News
The Faith and Order standing commission has called for a meeting of the plenary commission to take place in October 2009. The plenary commission - noted as the most diverse church-based theological forum in the world - will bring a wealth of confessional and regional perspectives to Faith and Order's work for the unity of the church. The call for a full commission meeting was voiced as the standing commission met at the Villa Notre Dame, Crans-Montana, Switzerland, from 12 - 18 June 2007 under the leadership of its moderator, Metropolitan Vassilios of Constantia.
In other actions the standing commission planned further work on the understanding of the church and its mission in the world, on baptism, on ethical decision-making processes in the churches, and on the churches' differing understandings of authority and how it should be exercised. Several cooperative ventures were affirmed, including work with united churches and Christian World Communions as well as with the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism and the WCC programme on inter-religious dialogue. Faith and Order's cooperative role in preparing (with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was strongly affirmed.
The standing commission also faced important decisions on the next director of Faith and Order, and on a slate of nominations to complete the 120-strong plenary commission. Recommendations in these areas were sent to the WCC general secretary, and will be considered by the WCC executive committee in September 2007.
Among the highpoints of the meeting was a prayerful commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the publication of the landmark ecumenical text Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry and its sending to the churches for response "at the highest appropriate level". Two other highpoints were encounters with national and local church and ecumenical bodies in the meeting's host country, Switzerland. The Commission heard from Thomas Wipf, President of the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches (FEPS), and his colleagues Martin Hirzel and Martin Sallmann, about the ecumenical situation in Switzerland and FEPS work on a wide range of issues including baptism. Martin Hoegger, president of the Christian Council of Vaud, brought the 75th anniversary of the 1st Faith and Order conference in Lausanne (2002) vividly alive again, and introduced the vibrant local ecumenical situation in that city.