THE Catholic Primate, Dr Sean Brady, and the Moderator designate of the Presbyterian Church, the Rev Samuel Hutchinson, will lead a delegation from the Irish churches to a major ecumenical gathering in Austria next month.
The Second European Ecumenical Assembly will be held at Graz from June 23rd to 29th. Its theme will be reconciliation. The first European Assembly took place in 1989 just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Two hundred official delegates from the main Christian traditions in Europe will attend, along with nearly 10,000 other participants and visitors.
Main themes at the assembly are expected to include the search for visible unity between the churches; establishing dialogue with other religions and cultures; the commitment to social justice: the commitment to reconciliation within and between nations, and the engendering of a greater sense of responsibility towards the environment.
Irish delegates will hold a discussion on "the Churches and reconciliation in Northern Ireland", where it is hoped that some of what has been learned since the Troubles began here may be shared with a wider European audience.
The former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Dr John Dunlop and Sister Roisin Hannaway, leader of the Columbanus community, will address a forum at the assembly on Healing Wounds of Divided Churches".
Besides official delegates, others attending the assembly from Ireland will include representatives from the Irish School of Ecumenics, the Corrymeela Community, the Cornerstone Community, Clonard Monastery in Belfast, the Currach Community, and the peace and peacemaking committee of the Presbyterian church.
