Church of the future is ecumenical

The shared history and growing friendship of the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches was described April 29 at a spring event for parish ecumenical contacts organized jointly by the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon.

Msgr. Gosbert Byamungu of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity in Rome was guest speaker at the event held at St. Andrew's College on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

Msgr. Byamungu is co-moderator of the joint working group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

In Saskatoon to lead a priests' retreat, Msgr. Byamungu was introduced to the parish ecumenical contacts by Saskatoon Bishop Donald Bolen. 

Bishop Bolen came to know Msgr. Byamungu during the years that he also worked for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity in Rome.

Originally from Tanzania, Msgr. Byamungu is a Scripture scholar who was invited by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity to teach Scripture at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey in Switzerland, the international centre for encounter, dialogue and formation for the World Council of Churches.

After seven years in that position, Msgr. Byamungu joined the pontifical council's staff in Rome as the secretary of the working group between the Catholic Church and the WCC. 

He is also responsible for the ecumenical dialogue between the Disciples of Christ denomination and the Catholic Church, as well as being the staff member of the pontifical council who acts as a liaison with bishops of Africa when they are in Rome for regular Ad Limina visits.

Over the past 50 years, Catholics and the WCC have moved to a relationship of trust, friendship and co-operation, Msgr. Byamungu said.

"The relations between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches are very close," he said. 

"There is great hope for the church of the future. The church of the future is ecumenical. We can no longer afford to be isolated communities worshipping alone and feeling good about this worship."

The pursuit of Christian unity is not political, he added.

"The aim is to approach the Spirit of the one who saved us: Jesus Christ our Lord."

It is by drawing closer to Jesus Christ that all Christian denominations will also grow closer to each other, Msgr. Byamungu added.

"There is one pastor, one flock and one shepherd and that is Jesus Christ our Lord."

He described how dialogues among denominations in recent years have solved many doctrinal questions, but the question now is how to move forward in common witness and service.

"What divides us is very little and what unites us is much larger," he said. "But our churches are not prepared to digest the fruits of these dialogues. We don't know what to do with them."

Msgr. Byamungu also explained the historic and structural reasons why the Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, describing how as a member, the Catholics (with a worldwide membership of about one billion), would outnumber other denominations and disrupt the voting structure.

"We have partnership rather than membership," he said of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the WCC, noting this has been the case since 1968.

The joint working group of the Pontifical Council and the WCC explores different areas in which the churches "can work side by side for the sake of witness in the world," he said. 

"Our world can see that we are working together, that we are brothers and sisters."

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