The Diocese was one of the lead sponsors of a research colloquium in January 2006 at Ushaw College that has now come to publication as "Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism". The volume is to be launched in Rome during the final week of the Synod of Bishops in the company of Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Dr Paul D. Murray, Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies and Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Department of Theology & Religion, Durham University, writes:
Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will be honoured this Thursday at the "Centro Pro Unione" in Rome with the launch of a major new volume in ecumenical theology, entitled, Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism, (Oxford University Press, 2008). The cardinal will speak at the launch, which begins at 6:00 p.m. The event is open to the public.
'I am convinced that it will contribute to a new start and hopefully also a new spring within the ecumenical movement,' Cardinal Kasper writes in the Preface. The book explores a new strategy of Receptive Ecumenism, which proposes a way forward in the current ecumenical context. In recognition the importance of the event, the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Mr Francis Campbell, will host a privat dinner in the cardinal's honour.
The evening before the book launch the world renown Pauline scholar, Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright of Durham (England), will preach at an Ecumenical Evening Prayer at the Oratory of St. Francis Xavier, Via del Caravita. Wednesday's liturgy is at 7:00 p.m. and is also open to the public. It will be led by Catholic Bishop Michael E. Putney of Townsville (Australia), Co-Chair of the Joint Commission between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church.
Both ecumenical events are being held during the final week of the XII Ordinary Assemby of the Synod of Bishops, at which both bishops and Cardinal Kasper are participating.
Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning is the product of an international research project at the Centre for Catholic Studies within Durham University, UK's Department of Theology and Religion.
This origins of the project was the highly acclaimed research colloquium at Ushaw College (Durham) in 2006 that marked Durham University's conferral of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa on Cardinal Kaspe.
Project director and volume editor, Dr Paul D. Murray, describes the central idea of Receptive Ecumenism as representing a John F Kennedy style reversal:
'It basically says "Ask not what your ecumenical others need to learn from you; ask rather what you can learn, with integrity, from your others and in such a way as will help your tradition address its own particular difficulties." The conviction is that the way through current log-jams is for each tradition to take responsibility for its own learning and need for continuing conversion. It is a strategy indebted to the Spiritual Ecumenism advocated by Cardinal Kasper but which seeks to extend this beyond the personal to the communal and institutional dimensions of ecclesial existence.'
This particular volume, the first of a projected three, illustrates and tests the strategy of Receptive Ecumenism by drawing together an ecumenical team of internationally regarded theologians to explore what Catholicism, the host tradition, might fruitfully and appropriately learn from its ecumenical others. The aim is thereby to promote the deepening and enrichment of Catholicism through a process of receptive 'Catholic Learning'.
All are welcome to the Ecumenical Evening Prayer on Wednesday 22nd and the Launch Reception and Presentation on Thursday 23rd.
See Poster (pdf opens in new window 20k)