Our Unfolding Journey with Jesus Christ: new document reflects on the Global Christian Forum

 — Feb. 18, 201418 févr. 2014

An important document, which is a theological reflection on the experience and life of the Global Christian Forum, has been approved by the GCF committee.

Titled, Our Unfolding Journey with Jesus Christ: Reflections on the Global Christian Forum Experience, the document is the work of a group of theologians drawn from across the church traditions and families that make up the GCF.

Rev Dr Wonsuk Ma, executive director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, headed a panel of nine theologians, known as the Theological Working Group (TWG), who produced the document. [Full membership of TWG is listed below.]

The work, initiated by the GCF committee when in met in Rome in 2012, was received and approved by the committee at its recent meeting in Geneva in September.

The decision to undertake the task came after the second GCF global gathering at Manado, Indonesia, where it was felt that it was important to put down some theological markers so the wider Christian community could understand the story, practice and on-going life of the GCF.

A narrative history of the life of the GCF through the first global gathering in 2007 had been written and more recently revised to include GCF events into 2012. That history was to be extended recently, but it was felt that there needed to be deeper theological thinking about the Forum experience so that churches and groups, and the GCF itself, could have a statement that would address its learning and experience.

What has evolved – through the TWG’s reflection — is a document that is described as a “first attempt to articulate theological (and especially ecclesiological) insights which have emerged from the experiences of the Forum’s distinctive life.”

The TWG makes clear in the introduction that the paper “is written in the recognition of the many different understandings, and uses of language, among Forum participants.”

It is not the primary purpose of the Forum to engage in theological dialogue to produce agreed texts, but mirroring the Forum’s own practices, this account is “doxological and testimonial, narrative and descriptive, rather than theoretical and analytical,” the text says.

The document is available in English, French, and Spanish.

Theological Task Group Members:

Wonsuk MA, Chair (Pentecostal, Korea & United Kingdom); Kathryn JOHNSON, Secretary (Lutheran, USA); K. M. GEORGE (Oriental Orthodox, India); Rolf HILLE (Evangelical, Germany); Leonid KISHKOVSKY (Eastern Orthodox, USA); Luis MELO (Catholic, Canada and Vatican City); Thomas ODURO (African Instituted, Ghana); Sarah ROWLAND JONES (Anglican, South Africa); and Calixto SALVATIERRI MORENO (Catholic, Bolivia).

Also joining in the work in addition to John GIBAUT (Anglican, Canada and Switzerland), as consultant, were GCF staff Kim CAIN (Australia); Hubert VAN BEEK (France), and Larry MILLER (France).

Posted: Feb. 18, 2014 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=7372
Categories: NewsIn this article: ecclesiology, Global Christian Forum, theology
Transmis : 18 févr. 2014 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=7372
Catégorie : NewsDans cet article : ecclesiology, Global Christian Forum, theology


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