ACC&C co-hosts international ecumenical conference in Canberra

24 Jan 2018 - by

More than 140 people from all over the world attended an international ecumenical gathering co-hosted by the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACC&C) in Canberra in early November.

Executive Director of the ACC&C the Right Reverend Professor Stephen Pickard said the Receptive Ecumenism conference was the first major international ecumenical gathering in Australia since the Seventh Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Canberra in 1991.

The term Receptive Ecumenism first originated with Professor Paul Murray from Durham, United Kingdom–who was one of the guest speakers at the conference–and is a fresh ecumenical methodology emphasising receptivity, learning, and listening.

The conference theme was ‘Leaning into the Spirit: discernment, decision-making and reception’ and the emphasis was about learning from other Christians in order to learn about ourselves.

“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," Professor Pickard said.

Church leaders across the ecclesial spectrum attended the conference which was endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the World Council of Churches, the World Lutheran Federation, the World Methodist Council and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

Above: members of the prestigious group ARCIC III (Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission). Including from left to right Prof Paul Murray (Durham UK) and originator of the idea Receptive Ecumenism, The Most Rev Sir David Moxon, ARCIC III co-chair/ emeritus Anglican Archbishop of NZ/ previous director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Rev Dr Adelbert Denaux, emeritus professor University of Leuven, and Rev Tony Currer, secretary of ARCIC III/ secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Christian Unity.

The participants came from all states of Australia and from Germany, England, USA, South Africa, India, Belgium, Italy, New Zealand, Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

The conference was held at University House, Australian National University, Canberra, from Monday 6 to Thursday 9 November 2017.

During the conference, a public lecture was held on the Wednesday night by one of the world’s leading theologians, Professor Michael Welker (pictured) on the topic of ‘The European Reformation: Advocacy of Education and Liberation?’

A recording of the lecture is available online to watch.

The conference was a successor to three similar conferences that have been held in England (2006 and 2009) and in the United States (2014).

"Those earlier conferences introduced the basic idea of receptive ecumenism, firstly within the Catholic tradition, and then more broadly across a wide range of Christian traditions. Since its inception, the concept has taken root in many diverse contexts around the globe," Professor Pickard said.

The conference came at an auspicious time, just six days after the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg–the event that marks the beginning of the Reformation and the consequent divisions in the Western Church.

Presentations from the conference are currently being compiled into a publication for future release.

The ACC&C co-hosted the conference along with the CSU Centre for Public and Contextual Theology (PaCT), and the Australian Catholic University.