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Indice > Dialoghi Interconfessionali > JWG > Fifth Rep. | CONT. > V

     INTRODUCTION - select
   I. THE ECUMENICAL SITUATION - select
   II. FUNCTIONS AND OPERATIONS OF THE JOINT GROUP - select

   III. ACTIVITIES OF THE JOINT WORKING GROUP - select
       A. PRIORITIES FOR COLLABORATION - select
       B. ONGOING COLLABORATION - select
   IV. PROPOSAL FOR THE FUTURE WORK - select
V. The Future of the Joint Working Group
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FULL TEXT

V. THE FUTURE OF THE JOINT WORKING GROUP
IN THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

  1. 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.

  2. In the period which lies ahead the JWG must review the contacts and collaboration taking place between the subunits of the WCC and partners on the RC side and try to find appropriate ways to expressing them. It must continue to be a vantage point from which the whole relationship and its place in the ecumenical movement is surveyed. It will address itself anew to its priorities for the next period-the unity of the Church, common witness and social collaboration. Most challenging is the attention it must give to ecumenical formation. This theme reflects a new perspective and is a response to an urgent need in the current ecumenical situation which calls for the deepening of ecumenical consciousness and the identification of realistic and visible steps which can be taken together.

    In all of this it becomes always more necessary that the JWG draw insights from what is happening locally. Here case studies of ecumenical initiatives will have a larger role to play and special attention will need to be given to the aspirations and experiences of the major regions with all their diversity and new promise. In turn the JWG has to make an increasing effort to communicate what it is doing and the significance of this-in the first place always to its parent bodies as it interprets major streams of ecumenical thought and action in the RCC and in member churches of the WCC. Increasingly it must find effective ways to communicate this also to all who have ecumenical and pastoral responsibility as it discovers and assesses promising new possibilities for ecumenical development. The JWG is in many ways in a unique position both to stimulate its parent bodies by proposing new steps and programs, and to respond to some of the major streams of ecumenical thought and action, surveying, interpreting, encouraging and challenging. This will meet the demand that the JWG be more and more a point to reflect on and analyze important events which affect the unity willed by Christ for the Church and the renewal of the human community. Only so can it have resources to contribute to a new ecumenical mentality among Christians.

  3. The Joint Working Group is a small body and its immediate aims necessarily limited, but the bodies it serves have a wide constituency and broad responsibilities. The time in which we live needs the ecumenical hope which it promotes. It is a sign that new obstacles to ecumenical advance must also be faced without hesitation. With its vivid memories of the past two decades of the ecumenical movement it can keep Christians from the RCC and the member churches of the WCC aware of the great change that has taken place, helping them to consolidate these gains in the life of the Christian fellowship and to go along joyfully with what God is doing to bring his people into one.
    June, 1982


[Information Service 53 (1983/IV) 104-119]

 
 
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