Receiving Gifts for Our Needs

Image by Maeflower72 via FlickrI have found the following on Churches' Together in England's website:


The event will be held on Saturday 15th October 2011 in the school hall at the Christian Education Centre (DABCEC), Crawley, starting with refreshments from 9.15am. The formal part of the day will commence at 10.00am and continue until around 3.00pm, allowing a sufficient break for a packed lunch and a chat.
 
This year Paul Murray has agreed to join us from his hectic schedule as professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. The event is entitled “Receiving Gifts for our Needs” and will be looking at Receptive Ecumenism, a new ecumenical approach inspired by Ut Unum Sint and which suggests that our primary ecumenical responsibility is to ask not “What do the other traditions first need to learn from us?” but “What do we need to learn from them?” – a challenge for us all!

Paul will also touch upon his recent experiences as a member of the newly formed ARCIC III (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) which held its first meeting in Bose, Italy in May this year.

As in previous years, we are again suggesting people invite friends from their local churches with whom they work ecumenically, as well as others from their own parish. (If they can help promote the event in their parish/neighbourhood, they can use the enclosed poster and/or the text overleaf for their newsletter).

The event will be in the school hall to accommodate the anticipated numbers. The reply slip can either be posted, or copied to email. Don’t forget to bring a packed lunch! There is no charge for the event.

Making an ecumenical gear change with Professor Paul Murray, Durham University

Saturday 15 October 2011
9.15 for 10.00am – 3.00pm
St Francis of Assisi School Hall (DABCEC)
4 Southgate Drive, Crawley, RH10 6RP
(please car share - limited parking in DABCEC car park)

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• The Ecumenical Significance of the King James Bible (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)
• Europe Day at CTE (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)

Gifts from the Treasure Trove

Image by eszter via Flickr

Churches Together in England has published a new leaflet for local Churches Together groups. Gifts from the Treasure Trove enables reflection on the gifts we receive from others. Its sister leaflet, Sharing our Spiritual Treasures, sits alongside it, and contains notes for group leaders for both leaflets.

Gifts from the Treasure Trove has been written as a result of the work done on receptive ecumenism. Both leaflets are available as free downloads from CTE's website.

These leaflets each outline a session which might be used by Churches Together groups or other small groups meeting to share and reflect upon their ecumenical experience.  The older leaflet focuses upon sharing an object, verse or memory that has been significant in the participants ecumenical journeys.  The new leaflet suggests a similar process based upon sharing something from another tradition that has illuminated each person's spiritual journey. 

There is enough material here for at least two meetings and some suggestions for further meetings.

Learning to be Church Together

I suppose this is not news but it is a helpful though limited resource, for those who are interested in recent thinking about ecumenism.

During January 2009, over two years ago, I attended a conference, held by the Centre for Catholic Studies at Ushaw College in Durham, Receptive Ecumenism and Ecclesial Learning: Learning to Be Church Together.


Receptive Ecumenism, not be confused with Ecumenical Reception, an entirely different thing, is an idea that has been developed by CCS since a first conference held in 2006.  Details of this conference and the resulting, very expensive, publication can be found at the link at the start of this paragraph.  They define Receptive Ecumenism, as follows:
 
The essential principle behind Receptive Ecumenism is that the primary ecumenical responsibility is to ask not “What do the other traditions first need to learn from us?” but “What do we need to learn from them?” The assumption is that if all were asking this question seriously and acting upon it then all would be moving in ways that would both deepen our authentic respective identities and draw us into more intimate relationship.
 
The  helpful resource is some recordings and transcripts from the 2009 conference are online.  Much of this material is specialist and so the inclination seems to be to lock it up in expensive books.  Putting this material online opens up the debate to many more readers and so I would encourage CCS to put more transcripts online.  I can't imagine they make a fortune out of selling the books and it is a pity so few people are able to find out about, let alone have access to, the material they need to get to grips with the subject.

Related articles

• Beyond Boundaries: The Ecumenical Institute at Bossey (ecumenicalissues.blogspot.com)