The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (IASCER) held its last meeting in Kyoto, Japan, under the chairmanship of the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, Primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. The Commission is charged with reviewing current international ecumenical dialogues involving Anglicans, and provincial and regional initiatives towards unity with other Christians. IASCER consists of representatives from each international dialogue involving Anglicans, including the multilateral dialogue of Faith and Order, and of certain other commissions and networks, and consultants who bring particular regional or theological expertise.

Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference and Church of England House of Bishops join together for second bi-lateral meeting

The Church of England House of Bishops and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales are joining together for a second bi-lateral meeting, this time at Lambeth Palace, today, Monday, November 17. In 2006, they met together in Leeds for study and worship.

They will be chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.

Some in the Anglican Communion may have found themselves a little irritated by the amount of rhetoric that has issued from the Vatican in recent weeks on the divisions facing the church. The Anglican Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Holy See, the Very Revd David Richardson, says that instead, the concerns of the Roman Catholic Church should be taken as a very positive reminder that the unity of the church is God’s will.

While the Pope was in Australia celebrating World Youth Day, he urged the Anglican Church to avoid schism, and Cardinal Dias warned in his address to the Lambeth Conference about the dangers of disunity to evangelism.

The inclusion of Ecumenical partners in the full participation of the Lambeth Conference marks a high point in Ecumenical relationships between the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church, according to Maronite Archbishop Paul Sayah of Haifa and the Holy Land.

Archbishop Sayah joined Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at a media conference today to explain some of the progress and challenges facing ecumenical relationships. The Maronite Church is an Eastern church which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.

The urgency to preach the Good News is as true today as it was two thousand years ago, said Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples in the Roman Catholic Church.

In his address to the Lambeth Conference on Tuesday night, Cardinal Dias told the assembled bishops that the world was beset by Satanic groups and New age movements, and the “many ugly heads of the hideous anti-God monster,” including secularism, spiritual indifference and relativism.