Covenant hailed as a landmark

Townsville Bulletin/Townsville Sun (Australia)
November 25, 2004 Thursday

AUSTRALIAN churches signed a covenant during the Fifth National Forum
of the National of Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA).

The forum was held in Adelaide last month.

Church leaders have hailed the covenant as one of the most
significant events in Australia’s ecumenical history.

“It’s an international benchmark,” NCCA president, Rev James Haire of
the Uniting Church said.

“No one else I believe, anywhere in the world, has been able to
produce anything quite as comprehensive as this. It is true that the
US is working towards something similar — but that doesn’t include
the Catholics.”

The invitation to the churches in Australia to engage in a process of
covenanting together at the national level has been grounded in the
conviction that ecumenical commitment is fundamental to the integrity
of the Church’s mission.

The process since 1996 has been an invitation to the churches, at the
national level, to take specific steps towards a more visible
expression of unity, to move towards a deeper experience of communion
(koinonia).

Bishop Michael Putney was present in Adelaide for the Forum of the
National Council of Churches.

Archbishop Carroll, president of the Australia Catholic Bishops
Conference, signed the covenant on behalf of the Catholic Church.

The first part of the covenanting document includes a Declaration of
Intent by the member churches.

It reaffirms their commitment to one another as partners on the
ecumenical journey and another to engage in an ongoing process of
growing together not knowing what visible form, unity, which is God’s
will and gift, may take.

The signatories to the covenant are: the Anglican Church of
Australia; Anticohian Orthodox Church; Armenian Apostolic Church;
Assyrian Church of the East; Churches of Christ in Australia;
Congregation Federation of Australia; Coptic Orthodox Church of
Australia, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia; Lutheran Church
of Australia; Religious Society of Friends; Roman Catholic Church in
Australia, Romania Orthodox Church; the Salvation Army; Syrian
Orthodox Church and Uniting Church in Australia.

Different churches then agreed to more specific parts of the
covenant.

The Catholic Church agreed:

* To explore initiatives for sharing physical resources such as
buildings

* To explore with other Christian communities issues and strategies
for mission so that the possibility of common mission is recognised
as a priority

* To seek, to develop clear and sensitive guidelines dealing with
how Christian churches together can best meet the needs of people in
local (especially rural) situations

* To recognise the Sacrament of Baptism administered in the other
Christian churches and to promote the use to the common certificate
of baptism.