History
The
Society was founded in 1994, and is committed to study and work towards
Christian unity. It is therefore the association for all those who want to
inform themselves about and contribute to the ecumenical process. The wide
range of members includes specialists as well as interested non-specialists.
It
promotes the active and articulate involvement of lay people in the governance
of the Churches and their mutual relations, and is especially concerned to
encourage the recovery of ecumenical enquiry as an essential element of clergy
and lay training.
The
first Convenor (the Society's President) was Canon Martin Reardon, first General
Secretary of Churches Together in England, one of the ecumenical 'instruments' that grew out of the former British Council of Churches. From 1997 to 2001 the Revd Dr
Paul McPartlan of
Annual
Seminars
Our
Annual General Meeting in
·
2002 - The
Diaconate in the Lutheran and
·
2003 -
Spiritual Ecumenism - Couturier's Influence on
·
2004 -
Revisiting Eucharistic Sharing, with Ruth Reardon (Association of Inter-Church
Families) and the Revd Judith Maizel-Long (Church
Life Secretary, CTBI)
·
2005 – The
current state of discussions on a covenant of unity between the Church of
England and the
·
2006 – Recent
developments in Baptist-Anglican dialogue, with Professor Paul Fiddes and Canon Paul Avis
·
2007 – IARCCUM
and Anglican-Roman Catholic Relations: A Kick Start? A dialogue between Dame Mary Tanner and Monsignor Andrew Faley
·
2008 – What is "a church in the proper sense"?
Professor Nicholas Lash and Canon Nicholas Sagovsky
·
2009 – John Calvin at 500 - Catholic & Ecumenical?
The Revd Dr Donald Norwood and The Revd Dr Richard Price
·
2010 – Christian Unity - Will it ever Happen?
The Revd Dr David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference, 2009-10
The
London Ecclesiology Forum ran for several years, meeting every two months or
so, looking at such topics as:
·
The
Established Church
·
the
Methodist Ecclesiology Report on current approaches to Unity
·
Ethnicity
and Orthodox Ecclesiology
·
the
Problems of Ecumenical Worship
·
the Focolare Movement
·
Catholic
and Evangelical Convergence in the
·
Interchurch
Families
Regional Events
Notable
regional events include
·
October
1997 - The Marks and Processes of Unity in Christ for the
·
April 1998
- Orthodox and Anglican Approaches to Unity, held at Westcott House,
·
October
2004 - Unity at the Ecumenical Margins, at St Martin in the Bullring, Birmingham, with the Revd Jean Mayland of
CTBI, Fr John O'Toole of English ARC, the Revd Garnet Parris of the Centre for
Black Theology and Fr Mark Woodruff from the Jerusalem Trust
·
October
2008 - The Limits of Diversity, at Westminster College, Cambridge, with perspectives from Archdeacon Michael Ipgrave of Southwark and Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi of the Ismaili Centre, London
· October 2009 - The Churches' Debt to Darwin, with Dr Denis Alexander, Director of the Faraday Institute and Professor Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Microbiology, at Westminster College, Cambridge
Conferences with Partner Bodies
A
growing feature of the Society's work has been to work with other ecumenical
bodies, formally and informally, to stimulate ecumenical study across a wide
range of perspectives. The regional
·
March 2000
with the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Oxford - The
Ecumenical Attitudes of Caroline Divines, and the Marian Devotion of Caroline Divines, both by Dr Marianne Dorman; and William Forbes, the Eirenic First Bishop of Edinburgh, by Joyce Martin
·
May 2002
with the Centre for Ecumenical Studies,
·
November
2002 with the
·
2003 March
(
·
November
2003 in London, with the Irish School of Ecumenics,
the Chemin Neuf Community, the Welsh National Centre
for Ecumenical Studies (Camarthen), Sarum College,
Liverpool Hope University, and the Selly Oak Institute, on 'The Ecumenical
Pilgrimage: Pointers from the Holy Spirit on the Next Steps'
·
November
2007 in London, with the Centre for Catholic Studies (Durham University), Unitas-Catholic League, and the
Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on 'Receptive Ecumenism: the Call to Ecumenical
Learning'
National Events
A
new departure is events of national significance. Working closely with the St
Albans Cathedral ecumenical Centre for Christian Study and the Hertfordshire
Newman Association, the Society was instrumental in bringing together in 2003
the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Cardinal Kasper, President of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Revd Elizabeth Welch,
former Moderator of the URC, Bishop Joe Aldred of the
Church of God of Prophecy (now of CTBI), Bishop Angaelos
of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK, Dr Tina Beattie of the University of
Surrey Roehampton, and Elaine Appelbee
of the Anglican Diocese of Bradford, to get to the heart of the question, 'May
they all be one'…..But How?
In
September 2005, the Society worked with the Iona Community to bring together
young ecumenical leaders of the future. All the denominations involved in the
Churches Together process were invited to send two delegates, and the
facilitators included Dr Alison Elliott, former Moderator of the Church of
Scotland, Dr
Garnet Parris, Director of the Centre for Black
Theology at the
Discussion and Dissemination
A
newsletter circulates among members with texts of any presentations sponsored
by the Society and promotes consultation and prayer for unity on current
matters of ecumenical concern or moment. To enhance the process of
collaboration and consultation, the Society has
recently become a Body in Association with Churches Together in