Geneva to Rome

Even before Blake suggested that Protestantism should consider the impact of Roman Catholic renewal on the ecumenical movement, the World Council of Churches was acting on the need. At the end of its annual meeting last week in Enugu, Nigeria, the council's 100-man Central Committee voted to establish with the Vatican a joint working committee to discover areas of interfaith cooperation.

Justification for the historic step came from Swiss Reformed Theologian Lukas Vischer, 34, in a report on the third session of the Vatican Council. Vischer, a World Council observer at Vatican II since its beginning, argued that despite the reluctance of some conservative Catholics to build links with other churches, the council's decree on ecumenism "is an obvious effort to overcome the estrangement of centuries and bring about a relationship of mutual respect and understanding. Whether we like it or not, we find ourselves in fellowship with the Roman Catholic Church. Withdrawal into our own domestic affairs is simply out of the question. We must work for dialogue and encounter," Vischer concluded, and proposed that "dialogue should begin here and now."

The committee agreed. Without a dissenting vote the church representatives decided to set up an eight-man working group that will eventually meet with a six-man committee appointed by the Vatican to discuss such issues as collaboration in charitable endeavors, joint theological studies on ecumenical relations, ways to resolve such abrasive interfaith problems as mixed marriages and religious liberty. The central committee also approved the idea of a regular exchange of visits between Rome and World Council headquarters in Geneva, which could lead to an exchange of permanent representatives.

All this, of course, was subject to agreement by the Vatican. But of that there seemed little doubt, since the World Council proposal had been approved in principle by the Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity during six months of secret discussion last year. Said French Dominican Theologian Jerome Hamer, one of Rome's official observers at Enugu: "Beyond all doubt, this is a step forward."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.