Ecumencial News

2010 National Workshop on Christian Unity April 19-22, 2010 Tampa, FL

Norway Says It Wants Regular Contact With New WCC Head By Oivind Ostang
Oslo, 8 January (ENI)--Norway's foreign minister Jonas Gahr Stoere has requested the country's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva to establish regular contact with the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit of the (Lutheran) Church of Norway who took office on 1 January as general secretary of the World Council of Churches. 'It is an important international post Fykse Tveit will now be taking over," Stoere said, quoted in December by Norway's Vaart Land daily newspaper. Stoere said Norway's governmen

National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus
A STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE TERRORIZED CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY IN NAG HAMMADI, EGYPT The National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus, moderators and members have been horrified, bewildered and deeply grieved by the violent attack on the Christian Community of Nag Hammadi which took place on January 6, 2010, as the worshipers were leaving the church following their Christmas Eve worship service. We as a Caucus denounce such premeditated aggression that claimed the lives of many innocent civi

More Malaysian Churches Attacked in Allah Dispute
There have been more attacks on churches in Malaysia, in a growing dispute over the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims.

DECR Chairman expounds position of the Russian Orthodox Church on the
prospects of dialogue with the Evangelical Church in Germany in his letter to the ECG leadership Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for external church relations, sent a letter to the chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany Dr. Margot Kassmann and the head of the Department for ecumenical relations and ministries abroad of the Evangelical Church in Germany Bishop Martin Schindehutte. On behalf of His Holiness Patriarch K

Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk: We expect the Roman Catholic Church to
make concrete steps pointing to the desire to go towards meeting our viewsArchbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, in a talk with the Saturday national news anchorman Sergey Brilev, when asked about what significance the diplomatic relations now established between the Russian Federation and the Vatican have for dialogue between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Catholic Church, answered: ‘We can only welcome this step of t

A Tightrope Act? Pope Prepares to visit Rome Synagogue
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A cartoon in the January edition of an Italian Jewish newspaper showed Pope Benedict XVI crossing the Tiber River on a tightrope, trying to balance himself using a pole labeled "dialogue" on one end and "conversion" on the other.

American Sisters Pen Winning Song About Peace And Unity For Global Church Event
A song written by two sisters from the eastern United States has won an international competition to compose the theme music for the Uniting General Council, a global gathering of representatives of Reformed Churches which is to be held in Grand Rapids, United States, in June 2010.The winning song "Bonds of Peace", written by Linda Price Draper and her sister Barbara Price-Martin, evokes the theme of the general council “Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” a biblical text from Ephesians