News
Since the mid-1960s, regular meetings of the Joint Working Group of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Roman Catholic Church have provided an opportunity for the coordination of Christian concerns and activities across boundaries of confession and tradition. This year’s meeting took place from 26 September to 2 October 2010 at the Saint Christophoros Patriarchal Monastery in Saidnaya, Syria.
The patriarchs of three ancient churches – the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, the Syrian-Orthodox patriarch and the Greek-Catholic patriarch – were among heads of communion and the papal nuncio who greeted the Joint Working Group at its opening session. The group also explored Christian life in the Middle East through a series of visits to centres of community in and around Damascus, including church facilities providing aid to refugees from Iraq. The closing Communiqué concluded: “The major tasks for the churches of the region are to sustain the Christian presence and to contribute to constructive inter-faith relationships despite conflicts in the region.”
Reports were given on cooperation among Catholic and WCC-related youth organizations as well as ongoing planning for fuller inclusion of Catholics and participants from other non-member churches in the 10th WCC Assembly at Busan, Korea in October 2013. The Joint Working Group also completed drafts of two texts meant to foster widespread discussion on the spiritual roots of ecumenism and on the reception and implementation of ecumenical accords in national and local churches.
