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Reading this sixth report will in itself show the extent to which the productive relations between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church have multiplied and developed.

Poor and oppressed people, who are at the margins of the world's concern, should be at the centre of Christian service, insisted the 300 participants in the 1986 global ecumenical consultation on interchurch aid in Larnaca, Cyprus. Diakonia, they said, is "liberating and transforming, suffering and empowering". Christian service cannot be separated from the struggle for justice and peace; therefore, advocacy, solidarity and sharing of skills are as essential to diakonia as the giving of money.

The study guide My Neighbour's Faith and Mine: Theological discoveries through interfaith dialogue, was published by the WCC in 1986. Since then it has been translated into numerous languages and used widely.

The study guide My Neighbour's Faith and Mine: Theological discoveries through interfaith dialogue, was published by the WCC in 1986. Since then it has been translated into numerous languages and used widely.

The Fourth Report, presented to the Fifth Assembly of the WCC in 1975, also looked ahead to what should and could be done. This Fifth Report is presented in the same spirit.

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.

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.

Both the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches are determined to continue their collaboration and to seek together ways to serve the ecumenical cause. Therefore, after ten years of com­mon experience, it is appropriate to ask anew the question how they can, together, best further the ecu­menical movement, How should the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches be related to one another? What areas require primary atten­tion? What kind of common structure should be adopted? The present report attempts to answer these questions and submits to the parent bodies a number of recommendations as to the next steps to be taken.

The Joint Working Group is convinced that the work of the past five years has been worthwhile. At the same time a great many things remain to be done. The Lord's demand is clear: that they may be one in order that the world may believe" (John 17,21). As we face this demand we are keenly aware of how much we still fall short of giving to the world the sign of communion which should arouse its faith in the love of the Father who sends his Son to save us.

Meditation by WCC general secretary by Sant’Egidio Prayers for Peace – Sarajevo September 11, 2012

CHAPTER 1, Why this Study Was Prepared

CHAPTER 4, Ethical Perspectives

The aim of the present document is to set out briefly the concrete results of the exchanges that have already taken place, and to indicate a vision of the future in which the Joint Working Group foresees the need for constantly more dynamic relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches.

After several preliminary meetings between representatives of the Vatican Secretariat for Christian Unity and of the World Council of Churches, the mandate for the Joint Working Group was presented to and adopted by the Central Committee at its meeting in Nigeria in January 1965. It was thereafter also officially accepted by the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. In working out this project, the Roman Catholic side was guided by the Decree on Ecumenism, promulgated at the end of the third session of the Vatican Council; while the representatives of the World Council of Churches based their approach on the main lines of several WCC documents that describe the nature and function of the World Council and on various statements made by the World Council on the contemporary ecumenical situation.

This is the report of the Section on Unity at the WCC 3rd Assembly. Particularly in paragraph 2 -- probably the greatest run-on sentence in ecumenical history -- we have one of the seminal and enduring statements on the nature of "organic unity".