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Participants
Church of England
The Rt Revd Colin Buchanan (Co-Chair)
The Revd William S. Croft
Mrs Elizabeth Fisher
The Revd Prebendary Dr Paul Avis (Co-Secretary)
United Reformed Church
The Revd Robert Andrews (Co-Chair)
The Revd John Waller
The Revd Elizabeth Welch
The Revd Sheila Maxey (Co-Secretary)
Methodist Church
The Revd Peter Whittaker (Co-Chair)
The Revd Hilary Cooke
Mrs Mary Wetherall
The Revd Keith A Reed (Co-Secretary)
Ecumenical participant, appointed by Churches Together in
England
Mrs Faith Bowers
Bill Croft, Hilary Cooke, Paul Avis, Keith
Reed and Sheila Maxey were also part of the Formal Conversations
between the Church of England and the Methodist Church as
members, co-secretaries and ecumenical participant respectively.
Foreword
The 20th century has often been called the
ecumenical century of the Christian Church. During it, and with
gathering momentum, churches long separated, often with
bitterness and violence, began to approach one another, talk
together, work together and even re-unite. In 1961, at the World
Council of Churches Assembly in New Delhi, a vision of unity was
set down in terms which have sustained and challenged the
ecumenical movement to this day.
'We believe that the unity which is both
God's will and his gift to his Church is being made visible as
all in each place who are baptized into Jesus Christ and confess
him as Lord and Saviour are brought by the Holy Spirit into one
fully committed fellowship, holding the one apostolic faith,
preaching the one Gospel, breaking the one bread, joining in
common prayer and having a corporate life reaching out in
witness and service to all and who at the same time are united
with the whole Christian fellowship in all places and all ages
in such wise that ministry and members are accepted by all, and
that all can act and speak together as occasion requires for the
tasks to which God calls his people.'
These conversations have been one way in
which the participating churches, who already share so much
common life, have sought to continue to be obedient to God's
call to full, visible unity.
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