PREFACE

    This report which we here present is the result of five meetings between Baptists and Roman Catholics in the years 1984-1988. The conversations were sponsored by the Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Interchurch Cooperation of the Baptist World Alliance and the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. They were the first international conversations between our two bodies.
    Our overall theme was "Christian Witness in Today's World." Our primary goal was to come to a mutual understanding of certain convergences and divergences between the Baptist and Roman Catholic world confessional families. Additional goals included:
    1. To establish relations and maintain a channel of communication through conversation for mutual as well as self-understanding.
    2. To identify new possibilities as well as to clarify existing difficulties in regard to a common witness in view of the current world situation and the mandate of Christ to proclaim the gospel.
    3. To address existing prejudices between our two world confessional families.
    During these initial conversations, where we experienced God's presence and God's blessings, these objectives were in large part fulfilled. What we achieved in these conversations is an encouragement to similar efforts at various levels in church life.
    At each session the main work was theological discussion. Scholarly papers were presented and discussed by participants. Bible studies related to the selected themes, and visits to local communities in the places where the meetings took place, enriched our conversations. In each location leaders of the Baptist and Roman Catholic communities visited the group and shared with them the support of their good wishes and their prayers.
    We offer this report, with thanks, to the bodies that sponsored our conversations. The sixteen of us who have been participants have been conscious of the Spirit of God at work among us, and have formed in the course of these years friendships that have been full of encouragement and edification. As this report is completed, we remember fondly one of our members, Rev. Jerome Dollard, O.S.B., who was suddenly called from this life on December 26, 1985.
    Those of us who took part in the conversations regard our experience together as a great gift from God. We hope other Baptists and Roman Catholics will have the grace of a similar experience. In that spirit we offer this report to Baptists, Roman Catholics and others for their study and their prayerful reflection.

Bishop Bede Heather Co-Chairman		Dr. David Shannon Co-Chairman
	Atlanta, July 23, 1988

SUMMONS TO WITNESS TO CHRIST IN TODAY'S WORLD:

A Report On The Baptist-roman Catholic International Conversations

I. THE CONVERSATIONS IN REVIEW

    1. Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Baptists and Roman Catholics have entered into conversation with one another at numerous levels. Only in the past five years, however, have they undertaken a series of conversations at the international level. Jointly sponsored by the Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Interchurch Cooperation of the Baptist World Alliance and the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, these conversations have focused on a subject of concern to both bodies, namely, "Christian Witness in Today's World."

   2. In this series of five conversations Baptist and Roman Catholic participants, composed of church leaders and scholars, discovered a remarkable amount of consensus on both general and specific issues. Agreement centered on God's saving revelation in Jesus Christ, the necessity of personal commitment to God in Christ, the on-going work of the Holy Spirit, and the missionary imperative that emerges from God's redemptive activity on behalf of humankind. There were, of course, some significant differences on both general and specific issues. We often noted that divergences appeared among representatives of the same communion as well as among those of the two communions.

    3. The conversations, held annually in various locations, explored the following topics relative to common witness. The first, meeting in West Berlin, July 18-21, 1984 focused on "Evangelism/Evangelization: the Mission of the Church." The second, assembled in Los Angeles, June 24-30, 1985, addressed the issues of "Christology" and "Conversion/Discipleship," aspects of "Witness to Christ." The third, convened in New York City, June 2-7, 1986, explored ecclesiological issues under the title of "The Church as Koinonia of the Spirit." The fourth, held in Rome, July 13-18, 1987, directed itself to specific issues standing in the way of improving common Christian witness, that is, proselytism and restrictions on religious freedom. The fifth, located in Atlanta, Georgia, July 18-23, 1988, sought to gather the fruit of the entire series.