Milestone for Australian ecumenism
News
The Australian Lutheran Roman Catholic Dialogue recently celebrated its 200th meeting and almost 50 years of dialogue.
Current and past members of the Dialogue, which has always met in Adelaide, marked these achievements with a dinner at the Catholic Archbishop’s House, West Terrace.
A special welcome was extended to Lutheran Pastor Rev Dr Maurice Schild, who attended the first Dialogue meetings in 1975.
Photographs and articles from The Southern Cross archive, covering five decades of dialogue, were on display.
Current Catholic co-chair Fr Gerard Kelly recalled former Adelaide Archbishop Leonard Faulkner expressing the hope that readers of the Dialogue’s statements “will be able to capture something of the spirit of ecumenism and ‘conversion’ which we have experienced.”
Lutheran co-chair Pastor Stephen Hultgren shared his own experience of being drawn more deeply into truth, “both the truth that one already knows, but also, and sometimes surprisingly, into truth that has so far lain hidden to one’s eyes, even in those texts or traditions that one most cherishes.”
The Dialogue has unquestionably had a significant impact on its many Catholic and Lutheran participants, Pastor Hultgren said.
The aim of the Dialogue is that through the mutual study of the scriptures and the tradition of the church, the two churches may grow in mutual understanding and confession of the truth of the gospel.
To this end the Dialogue has produced a substantial body of statements, formally received by the churches, on issues including baptism, Eucharist, the ministry, bishops and oversight, Scripture and tradition, the papacy. A major achievement was the agreement on ‘justification’.
he Dialogue also contributed to the joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, and to the common statement signed by church leaders on that occasion. That statement encourages “all members of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church to hear from God a call to be continuously transformed by our encounter with each other and to be living witnesses to the power of the gospel”.
Ecumenism has evolved and the way it is practised in the future may be different. Changes in Australian society and culture present new challenges. But there are reasons to hope, including the ongoing commitment of the churches to walking a common path and witnessing together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world.
For more on the Dialogue, including some archival records visit https://www.alrcdialogue.org/
– Stephen Downs was a Dialogue member from 2017-2022
