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Costly Obedience

This text is the fruit of the joint study programme on Ecclesiology and Ethics conducted by Faith and Order and the WCC's Justice, Peace and Creation team. The results of meetings in Rønde, Denmark; Jerusalem, Israel; and Johannesburg, South Africa, they explore how the churches are called to be a community of ethical reflection - and engagement - in today's world.

Commission on Faith and Order

So We Believe, So We Pray: Towards Koinonia in Worship (The Ditchingham Letter and Report)

The "Letter to the Churches" and report from the first consultation (held at Ditchingham, England) in Faith and Order's current study programme on worship in relation to Christian unity. Drawing on the resources of the liturgical renewal movement, and produced together with leading liturgists, this text focuses on the common structure of Christian worship, on issues of inculturation in worship, and on how, through worship, churches are already expressing their unity in Christ.

Commission on Faith and Order

Message from the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, 1993

The Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order took place at Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 3 - 14 August 1993, with its theme "Towards Koinonia in Faith, Life and Witness". A comprehensive Report of the Conference will be published towards the end of this year. We now publish the Message and the four Section Reports together with the Discussion Paper prepared for the Conference. The Message and Reports are the most tangible results of the World Conference. However, they represent only one important part of this gathering which was marked by common worship and prayer, Bible study, a great number of papers, plenary discussions, a statement by the younger theologians and the many personal encounters between the participants (about 400 in different categories).

Commission on Faith and Order

Ecumenical Considerations on Jewish-Christian Dialogue

In 1975 the Consultation on the Church and the Jewish People (CCJP) voted to begin the process that has borne fruit in these Ecumenical Considerations on Jewish-Christian dialogue. The first step was to request preparatory papers from the various regions with experience in Jewish-Christian dialogue. When the Central Committee adopted "Guidelines on Dialogue" in 1979, work on developing specific suggestions for Jewish-Christian dialogue began and, after a period of drafting and revisions, a draft was presented for comments to the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), the CCJP's primary Jewish dialogue partner. After discussion in the DFI Working Group in 1980, a revised draft was circulated among interested persons in the churches and comments solicited. Many and substantial comments and suggestions were received.

When it met in London Colney, England, in June 1981, the CCJP adopted its final revisions and submitted them to the DFI Working Group, which adopted them at its meeting in Bali, Indonesia, 2 January 1982, having made its own revisions at a few points. On the advice of the February 1982 WCC Executive Committee, various concerned member churches and various members of the CCJP were further consulted in order to revise and re-order the text. The result, "Ecumenical Considerations on Jewish-Christian Dialogue", was "received and commended to the churches for study and action" by the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches at Geneva on 16 July 1982.

WCC Programmes

Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Faith and Order Paper no. 111, the "Lima Text")

This famous text, adopted by Faith and Order at its plenary commission meeting in Lima, Peru in 1982, explores the growing agreement - and remaining differences - in fundamental areas of the churches' faith and life. The most widely-distributed and studied ecumenical document, BEM has been a basis for many "mutual recognition" agreements among churches and remains a reference today.

Commission on Faith and Order

The eucharistic liturgy of Lima

The Lima Liturgy is a Eucharistic (Holy Communion) service expressing, in one possible liturgical form, the ecclesiological convergence on the eucharist reached in the Faith and Order text Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM). It is so named because it was first used at the Faith and Order Plenary Commission meeting in Lima, Peru in 1982 - the meeting which approved BEM for transmission to the churches for official response.

Commission on Faith and Order