The mandate of the JWG requires it to initiate and promote collaboration between the organs and programs of the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. Throughout this past period it has supported many forma of collaboration which give significant expression to the relation between the two parent bodies. In addition to what has already been mentioned in preceding sections, the following are worthy of note:

1. Commission on Faith and Order

    For almost 15 years the Commission on Faith & Order has had a number of Roman Catholic theologians among its official members. This has enabled the Commission to draw increasingly on RC participation of agreed statements on Baptism, Eucharist and the Ministry and in the broader effort to explore the conditions of a common confession of the apostolic faith today which incorporates the results of the study initiated by the Joint Working Group.

2. Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

    The Secretariat of the Commission on Faith & Order and the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity gave continued to convene an international group to prepare the common material for the celebration of this week, based on proposals coming each year from an ecumenical group in a particular country. The Week of Prayer continues to be of great significance in stimulating local ecumenical initiatives. The prayer cycle "For all God's People" offers a means of developing a new pattern of mutual intercession.

3. Relationships with Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME)

    For several years a number of Roman Catholic missionary orders which work with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples have established a consultative relationship with the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism of the WCC. They have also sent observer consultants to attend the meetings of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. This collaboration has been particularly important for RC participation in the World Missionary Conference of CWME at Melbourne in 1980, as well as for the study on Common Witness, initiated by the Joint Working Group.

4. Dialogue with People of Living Faiths

    Though not structured in ways comparable to the collaboration in the areas of Faith & Order and World Mission and Evangelism, a very fruitful cooperation has developed between the WCC Working Group on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies and the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Christian. In recent years attention has focused on dialogue with Muslims and both sides attach great importance to the continuation of this relationship.

5. Ecumenical Institute, Bossey

    A new field of collaboration has opened up around the program of the Ecumenical Institute with the presence of some RC students, a RC Board member, and the visit of the Graduate School to Rome each year at the end of its course.

    For some time the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity has endeavored to ensure an effective RC presence with the teaching staff of the Ecumenical Institute both for the period of the Graduate School and the major courses sponsored by the Institute.

6. The Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Vancouver, July/August 1983

    Since the time of the Second Vatican Council it has become increasingly possible for the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches to participate and in some way share in each other's great events. The Assembly of Vancouver offers also to the Roman Catholic Church the occasion to celebrate the ecumenical movement and renew its ecumenical commitment, even though it will be less directly involved in those aspects of the Assembly which make it the highest legislative body of the Council. There will be twenty Roman Catholic delegated observers at the Assembly as well as some advisers and guests. There is a considerable effort being made to inform Roman Catholics on various levels of the Assembly and to awaken an intelligent interest in it and to invite them to support it by prayer. By means of reports from several study consultations a RC contribution is also being made to the study process in the Assembly.