PREFACE

    In every country of the world, men and women, old and young, are found worshiping in churches, cathedrals, chapels and house groups, confessing in a great variety of cultures and in many tongues "Jesus Christ is Lord". They have discovered the Redeemer of the world to be their own Savior, and their commitment to Christ gives meaning and purpose to their lives.
 
    In Asia and Africa, the number of Christians has doubled in recent years as seeds sown in earlier times come to fruition. Indigenous evangelizers have taken responsibility in the creation and animation of new church communities. New ecclesial communities are also being born in places thought by some to have moved into a ‘post-Christian' era. In countries of Eastern Europe, believing people have lived their faith with tenacity in the face of atheism and oppression and now bear dynamic witness to the way faith continues to outlive all forces that would destroy it. New signs of life are appearing in Western countries where Christians are confessing their faith as a thoughtful alternative to prevailing materialistic values and the full flowering of secularism which had seemed an inevitable trend in the modern world.
 
    Catholics and Methodists participate in this astonishing persistence and explosive growth of Christian presence and witness in the world. Whether in a Catholic parish in Zaire or in an urban Methodist congregation in Korea, whether at the preaching of the Word or in the celebration at the Table, the common acclamation rings out: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again". Praise issues in evangelistic testimony and caring service as believing Methodists and Catholics disperse to bear witness to the Lord among their neighbors.
 
    The heart of the faith is common to Catholics and Methodists; but while they sometimes share in prayer and witness together, often they proceed on their own more or less parallel lines. The current situation calls into question the separation that we have inherited and spurs us on to work for our eventual full communion in Christ. The work done by this Commission up to now has been directed towards this end. Our previous document, The Apostolic Tradition, studied the source of our faith and the means by which it has been communicated to us.
 
    God's Word, revealing God to us, and God's Spirit, enabling us to know God, have led us now to study more closely the ways in which God gives himself to us and the response that we make. God's revelation comes for our reception as the Word of Life, to be confessed, propagated and celebrated. The more we can do these things together, the more we shall be in harmony with the Gospel of reconciliation, and the more credible will be our witness, to the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore we seek full communion in faith, mission, and sacramental life. This Report is offered as a contribution towards the achievement of the doctrinal agreement necessary to that end.