wfn.org | Ecumenical breakfast provides learning opportunity

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6045 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

28-June-2000
GA00096	

	Ecumenical breakfast provides learning opportunity

	by Jane Hines

LONG BEACH, June 28--Commissioners and visitors to the 212th General
Assembly had an opportunity to begin the day with a lesson about ecumenism
and what it involves and how it is different from interfaith concerns.

	The Rev. Margaret Thomas, former missionary to Iran and recently retired as
a member of the Presbyterian church (U.S.A.) Ecumenical Staff Team, was the
breakfast speaker.

	The Rev. Eugene Turner, co-chair of the event, said that the annual
ecumenical breakfasts are designed to educate and the speaker followed that
mandate, drawing on her years of experience in the ecumenical and interfaith
arena.  She traced the history of Presbyterian involvement in ecumenism for
the past half-century.
 
	 "We have recently recognized that we need one another in a new
commonality," she said.  "We need a vision of the whole world in a unity
that is not of our own doing, but from God."

	General Assembly moderator The Rev. Syngman Rhee spoke briefly to affirm
Thomas' ministry and encourage Presbyterians to live ecumenically as bridge
builders.  "In my experience," he said, "a bridge is only a bridge when it
touches both sides."

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