Primate Shane Parker sent greetings for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to the Anglican Church of Canada’s full-communion and ecumenical partners, expressing his commitment to continued dialogue, sharing and collaboration.
“Just days ago, I returned home after spending a week in the Middle East on a solidarity visit with our fellow disciples who live and work and worship in the ‘Land of the Holy One,’” the Primate wrote in his greetings. “While there, I was greatly moved by the deep partnership and strong joint witness which these faithful disciples manifest together in the midst of considerable adversity … Their commitment to unity to the fullest degree possible across a significant diversity of ecclesial traditions was profoundly inspirational to me.”
In Canada, the Primate continued, as churches seek to adapt to changing resources, shifting demographic trends and an evolving voice within the wider society, it is important to find ways to work more closely in partnership in the ministry of the Gospel, “especially in communities and neighborhoods where there are an increasing number of real questions emerging about whether a vital Christian ministry presence of any kind can be sustained at all—let alone in any particular denominational forms.”
The Primate included in his greetings a wide spectrum of Christian denominations in Canada with whom Anglicans often collaborate, including the Anglican Church of Canada’s full-communion partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in North America. He concluded with an invitation to further conversation.
See related:
Workshops on ecumenical shared ministry, commended by the Primate, from the Lutheran, Anglican, Moravian ecumenical working group (click on the links to register):