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Dr Ani Ghazaryan Drissi, WCC program executive for the WCC Faith and Order Commission, opened the webinar—the last in an ecclesiology series that finalized the work done by the ecclesiology study group of the commission between 2015 and 2022.
“I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to all our speakers who will be part of this webinar,” said Drissi, who was a co-editor of the volume along with all the speakers in the webinar.
The first volume in this set includes 24 chapters written from the perspectives of theologians from the global South: Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
In this second volume, nearly all of the chapters come from commissioners who have worked on ecclesiological issues during this past term. In the first section, several commissioners have reviewed official reports from existing international dialogues of Pentecostals or Evangelicals with the Roman Catholic Church, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, or the Lutheran World Federation.
The editors chose also to include the dialogues of Pentecostals with various member churches of the WCC, known as the Joint Consultative Group. These contributions have met the goal of harvesting the fruit of other ecumenical conversations that include many of the churches absent from the WCC.
Rev. Dr Sotirios Boukis, Evangelical Church of Greece, gave an overview of the kinds of questions the editors posed to churches during the study process. “Do they see themselves as being well-represented in this document? What would they change? What do they see as missing?”
These kinds of questions reflect the ecclesiology study group’s way of seeking responses through a series of consultations that were organized with theologians.
Rev. Dr Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Assemblies of God, spoke of the points of convergence and areas of further exploration among Pentecostals. “The idea of the church in relationship to spirituality is an incredibly important thing for Pentecostals,” he said, citing one of many points he made.
Prof. Dr Krzysztof Mielcarek, Roman Catholic Church, also talked about points of convergence: “Preaching of the word is the central element of worship,” he said, as he also brought up challenges for further exploration.
Rev. Dr Ellen Wondra, Episcopal Church, joined all the speakers in expressing how important the new publication is. “Let me begin by saying how deeply and profoundly grateful I am for the work that is represented in these two volumes,” she said. “It’s a very, very important piece of work and a very important project, and I appreciate it greatly.”
Read "Towards a Global Vision of the Church, Volume II"
Churches Respond to The Church: Towards a Common Vision
Common Threads: Key Themes from Responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision
