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Winnipeg affirms ecumenical developments |
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One of the important ecumenical commitments of the tenth assembly was to "welcome the agreements, since the last assembly, that member churches have entered into with churches of the Anglican, Methodist, Moravian and Reformed traditions, and study and appropriately implement the recommendations of the working groups with the Anglican Communion and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches". The assembly committed the LWF "to explore the possibilities for deepened relationships with these communions at the global level for the sake of our common mission in the world". This declaration makes it clear that the agreements of church communion that member churches have reached with partners of other traditions belong within the life of the LWF as a world body. At the same time, ecumenical steps taken by individual member churches impact on the profile and character of the LWF and our relations with other world communions, and challenge us to consider how our global relations should develop in the future. We must avoid developments where the national or regional ecumenical agreements lead member churches into tensions of loyalty as they relate to the global families. A central issue at the present stage of ecumenical history is the ecumenical role of the World Council of Churches. The assembly voted "to uphold the WCC as key in the ecumenical movement", and supported "working towards the realization of a truly universal Christian council [and] taking practical steps towards coordinated assemblies". The LWF might see its future assemblies as a part of a broader, multilateral assembly. But for such possibilities to be seriously explored, substantial proposals and developments would need to be prepared, particularly by the WCC, in close consultation with the Christian world communions. Sven Oppegaard
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Since the LWF as a communion of churches does not exist outside the universal church of Jesus Christ, its nature and purpose are substantially interconnected with the ecumenical movement and its complex and many-faceted striving towards the unity of that one, holy, catholic [universal] and apostolic church.
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