Common Threads

Key Themes from Responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision. Faith and Order Paper No 233

2021

Edited by:

Ellen Wondra

Stephanie Dietrich

Ani Ghazaryan Drissi

Churches now agree more than they disagree on many characteristics of the Church and its faith, mission, and life: the responses to the convergence statement The Church: Towards a Common Vision make this clear. Within this growth in agreement, key themes come to the fore, calling for greater understanding, study, and common conversation: visible unity, communion, mission, the role of the people of God in ministry and decision-making, sin and the church, and more.

This volume presents essays on sixteen of these key themes. Each essay was written by a member of the subgroup of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order that focused on reading and analyzing the responses. The essays were then discussed by the group and revised in light of the discussions. Some of the themes have been prominent since the 1982 convergence statement Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Others have emerged more recently.

Together with the report What are the Churches Saying about the Church?, the essays illuminate the many ways in which the vision of unity has inspired and changed the churches, as well as critical areas where future work is needed.

Specs: 264 pages; 6.67 x 9.67"; paper and PDF; perfect; 4-colour cover

ISBN: 978-2-8254-1776-8

Shelving/Topics: Religion/Ecclesiology/Ecumenism

Rights: World, all languages

Price: Price: 25 CHF, $25.00, £12.00, €15.00

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Common Threads: Key Themes from Responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision

Content and Authors:

Chapter 1: Visible Unity and Mutual Recognition, Susan Durber

Chapter 2: Communion and Koinonia, Ellen K. Wondra

Chapter 3: Apostolic Faith in Relation to the Historic Episcopate, Authority, and Primacy, Paul Meyendorff

Chapter 4: The Role and Authority of the Laity, Glenroy Lalor

Chapter 5: The Threefold Ministry, Paul Meyendorff

Chapter 6: The Relationship between the Local and Universal Church, Maria Munkholt Christensen

Chapter 7: Ecumenical Councils, Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevi´c)

Chapter 8: ‘Experience’ in the Life of the Church, Maria Munkholt Christensen

Chapter 9: Ecumenical Reception, Ellen K. Wondra

Chapter 10: The Church and Mission, Glenroy Lalor

Chapter 11: The Church: In and for the World, Stephanie Dietrich

Chapter 12: Sacraments and Sacramentality of the Church, Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevi´c)

Chapter 13: Legitimate Diversity, Andrzej Choromanski

Chapter 14: Authority, Susan Durber

Chapter 15: The Role of Women in the Church, Susan Durber

Chapter 16: The Theme of Sin in Relation to the Church as Such, Georgios D. Martzelos

What Are the Churches Saying about the Church? Key Findings and Proposals from the Responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision

Common Threads

Faith and Order Commission

WCC Publications