Category: News

Cardinal Kasper addresses WCC assembly

Addressing the World Council of Churches assembly currently meeting in Brazil, Cardinal Walter Kasper reiterated the Catholic Church’s commitment to ecumenism.  Here is the WCC’s news release.

World Council of Churches – News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

For immediate release – 16/02/2006

CARDINAL KASPER: ROMAN CATHOLICS COMMITTED TO ECUMENISM

More articles and free photos at
www.wcc-assembly.info
The president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has stressed the “irreversible” commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to ecumenism.
Continue reading “Cardinal Kasper addresses WCC assembly” →

Anabaptist Prayer Book revised

Our Moments and Our Days
An Anabaptist prayer book
Arthur Paul Boers, Eleanor Kreider, John Rempel, Mary H. Schertz, Barbara Nelson Gingerich, editors
Co-published by Institute of Mennonite Studies and Herald Press

The new version of Take our moments and our days is a four-week cycle of prayers for ordinary time. Lying behind the prayers is a pattern of themes that are especially important in the Anabaptist tradition. Continue reading “Anabaptist Prayer Book revised” →

Reflection by Jim Loney, missing CPT member in Iraq

In defence of the Sacred Heart
by Jim Loney
Catholic New Times,  Sept 26, 2004

(Jim Loney is one of the four Christian Peacemaker Team members missing in Iraq.  Thanks to Tom Finger, Mennonite theologian and Bridgefolk participant, for drawing this reflection to our attention.)

I was never a big fan of the Sacred Heart. In fact, the Sacred Heart used to make me see red: white-bread, saccharine-soaked images of Jesus staring into the blue with puppy-dog eyes; robes and hair flowing in pious cascades; stow-book religious “camp” for the spiritually infantilized.

But, on a high summer Sunday morning in ordinary time, in a little country church located on the banks of the Saugeen River (back in the days of our failed attempt to begin a rural Catholic Worker community, but that’s a whole other story), it happened. The Sacred Heart changed my heart….

To continue, go to
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_14_28/ai_n6245080

A Call to Pray and Fasting for CPT

Bridgefolk:

Many of you have been following news from Iraq about the four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams who went missing more than a week ago.  Rooted in the Mennonite Church and other historic peace churches, CPT is now a broader ecumenical effort to develop and practice active nonviolent alternatives amid conflicted situations.  One of the missing CPTers is a Catholic peace activist from Ontario, Jim Loney.

While Bridgefolk does not have a direct affiliation, many of us have followed its work with interest and a few of us have been directly involved.  Most notably, board member Weldon Nisly was part of a delegation to Iraq at the time the war broke out.

Below you will find two short news releases from earlier today, one from the Mennonite Church USA, and the other from CPT itself.

Please join with many others around the world in praying for the safety of the CPT team members, for the witness of creative nonviolence that they seek to extend, and for the suffering people of Iraq.

Gerald W. Schlabach
Executive Director, Bridgefolk Continue reading “A Call to Pray and Fasting for CPT” →

Roman Catholic Church & World Council of Churches recommit to dialogue and collaboration

World Council of Churches – Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

For immediate release – 22/11/2005

A TRIED AND TRUE EXPRESSION OF PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION, THE JOINT WORKING GROUP BETWEEN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE WCC SET TO TACKLE NEW CHALLENGES

Becoming a “trusted partner” for one another “has been perhaps the most enduring achievement of the past four decades” of collaboration between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC), and this continued cooperation “must be considered one of the significant achievements of the modern ecumenical movement”. Continue reading “Roman Catholic Church & World Council of Churches recommit to dialogue and collaboration” →

Michiana Bridgefolk forms around centering prayer in Northern Indiana

More than a 100 Mennonites and Catholics in the Northern Indiana area came together for centering prayer last summer, contributing to the formation of one of the first local Bridgefolk groups.  Marlene Kropf, Bridgefolk co-chair notes that “one of the good things that came out of this experience was becoming friends and realizing how many interests and visions we have in common. Though we come from very different traditions, our vision for the church and for spiritual growth and renewal is remarkably similar.”  The newspaper of the Fort Wayne – South Bend diocese has done a feature on the summer meetings.   Here are the opening paragraphs, and a link for the entire story.

Continue reading “Michiana Bridgefolk forms around centering prayer in Northern Indiana” →

Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue

NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference

For Immediate Release
August 30, 2005

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – “Called Together to be Peacemakers,” a document issued after five years of dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity of the Catholic Church and representatives of Mennonite World Conference, was the topic of an ecumenical dialogue at the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference here on May 20, 2005. Continue reading “Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue” →