Ecumenical Events

Yearly events: | National Work shop on Christian Unity | Week of Prayer for Christian Unity |

Special celebrations: | 2009: the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth |

| 2010: Centenary of the birth of the ecumenical movement |

July 28-31: Peace Among the Peoples conference

"Peace Among the Peoples" will be a conference to reflect on the future of the ecumenical peace movement in North America and beyond. One of its objectives is to provide input to the World Council of Churches' 2011 conference in Jamaica that will bring to a close the ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence. Hosted by the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, it will have daily panel presentations by leading thinkers and activists. The dates are July 28-31. The National Council of Churches is one of the sponsoring organizations. See the brochure with a registration form. A registration area is also on the web site.

October 8-11, 2010: Student Christian Movement USA launch conference

The official launch of a resurrected Student Christian Movement in the U.S. (SCM-USA) will be a conference on "Overcoming Violence in the Context of Neo-Colonialism" Planned around the Columbus Day weekend, it is expected to address violence in the context of globalization, racism, and neo-colonialism and how students can oppose systemic violence. Venue to be determined.

November 6-8, 2010: New Fire Young Adult Pre-Assembly, NCC

Fostered by the broader ecumenical movement, New Fire is a forming cadre of organizations that work with young adult leadership in the Church or in Church-associated endeavors in order to identify and support currently involved and potential young adult leaders. As it has in the past, it will meet in conjunction with the National Council of Churches' general assembly.

November 8-11, 2010: NCC 100 years of modern ecumenism celebration

One hundred years after the 1910 Edinburgh meeting that is said to have launched the modern ecumenical movement, the National Council of Churches will convene an expansion of its yearly assembly that will celebrate the centenary. A consultation on local and regional ecumenism will be paired with the celebration. See more information elsewhere on this web site.

February 4-7, 2011: NAEIS Gathering

The National Association of Ecumenical and Interreligious Staff (NAEIS) will gather on February 4-7, 2011, at the Oblate Retreat Center in San Antonio, Texas, to focus on immigration reform and the response of faith communities to it. Under the theme, "Welcoming One Another: the Promise of Community," they will also discuss welcoming one another within one's own ecumenical and interreligious communities. More information will come later.

March 21-28, 2011: Unity & Reformed Heritage Seminar

The next Unity and Reformed Heritage travel seminar in Geneva is to due to take place on March 21-28, 2011. It is designed to broaden understanding of the Reformed faith today, global theological, social and economic issues, ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, and evangelism. It will meet at the Ecumenical Centre, the headquarters of the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and other ecumenical agencies. Accommodations will be at the John Knox Centre. One day will be spent visiting the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey; a city tour, a reformation museum visit, and a tour of Gruyeres and the old city of Lausanne are also included. The sponsor is the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly.

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The Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, has become the central focus of the WCC's program on education and ecumenical formation. It has long educated and formed ecumenical leaders -- clergy and lay -- for service in parishes, classrooms, and ecumenical centers around the world. Its ongoing formal programming now includes: a yearly one-semester Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies, a master of theology in ecumenical studies two-year academic program, a one-year academic program for a masters in advanced ecumenical studies, a Ph.D. in ecumenical studies requiring up to five academic years, and a summer three-month intensive course in English as a tool for ecumenical formation. Additionally, short-term seminars on cutting edge issues bring together small groups from around the world. U.S. participation in the Graduate School has been increased recently by the creation of the Bishop Vinton R. Anderson Ecumenical Leadership Scholarship Fund to support students from the African Methodist Episcopal Church. See general information on the Bossey web site and the student guidelines/ application form.

The Agape International Ecumenical Center in Italy hosts international conferences every summer for students from around the world. For example, in August 2010 there will be an international workcamp, a theological camp on speaking about belief, and a camp on fundamentalisms today that will deal with political issues. Applications for 2010 must have been made by mid-May.

The Irish School of Ecumenics, established in 1970, became fully integrated with Trinity College Dublin as a postgraduate institute in 2001. Its diverse programs particularly focus on the intersect of politics, theology, and religion. It has sixteen members on its academic staff and a substantial library. In addition to its Ecumenical Studies, International Peace Studies, and Conflict and Dispute Resolution Studies programs based in Dublin, it offers a Reconciliation Studies program taught in Belfast.

The culmination of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence will be an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) on May 4-11, 2011 in Kingston, Jamaica. Work on an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace will culminate in its adoption there. The declaration will not attempt to be a consensus document. It will affirm what can be said together as a public affirmation of witness that is theological and spiritual in character. It will also identify topics for further discussion, recommend examples, and initiate practical services for committed groups. As such, it will harvest the work of the past ten years and plant seeds for the future.

The convocation, expected to have some 2,000 participants, will include representatives of other faiths. Planners will search with these representatives for ministries that struggle against the current trend to turn political conflict into religious confrontation.

Themes for the conference have been identified as: peace at heart, peace at home, peace in the virtual world, peace on earth is peace with the earth, peace in the market place, and make peace not war. A timeline of preparatory processes has been outlined,

suggestions for participation have been posted, a call for workshop proposals (due March 31, 2010) has been issued, and related events will be listed as information is available.

Suggestions have been offered for making the occasion of the IEPC meaningful through local engagement. Geiko Muller-Fahrenholz is working on convocation preparations for the WCC.

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Ecumenical & Interfaith News Network - PCUSA

Ecumenical & Interfaith
News Network - PCUSA