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Moderator`s address - Faith and Order commission meeting, Indonesia, February 2024

I am pleased to offer a word of welcome at this historic moment, the gathering of the new Faith and Order Commission here in North Sulawesi in Indonesia. As far as I know, this is the first time our Commission is meeting in Indonesia. We are thankful for the opportunity to gather here, and immensely grateful for the hospitality the local church is offering to us.

Commission on Faith and Order

Director’s address, Faith and Order Meeting, 27 November 2023

It is often said that “Bad news travels fast.” Indeed, it is hard not to be focused on the difficulties and harsh challenges we are facing in today’s world. In a digital village that we live in, where every piece of news is spread quickly, the worst news takes center stage. “We live in a time of profound crisis”, “The world is as disunited as ever”, “Society is polarized!” are just some of the everyday remarks describing the present condition. 

Commission on Faith and Order

Reflections on “What Are the Churches Saying About the Church” share fruits of WCC Commission on Faith and Order

Below, Rev. Dr Susan Durber, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order and His Eminence Bishop Maxim, from the Serbian Orthodox Church and a WCC Faith and Order commissioner, reflect on the publication What Are the Churches Saying About the Church?”

The publication, which presents key findings and proposals from responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision,” is among the many fruits being harvested by the study groups of the WCC Faith and Order Commission for the WCC 11th Assembly.

Common Threads

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

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.

Study paper - "Converting Discipleship: Dissidence and Metanoia”

The study paper has been produced by the commission’s Working Group on Transforming Discipleship, which has been engaged since 2019 in a study process on the document “Arusha call to discipleship" in affirmation of the key place that discipleship holds across all levels of ecumenical work or denominational church work.

The paper "Converting Discipleship: Dissidence and Metanoia” aspires to move churches towards a transformation effected through discipleship. Addressing churches and communities locally, the document aims to inspire them to re-examine and finally re-shape their missional commitment.

Commission on World Mission and Evangelism

WCC Faith and Order Commission proposes world conference, maps common ground among churches

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission, through its three study groups, is proposing a world conference as it continues to map common ground among churches worldwide. The work of the commission is carried on through three study groups focusing on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, ecclesiology, and moral discernment. All three study groups recently met at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute.

WCC Faith and Order Commission completes meeting in China

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission completed its meeting, held 12-19 June, in Nanjing, China, the third major WCC meeting held in China over the last three years. Hosted by the China Christian Council, the commission met to discuss and make decisions about the results of the work of its three study groups on ecclesiology, moral discernment and the pilgrimage of justice and peace.

Leaders of five Christian World Communions attend ecumenical prayer service

(LWF Communication) – An ecumenical prayer service in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States, marked the opening of a four-day consultation of five Christian World Communions discussing the historic importance of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) and its impact on the search for full, visible unity of the church.