded on 10 March 1948, i.e. a few months before the World Council of Churches was established. The founding members were the EKD, Mennonites, Baptists, Methodists and the Old-Catholic Church. In 1974, ten years after the Decree on Ecumenism had been adopted by the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Germany joined the Council of Churches. The Orthodox Church, too, became a member in 1974. After the reunification of Germany the West German and the East German Councils of Churches merged. Both councils had had different structures and membership, so it was necessary to form a new ecumenical body with new statutes. Today the Council of Churches in Germany has 17 member churches. In addition, six churches are guest members and four ecumenical organizations have observer status.

In 2003, during the first Ecumenical Kirchentag in Berlin, representatives of all member churches of the ACK celebrated an ecumenical service and signed the Charta Oecumenica produced by the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Episcopal Conferences of the Roman Catholic Church. The ACK also published its own text which reflects on the meaning of the Charta Oecumenica in the German context and on how the Charta can be put into practice in Germany.

In 2010, during the second Ecumenical Kirchentag in Munich, the ACK established an “Ecumenical Day of Creation”, thus implementing one of the recommendations of the Charta Oecumenica. The Ecumenical Day of Creation is intended both to be a common witness to our belief in God as Creator and to remind us of our joint task in preserving God’s creation. This Day of Creation is to

48

be celebrated each year on the first Friday in September. The initial celebration of the Ecumenical Day of Creation was held by the ACK in an Orthodox church in Brühl. Today the Day of Creation is observed in cities all over Germany. The ACK encourages all German Christians to celebrate this day and publishes suggestions for worship services and additional material well in advance of September so that people can use it to plan their own celebration.

Another topic to which the Council of Churches has devoted much time and discussion is that of Baptism. In 2007 eleven member churches signed an agreement on the mutual recognition of Baptism. Five members of the Council of Churches, among them the Mennonites and the Baptists, felt unable to sign. Since then, the ACK has worked further on the issue of Baptism. The subject was discussed by the General Assembly of the ACK, and a public conference was held in March 2014. The ACK also held a consultation with the Finnish Ecumenical Council on the same topic.

Articles 10 and 11 of the Charta Oecumenica recommend intensifying dialogue with representatives of the Jewish faith, and they encourage encounters between Christians and Muslims. Accordingly the ACK has worked together with one Jewish and two Muslim organizations in an initiative called “Weißt du, wer ich bin?” (“Do you know who I am?”). This initiative offered advice and financial support in encouraging people of all three faiths to get to know each other and to engage in common activities at a grassroots level. A young Muslim woman was employed to coordinate this effort. Funding was also given by German and European state institutions.

The ACK has also given much thought to the document “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World”, and has set up a task force to coordinate work on the subject. In 2014 a conference was held that gave representatives of the member churches of the ACK and of the Evangelical Alliance (EA) the opportunity to discuss matters relating to witness and interreligious dialogue. As a result, the EA and the ACK have developed closer ties, and the EA has asked to join the ACK with observer status.

ECUMENICAL CHALLENGES

One of the main ecumenical challenges Germany faces is maintaining a platform on which churches that are smaller in number can meet with the two large churches face to face. The Roman Catholic Church and the EKD are about the same size and have the same kinds of resources at their disposal. For that reason their cooperation comes naturally and covers a wide variety of topics – everything from inter-church marriage to questions concerning the relationship between state and church. Many times, however, they work together on a strictly bilateral basis, the result being that other churches and even the ACK itself often do not have their due say in ecumenical matters.

Doing justice to the fact that there are more than two churches in Germany and encouraging and enabling multilateral discourse and cooperation are some of the ACK’s central goals.

Another challenge is the frustration that many people feel, especially those who have laboured for a long time at the grassroots level, when they cannot see any progress in ecumenical matters. This frustration is felt most sharply when it comes to sharing the Lord’s Supper across confessional boundaries, known as Eucharistic sharing. In Germany there are vast numbers of couples who belong to different churches. They not only yearn to be able to take communion together, but many also feel deeply that the ecumenical movement should be bearing more fruit than it is, and are dissatisfied when they see stagnation instead of bold steps forward.

Many people in Germany today have no real knowledge of the Christian faith, and they do not seem interested in understanding, let alone embracing it. If the churches take their mission seriously to “go to all nations and make them my disciples” (Mt 28:19) it should be a priority for them to engage these people in dialogue. Instead of dealing with this challenge individually, the churches should face it together, learning from each other’s experience and encouraging each other. Focusing on their common faith can only strengthen the bond among the churches. Also, trying together to communicate the Christian faith in an understandable way can lead the churches themselves to a deeper understanding of their own faith. The 500th anniversary of the Reformation can be seen as an opportunity to remind the public – Christians and non-believers alike – of what the Christian faith is all about: God’s love in Christ for us humans and for all creation. That is why the churches in Germany have decided to make the anniversary a celebration of Jesus Christ (“Christusfest”).

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

THEMES 1968-2017

In 1968, materials jointly prepared by the WCC Faith and

Order Commission and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity were

first used.

1968 To the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:14) 1969 Called to freedom (Galatians 5:13) (Preparatory meeting held in Rome, Italy) 1970 We are fellow workers for God (1 Corinthians 3:9) (Preparatory meeting held at the Monastery of Niederaltaich, Federal Republic of Germany)

49

1971 ... and the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:13) (Preparatory meeting in Bari, Italy) 1972 I give you a new commandment (John 13:34) (Preparatory meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland) 1973 Lord, teach us to pray (Luke 11:1) (Preparatory meeting held at the Abbey of Montserrat, Spain) 1974 That every tongue confess: Jesus Christ is Lord

(Philippians 2:1-13) (Preparatory meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland) 1975 God’s purpose: all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-10)

(Material from an Australian group – Preparatory meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland)

1976 We shall be like him (1 John 3:2) or, Called to

become what we are (Material from Caribbean Conference of Churches – Preparatory meeting held in Rome, Italy) 1977 Enduring together in hope (Romans 5:1-5) (Material from Lebanon, in the midst of a civil war – Preparatory meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland) 1978 No longer strangers (Ephesians 2:13-22) (Material from an ecumenical team in Manchester, England) 1979 Serve one another to the glory of God (l Peter 4:7-11)

(Material from Argentina – Preparatory meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland)

1980 Your kingdom come (Matthew 6:10) (Material from an ecumenical group in Berlin, German Democratic Republic – Preparatory meeting held in Milan, Italy)

1981 One Spirit - many gifts - one body (1 Corinthians 12:3b-13)

(Material from Graymoor Fathers, USA – Preparatory meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland)

1982 May all find their home in you, O Lord (Psalm 84)

(Material from Kenya – Preparatory meeting held in Milan, Italy)

1983 Jesus Christ - the Life of the World (1 John 1:1-4)

(Material from an ecumenical group in Ireland – Preparatory meeting held in Céligny (Bossey), Switzerland)

1984 Called to be one through the cross of our Lord

(1 Corinthians 2:2 and Colossians 1:20) (Preparatory meeting held in Venice, Italy) 1985 From death to life with Christ (Ephesians 2:4- 7)

(Material from Jamaica – Preparatory meeting held in Grandchamp, Switzerland)

1986 You shall be my witnesses (Acts 1:6-8)

(Material from Yugoslavia (Slovenia) – Preparatory meeting held in Yugoslavia)

1987 United in Christ - a New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-6:4a)

(Material from England – Preparatory meeting held in Taizé, France)

1988 The love of God casts out fear (1 John 4:18)

(Material from Italy – Preparatory meeting held in Pinerolo, Italy)

1989 Building community: one body in Christ (Romans 12:5-6a)

(Material from Canada – Preparatory meeting held in Whaley Bridge, England)

1990 That they all may be one ... That the world may

believe (John 17) (Material from Spain – Preparatory meeting held in Madrid, Spain)

1991 Praise the Lord, all you nations! (Psalm 117

and Romans 15:5-13) (Material from Germany – Preparatory meeting held in Rotenburg an der Fulda, Federal Republic of Germany)

1992 I am with you always ... Go, therefore (Matthew 28:16-20) Je suis avec vous... allez donc

(Material from Belgium – Preparatory meeting held in Bruges, Belgium)

1993 Bearing the fruit of the Spirit for Christian

unity (Galatians 5:22-23) (Material from Zaire – Preparatory meeting held near Zurich, Switzerland)

1994 The household of God: called to be one in

heart and mind (Acts 4:23-37) (Material from Ireland – Preparatory meeting held in Dublin, Republic of Ireland)

50

1995 Koinonia: communion in God and with one another (John 15:1-17) (Material from Faith and Order – Preparatory meeting held in Bristol, England)

1996 Behold, I stand at the door and knock (Revelation 3:14-22)

(Material from Portugal – Preparatory meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal)

1997 We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be

reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20) (Material from Nordic Ecumenical Council – Preparatory meeting held in Stockholm, Sweden)

1998 The Spirit helps us in our weakness (Romans 8:14-27) L’Esprit aussi vient en aide à notre faiblesse

(Material from France – Preparatory meeting held in Paris, France)

1999 He will dwell with them as their God, they will

be his peoples (Revelation 21:1-7) (Material from Malaysia – Preparatory meeting held in Monastery of Bose, Italy)

2000 Blessed be God who has blessed us in Christ

(Ephesians 1:3-14) (Material from the Middle East Council of Churches – Preparatory meeting held in La Verna, Italy)

2001 I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life (John 14:1-6)

(Material from Romania – Preparatory meeting held at Vulcan, Romania)

2002 For with you is the fountain of life (Psalm 36:5-9)

(Material CEEC and CEC – Preparatory meeting near Augsburg, Germany)

2003 We have this treasure in clay jars (2 Corinthians 4:4-18)

(Material churches in Argentina – Preparatory meeting at Los Rubios, Spain)

2004 My peace I give to you (John 14:23-31; John 14:27)

(Material from Aleppo, Syria – Preparatory meeting in Palermo, Sicily)

2005 Christ, the one foundation of the church (1 Corinthians 3:1-23) (Material from Slovakia – Preparatory meeting in Piestaňy, Slovakia)

2006 Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them (Matthew 18:18-20) (Material from Ireland – Preparatory meeting held in Prosperous, Co. Kildare, Ireland)

2007 He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute

to speak (Mark 7:31-37) (Material from South Africa – Preparatory meeting held in Faverges, France)

2008 Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:(12a) 13b-18)

(Material from USA – Preparatory meeting held in Graymoor, Garrison, USA)

2009 That they may become one in your hand (Ezekiel 37:15-28)

(Material from Korea – Preparatory meeting held in Marseilles, France)

2010 You are witnesses of these things (Luke 24:48)

(Material from Scotland – Preparatory meeting held in Glasgow, Scotland)

2011 One in the apostles’ teaching, fellowship,

breaking of bread and prayer (cf. Acts 2:42) (Material from Jerusalem – Preparatory meeting held in Saydnaya, Syria)

2012 We will all be Changed by the Victory of our

Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51-58) (Material from Poland – Preparatory meeting held in Warsaw, Poland)

2013 What does God require of us? (cf. Micah 6, 6- 8)

(Material from India – Preparatory meeting held in Bangalore, India)

2014 Has Christ been divided ? (1 Corinthians 1:1- 17)

(Material from Canada – Preparatory meeting held in Montréal, Canada)

2015 Jesus said to her: Give me to drink (John 4, 7)

(Material from Brazil – Preparatory meeting held in São Paulo, Brazil)

2016 Called to proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord

(cf. 1 Peter 2:9) (Material from Latvia – Preparatory meeting held in Rīga, Latvia)

2017 Reconciliation - The Love of Christ Compels

Us (2 Cor 5: 14-20) (Material from Germany – Preparatory meeting held in Wittenberg, Germany)

51

KEY DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEEK OF PRAYER

FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

c. 1740 In Scotland a Pentecostal movement arose, with North American links, whose revivalist message included prayers for and with all churches. 1820 The Rev. James Haldane Stewart publishes “Hints for the General Union of Christians for the Outpouring of the Spirit”. 1840 The Rev. Ignatius Spencer, a convert to

Roman Catholicism, suggests a “Union of Prayer for Unity”.

1867 The First Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops emphasizes prayer for unity in the Preamble to its Resolutions.

1894 Pope Leo XIII encourages the practice of a Prayer Octave for Unity in the context of Pentecost.

1908 First observance of the “Church Unity Octave” initiated by the Rev. Paul Wattson. 1926 The Faith and Order movement begins

publishing “Suggestions for an Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity”.

1935 Abbé Paul Couturier of France advocates the “Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” on the inclusive basis of prayer for “the unity Christ wills by the means he wills”. 1958 Unité Chrétienne (Lyons, France) and the

Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches begin co-operative preparation of materials for the Week of Prayer.

1964 In Jerusalem, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I prayed together Jesus’ prayer “that they all may be one” (John 17).

1964 The Decree on Ecumenism of Vatican II emphasizes that prayer is the soul of the ecumenical movement and encourages observance of the Week of Prayer.

1966 The Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity [now known as the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity] begin official joint preparation of the Week of Prayer material.

1968 First official use of Week of Prayer material prepared jointly by Faith and Order and the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (now known as the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity).

1975 First use of Week of Prayer material based on a draft text prepared by a local ecumenical group. An Australian group was the first to take up this plan in preparing the 1975 initial draft.

1988 Week of Prayer materials were used in the inaugural worship for The Christian Federation of Malaysia, which links the major Christian groupings in that country.

1994 International group preparing text for 1996 included representatives from YMCA and YWCA. 2004 Agreement reached that resources for the

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity be jointly published and produced in the same format by Faith and Order (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (Catholic Church).

2008 Commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. (Its predecessor, the Church Unity Octave, was first observed in 1908).