catholic – 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

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

Public Conversation with Archbishop Shane Mackinlay – June 2026

June 26, 2026meorome

The Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome and the Caravita Community held a public conversation with Archbishop Shane Mackinlay of Brisbane on 25 June 2026. Over 30 people attended the public conversation which focused on “Ecumenical Relations on the Journey of Synodality.” Abp. Shane is the Catholic co-chair of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, the official dialogue commission between the World Methodist Council and the Catholic Church. He was also a participant in the 2023 and 2024 plenary sessions of the Synod on Synodality of the Catholic Church. During his remarks, Abp. Shane wove together his experiences of Methodist-Catholic dialogue and the Synod on Synodality to reflect on the Catholic Church’s efforts to be a more synodal church, the role of bilateral dialogue between Methodists and Catholics in synodality, and the centrality of ecumenism in the church.

The event was held at Via XX Settembre Methodist Church in Rome.

Rev. Laferty Gives Overview of “God in Christ Reconciling”

June 26, 2026July 8, 2026meorome

The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty, director of the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, offered an overview of “God in Christ Reconciling: On the Way to Full Communion in Faith, Sacraments, and Mission,” the 11th report from the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, to the 2026 Conference of the Methodist Church in Britain. The video was aired on 26 June 2026 for the Conference’s the Presbyterial Session.