Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued the following statement through the Holy See Press Office:
“Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will preside at a seminar on ecumenism which has been organised jointly by the Pontifical Council together with the Office of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC-OEIA) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK). The seminar will take place in Seoul, South Korea, from 17-21 July 2006. The seminar is being offered to representatives of the Bishops’ Conferences of East and South East Asia, and will focus on the theme: The Search for Christian Unity: Where We Stand Today. The aim of the seminar is to provide an opportunity for Asian bishops and others working in the field to reflect on the realities of ecumenical relations in Asian countries, and to develop effective pastoral approaches.
The seminar forms part of a series organised for Bishops and others responsible for ecumenical dialogue by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The initial seminars took place in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya, from 3-9 July 2005, and Dakar, Senegal, from 10-16 July 2005) and were aimed at presenting the principles of ecumenism and motivating participants to respond to the complex ecumenical situation in that continent. A subsequent seminar in São Paulo, Brazil, from 19-22 September 2005, focused on the issue of Pentecostalism and its growth in Brazil. A seminar is currently being organised for the Philippines in February 2007. The seminars have been planned in response to the needs expressed by the Bishops themselves to find a pastoral response to the emerging challenges, particularly the rapid growth of new religious movements (Pentecostal, Evangelical and Charismatic). The Pontifical Council has given special attention over the last few years to the support that must be given at the local level to those working in the field of ecumenism in meeting these challenges in the light of the call to Christian unity.
The seminar in Seoul has been timed to coincide with the World Methodist Conference, to be held there from July 20-24, an event which takes place every eight years and brings together people from all of the world's Wesleyan traditions. At this Conference it is expected that the Methodist Churches will adopt the Joint Declaration on Justification agreed between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999, and a solemn celebration of the Word of God will mark this extended agreement, to be signed in the presence of Cardinal Kasper and Doctor Ismael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 17/7/2006; Righe 35 - Parole 465)
