UPCOMING

Christians to converge on Phoenix for conference

By Joyce Coronel | April 2, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

As Christians throughout the world prepare to celebrate Easter, one organization is working for unity between the various denominations of Christianity.

The 2009 National Workshop on Christian Unity, titled “Desert Pilgrimage,” will be held April 27-30 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Phoenix. With high-profile speakers representing different branches of Christianity, the group will examine a variety of topics related to ecumenism.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted will participate in the opening worship service at 7:30 p.m. on April 27 at St. Mary’s Basilica and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson will participate in a presentation on immigration reform during the workshop.

Some of the presentations deal with various hot-button issues that are sure to generate discussion among participants.

 In addition to presentations on immigration, there will be workshops dealing with racism as an impediment to ecumenism, Mormons and their relationship to the ecumenical movement and Christian-Muslim relations.

The workshop, which is in its 42nd year, is sponsored by the National Association of Ecumenical Officers and includes both denominational and ecumenical sessions. 

Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and Historic First Presbyterian will host some of the events sponsored by the conference.

Building unity

The National Workshop on Christian Unity traces its roots to the echoes of the Second Vatican Council. In 1969, a group of Roman Catholics invited leaders of other Christian churches to join forces with them to encourage ecumenical dialog in an effort to build Christian unity.

Fr. Michael Diskin, the director of the Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs for the Diocese of Phoenix, said the workshop offers a chance for representatives of the major Christian churches to pray together.

“Our Catholic Church teaches that spiritual ecumenism is the heart of the ecumenical movement,” Fr. Diskin said. “While through baptism, a real but imperfect unity already exists among all Christians, the sinful condition of disunity that exists today requires the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit if the unity that Christ intended is to be restored.”

Sr. Marilyn Bever, CSA, Deacon Don Crawford and Deacon John Meyer will be attending the workshop along with Fr. Diskin. The Catholic Association of Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers has its own meetings and seminars in conjunction with the workshop. 

Guest speakers at the conference include Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; Dr. Margaret Mitchell, professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago Divinity School; Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Archdiocese of San Francisco; and Rev. Dr. Cecil “Mel” Robeck, Jr., professor of Church History and Ecumenics and director of the David J. DuPlessius Center for Christian Spirituality at the Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.