Invitiation to ecumenical gathering for priests, pastors, ministers in Rome

New information 2025-01-13: This meeting is canceled.

Walking together towards unity

Priests, Ordained and Ministers in the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations are invited to a meeting in Rome 31 March - 4 April 2025.

There are many denominations. We have become accustomed to accepting it as a normal order of things. But Christians are one community with one faith and we have all received one and the same Spirit.

In response to the Holy Father's call to work for Christian unity, CHARIS, the body established by the Pope for contact with the worldwide Charismatic Renewal, has decided to organize this meeting as an opportunity for priests, pastors and ministers to meet across denominational boundaries with space for witnessing around the challenge of the unity of the body of Christ. Prayer and praise will characterize the days. Passage through the Holy Door, which has been opened in connection with the current Jubilee year, and an audience with the Holy Father are included in the program.

This year we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical council in Nicea, and in the Catholic Church, 2025 has been declared a jubilee year. Pope Francis writes:

"In the first centuries of Christianity, synods frequently took place in both East and West, showing the importance of ensuring the unity of God’s People and the faithful proclamation of the Gospel. The Jubilee can serve as an important occasion for giving concrete expression to this form of synodality, which the Christian community today considers increasingly necessary for responding to the urgent need for evangelization. All the baptized, with their respective charisms and ministries, are co-responsible for ensuring that manifold signs of hope bear witness to God’s presence in the world." (SPES NON CONFUNDIT. BULL OF INDICTION OF THE ORDINARY JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2025 No 17)

One should emphasize the best in the different denominational traditions and look more at what each one has to contribute to the whole, instead of only looking on what is lacking in the other churches.  Pope John Paul II spoke in the encyclical Ut Unum Sint of an "exchange of gifts."  The final report from the bishopssynod on synodality links back to this and states that synodality can not only refer to dialogue within the Catholic Church, but dialogue with all Christianity:

The preparation and joint commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of this event [Nicaea jubilee] should be an opportunity to deepen and confess together our faith in Christ and to put into practice forms of synodality among Christians of all traditions. (For a Synodal Church:  Communion, Participation, Mission - Final Document 139)

Inter-denominational meetings where people get to know each other, exchange experiences, pray and sing praises together without the need to formulate theological writings are an indispensable complement to formalized ecumenism.

Stockholm January 6:th 2025 Bengt Malmgren Coordinator CHARIS NSC in the Nordic countries