Faith and Order is All of Us
The night before his death, Jesus prayed that
we who believe in him might all be one (John
17:21). We want to be faithful in responding to
this wish of Jesus. But we know that our
churches are not simply different from one another
but divided in many ways. The churches
have given the Faith and Order Commission the
work of speaking together about the Gospel and
our church communities in ways that will lead
to healing our divisions while honoring our
diversity. But the work of the Commission is
only part of the churches' response to Jesus'
unity call to us. Faith and Order is the task of
everyone in every church as we find ways to be
faithfully Christian together.
The Constitution of the
National Council of Churches puts it succinctly:
"The Faith and Order Commission affirms the oneness of the Church of Jesus Christ and keeps before the churches the Gospel call to visible unity in one faith and one Eucharist communion, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ, in order that the world may believe."
Faith and Order Commission Members
Commission
Chair:
Anton
C. Vrame, Ph.D.
Director, Department of Religious Education
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
617-850-1218
Staff:
Dr. Antonios
Kireopoulos, Associate General
Secretary, Faith & Order and Interfaith Relations, National Council of
Churches.
212-870-3422
Sarosh Koshy, Program Specialist
212-870-3493
The handbook includes a brief history of the worldwide Faith and Order movement, detailed descriptions of how the Commission is organized, an article by John T. Ford, CSC on ecumenical methodology and
more.
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