Methodist Delegation Meets Pope at Vatican

Top executives from the World Methodist Council last week congratulated Pope Benedict XVI on his election and thanked him for his commitment to ecumenism.

As part of a larger visit to the Vatican for the 40th anniversary celebration of the Second Vatican Council, WMC president Sunday Mbang on Nigeria said he hopes more developments can be made in expanding Methodist/Catholic relations in coming years. The Second Vatican Council was the landmark gathering that helped establish the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and spawned the creation of several inter Catholic-denominational bodies.

“Significant theological convergence that has been realized on such fundamental themes as revelation, faith, scripture and tradition,” Mbang told the Pope. “That there are still doctrinal matters to be settled between Methodists and Catholics.”

He also explained that the Council is moving forward with a process to adopt a landmark joint Catholic-Lutheran statement on Justification. The World Methodist Council will meet in Seoul, South Korea next July to get further involved with the 1999 joint statement.

The Pope meanwhile said he was encouraged by the move, saying it would “assist in contributing to the healing and reconciliation we ardently desire, and would be a significant step towards the stated goal of full visible unity in faith." He expressed his desire that Methodists and Catholics "seek to foster a mutual commitment to the World of God, to witness and to joint prayer."

The delegation’s visit was on Saturday, Dec. 9. Other Methodists at the gathering included: the Rev. George Freeman, the council's chief executive; the Rev. Geoffrey Wainwright, co-chairperson of the International Dialogue Commission; retired Bishop Walter Klaiber of Germany, who co-led the United Methodist Church dialogue with the Catholic Church in the USA; Gillian Kingston, an Irish Methodist and member of the dialogue commission; and Bishop William Oden, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops.