wfn.org | PRESENTATION TO HIS HOLINESS, JOHN PAUL II

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Note #6463 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

27-March-2001     

PRESENTATION TO HIS HOLINESS, JOHN PAUL II
     on behalf of the
DELEGATION FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.)
     by Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

Your Holiness, we come seeking Christian unity, faithful to our Lord's high
priestly prayer, "that they may all be one … that the world might believe."
(John 17:21) It is our deepest hope that the third millennium in Christian
history will be the millennium of the reuniting of the broken body of
Christ. Standing at the dawn of this new millennium, we cannot imagine a
task more urgent than furthering the unity which Christ intends for the
Church.

We in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) began this pilgrimage four years ago
in response to your gracious invitation to other Christian communities in Ut
Unum Sint. You asked Church leaders and theologians from other Christian
traditions "to engage with me in a patient and fraternal dialogue" as to how
the Successor the Peter might enable the whole Christian community to more
fully manifest the unity for which our Lord prayed so fervently. We were
deeply grateful for that invitation and have appreciated the opportunity to
be engaged in helpful conversation with the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity around that topic, both here in the Vatican and in our
church center in Louisville, Kentucky. W have prepared a pager entitled The
Successor to Peter, which I am pleased to present to you and which has been
the launching pad for this very helpful and productive dialogue. We believe
the Holy Spirit is indeed at work among us as we have come to understand one
another more fully as common members of the body of Christ.

We rejoice in the significant steps toward Christian unity that have been
taken between our two churches since the Second Vatican Council. We have
seen a liturgical and sacramental renewal in Presbyterian churches that owes
much to the Second Vatican Council, while at the same time Catholic churches
in our nation have seen a renewal of preaching and the centrality of the
Scriptures. To participate in a Presbyterian worship service or a Catholic
mass is a far more similar experience than it was a generation ago, and we
are grateful to God for that. We have come to affirm a common baptism. At
the grass roots level, Presbyterian and Catholic parishes are more often
than not partners together in common mission and ministry in our secular
society. We rejoice that our people now see each other not as "enemies" or
"competitors," but as brothers and sisters in Christ.

At the same time, as we begin a new millennium, we feel a strong sense of
urgency to manifest to the world that there is one Church of Jesus Christ in
which we all participate together. We long to find a way to be together at
the Lord's table. We seek to move beyond the condemnations of our past
history and to be able to affirm one another as true churches of Jesus
Christ. In a fragmented world, we feel a particular urgency to witness
together to the unifying love and justice of Jesus Christ for a suffering
and divided humanity.

Most of all, we have come on this journey because we believe with the
Apostle Paul that there is one body of Christ with many members. We
earnestly seek your prayers for that part of the body of Christ known as the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and we promise to pray for you and the church
united together with you as the Bishop of Rome. Even more, we earnestly seek
to be partners together in prayer for the unity of all of those who follow
Christ.

May God's richest blessing be upon you!

March 22, 2001

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