church – Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome

Videos from WMC Webinars on 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea

April 2, 2025April 2, 2025meorome

The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is being marked in 2025 as an important commemoration of the common Christian faith shared among the various Christian confessions. In March 2025, the World Methodist Council through an ad-hoc committee chaired by former WMC vice president Ms. Gillian Kingston organized three webinars to reflect on the Council of Nicaea and its importance for the worldwide Methodist/Wesleyan family. The series “A Wesleyan Response to Nicaea: Reflections on Faith, Unity, and Mission” had three regional foci – the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa and Europe.

Asia and the Pacific

The webinar was held on 3 March 2025.

Speakers:

Prof. Te Aroha Rountree, Methodist Church in New Zealand Te Hāhi Weteriana o Aotearoa, Trinity Methodist Theological College, Auckland, New Zealand
Rev. James Bhagwan, Methodist Church in Fiji, General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches
Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri, Methodist Church Malaysia, former vice moderator of the WCC Faith and Order Commission
Rev. Dr. Lisette Tapia Raquel, The United Methodist Church, Union Theological Seminary, Manila, Philippines

Moderator: Revd Dr Seferosa Carroll, Uniting Church in Australia, United Theological College, North Parramatta, Australia

The Americas

The webinar was held on 4 March 2025.

Speakers:

Rev. Dr. Blanches de Paula, Methodist Church Brazil, Methodist University, Sao Paulo,Brazil
Rev. Dr. Pablo Rubén Andiñach, Methodist Church Argentina, Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano, Rosario, Argentina
Prof. Sarah Lancaster, The United Methodist Church, Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Columbus, OH, USA
Prof. Gladson Jothanna, Church of South India, Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA

Moderator: Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colon-Emeric, The United Methodist Church, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, USA

Africa and Europe

The webinar was held on 18 March 2025.

Speakers:

Rev. Jackline Makena, Methodist Church Kenya, St. Paul University, Limuru, Kenya
Prof. Simangaliso R. Kumalo, Methodist Church Southern Africa, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, SA
Rev. Dr. Jane Leach, Methodist Church Britain, Wesley House, Cambridge
Rev. Dr. Sergei Nikolaev, The United Methodist Church, Moscow Theological Seminary, Moscow, Russia

Moderator: Revd Dr Martin Mujinga, Methodist Church Zimbabwe, Africa Methodist Council, Accra, Ghana

The Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome provided technical support for the webinar series.

Photo by A. Hilbert/WCC

VIDEO – “Experiences of the Fraternal Delegates at the Synod on Synodality” from Webinar on 20 January 2025

January 21, 2025January 21, 2025meorome

Five fraternal delegates to the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church, called the Synod on Synodality, share their experiences during a webinar on 20 January 2025.

The speakers were: H.Em. Metropolitan Job (Getcha) of Pisidia from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Rev. Prof. Jong Chun Park from the World Methodist Council, Dr. Elizabeth Newman from the Baptist World Alliance, Rev. Dr. Opoku Onyinah from the Pentecostal World Fellowship, and Rev. Dr. Hanns Lessing from the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Prof. Catherine Clifford from St. Paul’s University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Synod delegate from North America, moderated the webinar.

The webinar was sponsored by the Methodist Ecumenical Office Rome, Legation of the Armenian Church to the Holy See, Anglican Centre in Rome, and Reformed Churches Ecumenical Office in Rome to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Videos from Methodist-Catholic International Dialogue Meeting in Korea

September 28, 2024October 18, 2024meorome

Members of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission, the official theological dialogue commission between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church, produced short videos about the commission’s work and its meeting agenda at the commission’s last meeting in Pocheon, Korea, from 22-27 September 2024.

The Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, Methodist co-chair of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission (MERCIC), spoke about his hopes for MERCIC’s work as the Commission begans its deliberations on 23 September 2024

Bishop Shane Mackinlay, Catholic co-chair of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission (MERCIC), spoke about how the Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality and the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed shaped the Commission’s work.

Sister Prof. Mary Sylvia Nwachukwu DDL speaks about her experience of the Methodist-Catholic international dialogue and the importance of the dialogue’s meeting in Korea.

Fr. Gerard Kelly shares about the importance of the Methodist-Catholic international dialogue’s project to re-synthesize and harvest the dialogue’s 11 reports into a single published text similar to the dialogue’s 2010 document “Together To Holiness”.

Prof. Dr. Catherine Clifford links her participation in Methodist-Catholic international dialogue and Methodist theology of conferencing, connectionalism, and lay participation as important insights for the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

The Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri talks about unity as primary to our Christian vocation and the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission’s work in living this vocation.

The Rev. Prof. Glen O’Brien speaks about the Methodist-Catholic international dialogue moving Catholics and Methodists toward greater unity in Christ.

The Rev. Prof. Danny Pilario CM speaks about his learnings of mission and an ‘ecumenism of blood’ from the Korean Catholic and Methodist churches.

Dr. Jung Choi speaks about Methodist-Catholic dialogue as a journey in unity in Christ.

The Rev. Matthew A. Laferty offers the final video from this year’s meeting in Seoul, Korea, of the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission. He describes the urgency of Christian unity in a divided world.