The Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome and the Centro Pro Unione jointly held a special symposium on the late Methodist theologian the Revd Dr Geoffrey Wainwright on Thursday, 20 October 2022 at Centro Pro Unione. Prof Wainwright died on 17 March 2020 at the age of 79.
The symposium memorialized the life of Prof Wainwright as a liturgist, theologian, and ecumenist. Always quick to quote the hymns of Charles Wesley, Prof Wainwright was known for book Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life (1984). He was an intregral drafter of the seminal WCC Faith and Order document – Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry – which been utilized as a foundation text in theological dialogue. Prof Wainwright also served 25 years as the Methodist co-chair of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, the joint theological dialogue commission between the World Methodist Council and the Holy See.
The symposium comprised 3 main lectures by Rev Prof Bryan Spinks (Yale), Revd Dr Richard Clutterbuck (Wesley House Cambridge), and Rev Dr William Rusch (Yale). Following the lectures, a special panel of former students, colleagues, and friends spoke about the personal encounters with Prof Wainwright. The panel was comprised of Rev Prof Bernhard Eckerstrofer OSB (Sant’Anselmo), Prof Gillian Kingston (World Methodist Council), and Archbishop Don Bolen (Catholic Diocese of Regina).
The symposium attracted over 40 participants.
Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome 