The Joint Working Group was set up in 1965 by the RCC and
the WCC as a manifestation of their need to work together
in the ecumenical movement.
Its task was described as being to clarify the principles
and methods of ecumenical collaboration while giving due account
to the differences between its parent bodies, one a world-wide
Church, the other a Council of churches. It has continued
to emphasize, as was evident in the Fourth Report in 1975,
the common ground between the churches engaged in the ecumenical
movement, and affirmed the real though imperfect communion
that already exists between the Roman Catholic Church and
the churches in the fellowship of the World Council of Churches.
So the JWG expresses the will of member churches of the WCC
and the RCC to meet, to grow in mutual recognition and to
find new ways to be together in the service of unity and mission.
Its structure is modest but with the confidence and support
of its parent bodies it acts as a continuing reminder to the
churches engaged in the ecumenical movement that dialogue
and action, the restoration of communion and the commitment
to common witness, to the unity of the Church and the renewal
of the human community, belong together. So it attends to
both the theological and the social and pastoral dimensions
and tries to stimulate the interaction between all levels
of ecumenical work. It is an instrument of its parent bodies
with the task of keeping prominently before them and before
all Christian churches the urgent need to grow in communion
and to manifest the existing fellowship of churches through
common witness.