News – Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome

Methodist Leaders Participate in 40th International Meeting of Peace in Assisi

October 27, 2026October 28, 2026meorome

The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome and representative of the World Methodist Council to the Holy See, and the Rev. Dr. Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto, general secretary of the Methodist Council, attended the International Meeting of Peace, organized by the Sant’Egidio Community, held in Assisi, Italy, from 25-27 October 2026. The meeting celebrated its 40th anniversary and was initially convened in 1986 by Pope John Paul II.

Rev. Laferty (left) and Dr. Neto (right) with Prof. Marco Impagliazzo (center), president of the Sant’Egidio Community

The international meeting brings leaders from various Christian churches and from all major world religions together with political leaders, diplomats, activists, and business leaders for dialogue, learning, fellowship, and prayer. The aim is to find common solutions and build durable relationships which will foster peace-making and peace-building globally.

A series of panel discussions were held during the three-day meeting. Dr. Neto spoke on a high-level panel on the theme “Christian Unity: An Open Question” with H.H. Patriarch Mar Awa II of the Assyrian Church of the East, Bishop Kristina Kuehnbaum-Schmidt of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, and H.Em. Senior Metropolitan Emmanuel of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The closing ceremony was held in outside the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Prior to the closing ceremony, each religious group gathered in various locations around Assisi for prayers for peace according to their own religious traditions. Christians met in the Lower Basilica above the tomb of St. Francis for prayers. H.Em. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and His All-Holiness Bartholomew I preached during the Christian prayers, while other senior church leaders led the service.

Bishops from various Christian churches leading the prayers in the Lower Basilica on 27 October 2026

At the conclusion of the meeting, the religious leaders issued an appeal for peace, stating “enough of wars! Enough of the culture of war! Let us choose the creativity of dialogue and the boldness of peace, to heal the world of the disease of war and reduce social conflicts. We call for an end to the cult of force and the pedagogy of fear and blood, which blur the line between good and evil, numb our sense of humanity and foster a culture of death. It is time to rehabilitate peace.” The appeal for peace further declared, “no war is holy. War can never be waged in the name of God! Yes, only peace is holy.”

The Community of Sant’Egidio is an international lay Catholic association of the faithful dedicated to social service, peacebuilding, and prayer. Following the initial 1986 meeting, Pope John Paul II entrusted the Sant’Egidio Community to develop and plan the annual international meeting.

Photo above: Photo by Berthold Werner (c) CC BY-SA 4.0

MERCIC Steering Committee Meets, Plans for 13th Round of Dialogue

October 24, 2026meorome

The steering committee of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, the official dialogue commission between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church, met from 19-22 October 2026. The steering committee – composed of the co-chairs and co-secretaries – spent two days in London and Cambridge, England, United Kingdom, and two days in Rome, Italy. The purpose of the meeting was to promote MERCIC’s work and speak about the Commission’s new document “One in Faith and Ministry to the World: Reflecting on Unity and Diversity for the Mission of the Church.”

Members of the steering committee of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission are Rev. Prof. Edgardo Colon-Emeric (Methodist co-chair), Archbishop Shane Mackinlay (Catholic co-chair), Rev. Matthew A. Laferty (Methodist co-chair), and Fr. Martin Browne OSB (Catholic co-chair).

The committee met with Rev. Dr. Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto, general secretary of the World Methodist Council, on 19 October at his office in Methodist Central Hall Westminster, and officially presented Dr. Neto a copy of the new document.

Rev. Prof. Edgardo Colon-Emeric (left) and Archbishop Shane Mackinlay (right) presenting the documents “One in Faith and Ministry to the World: Reflecting on Unity and Diversity for the Mission of the Church” and “We Believe in One God: Sixty Years of Methodists and Catholic Walking Together” to Rev. Dr. Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto in the presence of Fr. Martin Browne OSB and Rev. Matthew A. Laferty.

On Monday afternoon, Abp. Shane and Prof. Colon-Emeric presented the report at an event at Wesley House, Cambridge, followed by a dinner of the steering committee with members from the British national Methodist-Catholic dialogue.

The steering committee finished their UK trip on Tuesday morning with a visit to Wesley’s Chapel and Leysian Mission in London, where they toured The Museum of Methodism & John Wesley’s House and prayed at John Wesley’s tomb. Before concluding their UK journey, the steering committee stopped by Aldersgate Street and the site of Charles Wesley and John Wesley’s evangelical conversion.

On Wednesday, 21 October, the steering committee met Pope Leo XIV following the General Audience and offered a brief update about their work.

Pope Leo XIV greets Rev. Matthew A. Laferty in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on 21 October 2026, as Rev. Edgardo Colon-Emeric looks on. Photo (c) Vatican Media.

They also met Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican’s ecumenical department, to discuss the Commission’s newly approved document “One in Faith and Ministry to the World: Reflecting on Unity and Diversity for the Mission of the Church” on Wednesday.

Cardinal Kurt Koch (center) with the MERCIC steering committee on 21 October 2026

The co-chair – Prof. Edgardo Colon-Emeric and Archbishop Shane Mackinlay – presented the document at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in their Tillard Chair Lecture Series on Wednesday afternoon.

The steering committee concluded their meetings in Rome on Thursday with planning for the 13th round of dialogue.

About the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission

The Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission (MERCIC) – formally called the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church – was constituted in 1966 to engage in dialogue on behalf of the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church. The commission is comprised of 16 members – 8 Methodist and 8 Catholic – who are senior church leaders or scholars in a wide range of fields, including systematic theology, church history, canon law, and practical theology. The commission works in a five-year cycle, meeting annually in-person for the first four years and online in the final year. At the beginning of each new phase, a topic is selected and developed during the succeeding 5 years, leading to a comprehensive report. Each report seeks to identify convergences, divergences, and areas where more time is needed for prayer and accompaniment. Eleven reports have been published by the joint commission on topics like the Eucharist, authority, ecclesiology, and apostolicity, in addition to two synthesis documents.

International Methodist-Catholic Dialogue Commission Approves New Document, Concludes 12th Dialogue – October 2026

October 7, 2026October 8, 2026meorome

The Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission – MERCIC – gives thanks for the completion of the twelfth phase of its dialogue. Members of the Commission last met in person in October 2025, in El Salvador. Since then, an editorial group has worked to finalize the report for this phase of the dialogue. Members approved the final draft of the report, entitled One in Faith and Ministry to the World: Reflecting on Unity and Diversity for the Mission of the Church on 7 October 2026.

The report notes that sixty years of sustained theological dialogue between Methodists and Catholics has established unambiguous agreement on the shared confession of Christian faith expressed in the Nicene Creed and in the shared faith in the primacy of God’s justifying and sanctifying grace. It urges the two communions to receive the fruits of MERCIC’s dialogue to date so as to affirm that the faith of the Apostles is professed and lived out in one another’s communions. Based on this mutual affirmation, the report encourages public acknowledgment by Catholics and Methodists of the presence and action of God’s Spirit in the constitutive elements that build up our respective communions, which would thereby be affirmed as effective mediations of God’s saving grace.

The Commission believes that the ecumenical kairos moment in which we now find ourselves invites our churches to take formal steps to recognise the communion we share and to receive the agreements reached in our dialogue over the last sixty years. In doing so, the report seeks not only to identify a point of arrival in the relationship between Methodists and Catholics, but a point of departure. It therefore also offers a methodology to chart a way forward, suggesting concrete steps that our respective communions might take in order to recognise and receive the communion that exists between us.

Although the full text of One in Faith and Ministry to the World has not been released yet, a number of significant events will take place in October 2026 to mark the completion of this twelfth phase of the Methodist-Catholic international dialogue. On Monday 19 October, the Commission’s steering committee will present the report to the General Secretary of the World Methodist Council in London. Later that day, they will speak about the document at a seminar in Wesley House Cambridge. On Wednesday 21 October, they will present the report to the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome, and will later speak about it at a seminar at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). They also hope to greet His Holiness Pope Leo XIV after the weekly General Audience in St Peter’s Square.

The full text of One in Faith and Ministry to the World will be published in the coming months, when the necessary institutional procedures have been completed. Subsequently, it will be presented for reception at the next meeting of the World Methodist Conference in Manila, the Philippines in 2029. Continuing MERCIC’s practice to date, the document will thereafter be known also as The Manila Report.

The Commission is made up of:

Methodist Members
Revd Prof. Edgardo A. Colón–Emeric (Co-Chair), United States of America
Revd Matthew A. Laferty (Co-Secretary), Methodist Ecumenical Office, Rome
Dr Jung Choi, United States of America
Revd Prof. Blanches de Paula, Brazil
Prof. Geordan Hammond, United Kingdom/United States of America
Bishop Lizzette Gabriel Montalvo, Puerto Rico (2022 meeting)
Revd Prof. Glen O’Brien, Australia
Revd Dr Hermen Shastri, Malaysia
Prof. Lilian Cheelo Siwila, South Africa

Catholic Members
Archbishop Shane Mackinlay (Co-Chair), Australia
Revd Martin Browne OSB (Co-Secretary), Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Rome
Prof. Catherine E. Clifford, Canada
Revd Anthony Currer, United Kingdom (2022 and 2025 meetings)
Revd Prof. Gerard Kelly, Australia
Sr Prof. Mary Sylvia Nwachukwu DDL, Nigeria
Revd Prof. Daniel Franklin Pilario CM, Philippines
Revd Prof. Jorge Scampini OP, Argentina
Dr Clare Watkins, United Kingdom

Online Event – “One in Ministry to All the World” on 19 October

October 7, 2026meorome

You are warmly invited to join us online on Monday, 19 October, for this event organized by the Joint International Commission for Dialogue between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church (MERCIC), the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, and Wesley House Cambridge.

The international Methodist-Catholic dialogue will publish a new document “One in Faith and Ministry to the World” in September 2026 following its 12th round of theological dialogue. The document focuses on unity and diversity in the church and its implications for the mission of the church.

In this 90 minute program, the Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colon-Emeric, dean of Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, USA, and the Most Rev. Shane Mackinlay, Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia, will present the new document and offer their personal reflections on unity and diversity for mission from Catholic and Methodist perspectives.

The event takes place on Monday 19 October 2026 at 15:00/3pm (UK Time) online.

Register on EventBrite

MEOR Welcomes United Methodist Mission Leader – September 2026

September 14, 2026meorome

The Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome welcomed the Rev. Dr. Judy Y. Chung from The United Methodist Church’s mission agency during her visit to Rome, 8-14 September 2026. Dr. Chung is the executive director of missionary services of the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church and oversees the recruitment, training, and deployment of 250 missionaries around the world.

During her trip, Dr. Chung attended a General Audience with Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square, met Abp. Flavio Pace from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and Rev. Luca Anziani from the Evangelical Methodist Churches in Italy, and visited Ponte Sant’Angelo Methodist Church and Via XX Settembre Methodist Church in Rome. She also met Rev. Laferty at the MEOR offices near the Vatican to learn more about MEOR’s programs.

The United Methodist mission agency deploys three permanent missionaries in Rome and one two-year young adult missionary in Sicily who Dr. Chung met on Saturday, 12 September.

The Methodist Ecumenical Office organized Dr. Chung’s itinerary.

Photo: Rev. Dr. Judy Chung (front row, second from right) with UMC missionaries and spouse in Italy on 12 September 2026. Photo by M. Laferty/MEOR.