wfn.org | Reformed-Pentecostal dialogue concludes

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

Note #6111 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

11-July-2000
00248

	Reformed-Pentecostal dialogue concludes

	Participants hope five-session series will be extended

	by Paraic Reamonn
	World Alliance of Reformed Churches Press Officer

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Delegates from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
met here from May 18-24 with members of Pentecostal churches from Finland,
Korea, the Philippines, Switzerland and the United States. The Reformed
representatives came from Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ghana, Italy,
Korea, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S.

	The Sao Paulo meeting was the last in a series of five sessions of
international Pentecostal-Reformed dialogue. The first took place in 1996 in
Torre Pellice, Italy, with the theme "Spirituality and the Challenges of
Today."  The second, held in Chicago in 1997, dealt with "The Role and Place
of the Holy Spirit in the Church." The third session, in Kappel, Switzerland
in 1998, discussed "The Holy Spirit and Mission in Eschatological
Perspective."  The fourth session which was held in Seoul in 1999, with the
theme "The Holy Spirit, Charismata [gifts], and the Kingdom of God."

	The fifth session in Sao Paulo centered on "The Holy Spirit in Church and
World," and tried to summarize and evaluate the findings of the previous
sessions and to indicate points of agreement as well as points needing
further exploration.

	The joint statement adopted at the end of the meeting expressed the work
accomplished in the five sessions. It covers the following topics: "Holy
Spirit and Word", "Holy Spirit and Church", "Holy Spirit and Mission" and
"Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God." The joint statement will be published
in a final version  in September 2000.

	Participants expressed the hope that the international bilateral dialogue
between Pentecostals and Reformed will continue.

	The meeting was jointly hosted by the Independent Presbyterian Church of
Brazil and the First Independent Presbyterian Church of São Paulo, under the
leadership of Rev. Abival Pires da Silveira.  It was co-chaired by  Cecil
Melvin Robeck (U.S. Pentecostal) and Milan Opo enský (Czech Republic,
Reformed). Participants worshipped together and visited Reformed and
Pentecostal congregations as well as Mackenzie Presbyterian University. 
They also discussed the state of Pentecostal studies in Brazil with
representatives of a research group on Brazilian Protestantism from the
Ecumenical Institute of Graduate Studies on Sciences of Religion in the
Methodist University of Sao Paulo.

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