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Communiqué by the Joint Working Group between the WCC and the RCC, September 2018

Communiqué by the Joint Working Group between the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church

Communiqué issued on 27 April, where the group stresses that migration and peace-building in situations of violence are the two burning issues that the JWG wants to address more specifically during its present mandate.

With its 2016 plenary meeting, the Joint Working Group between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church (JWG) returned to the Ecumenical Institute at the Château de Bossey near Geneva, where the first meeting of the group was held in 1965.

A personal testimony by Bishop Jonas Jonson, presented at the meeting celebrating WCC-RCC Joint Working Group 50 years in Rome, 23 June 2015.

Dr Minna Hietamäki addresses the main theme of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission meeting, Called to be the One Church, from the perspective of a younger Lutheran theologian from Finland.

In the spirit of the 2006 WCC Assembly's statement on ecclesiology, «Called to be the One Church», the 120 members of the Commission on Faith and Order, along with 37 guests, consultants and younger theologians gathered on the island of Crete in Greece, 7-13 October 2009.

As part of the WCC's work on the Decade , this theological consultation, organized by WCC Faith and Order in Kigali, Rwanda (4-9 December 2004), was an attempt to discern what human dignity, rights of peoples and the integrity of creation mean for churches and the ecumenical movement as they attempt to counter the reality of massive abuse and destruction of life and its legitimization in the world today. It was also an attempt to do theology informed by the perspectives and experiences of the victims of violence.

A group of 20 theologians and peace activists from regions which have come to be known for violent conflict arising from the aggressive assertion of identities - Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, DR Congo, Nigeria, Middle East, Eastern Europe - participated in this consultation in June 2005. They attempted to identify the problems in, and prospects for, realizing mutuality and interdependence in contexts of diverse identities in an effort to challenge the churches to consider this as a contribution to the wider movement for peace during the Decade Overcome Violence.

This paper was prepared in response to the US DOV Committee's invitation to members of US churches to select one of the four themes of the Decade and to reflect on it.

Meeting of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2004

If violence is an exercise of power over the powerless or a retaliation to such, what makes power prone to abuse? Why do people not only fear but also aspire for sources of violent power? Why do some religious traditions view violence as a divine attribute? How is power understood and exercised within our churches? What biblical and theological resources do we have to offer in the search for responsible new ways of understanding and exercising power? Interrogating and redefining power is crucial to our attempts to overcome violence.

Taking place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in February 2004, its purpose was to explore these theologians' distinct perspectives on power as people whose theology is shaped in contexts of intense struggles for life, justice and liberation.

The report results from seven years' work by a dedicated group drawn from the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church. The character of the document is intentionally educational. The group believed that it would in this way best serve the interest of all who wish to know not only the Joint Working Group's agenda but the growing relationship of the WCC and the RCC within the broader perspective of the one ecumenical movement which the group has witnessed and in some measure assisted.