Perspectief 2015-29

Perspectief 20 Odair Pedroso Mateus 2. Further Work on Mission and the Sacramental Nature of the Church The second way was to do extra theological work on controversial issues in need of further clarification. Consultations were held on ecclesiology and mission in Höxter, in July 2000 39 ; on the sacramental nature of the church in Ottawa in 2001 40 . Two other consultations, on authority and authoritative teaching in the Church, and on ministry and ordination in the community of women and men in the Church, were foreseen but did not take place. 3. The Nature and Mission of the Church Thirdly, the text was redrafted in light of 1) the interpretation of the churches responses; 2) the findings of the series of consultations just mentioned; 3) the discussion of the text in a meeting of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission held in Kuala Lumpur in 2004 41 ; and finally, the oversight exercised throughout the process by the Commission on Faith and Order. The work was completed by the drafting team in a meeting held in Chichester in January 2005 and subsequently submitted to the Faith and Order Commission in June 2005. The result was a text of 123 paragraphs (just 2 paragraphs shorter than The Nature and Purpose of the Church !), published in 2005 in time for the 9 th Assembly of the WCC held in Porto Alegre in February 2006. Its status as an ecumenical document has not changed: like its previous version, it understands itself as “a stage on the way to a common statement” because it is believed that it does not reflect a sufficient level of convergence. It has a new title: The Nature and Mission of the Church 42 , which partly echoes the Asian cry at the 2004 Kuala Lumpur meeting: “More ‘mission’, less ‘nature’” 43 . 39 The papers were published in International Review of Mission , 90(358/359), July and October 2001. See also Minutes of the Faith and Order Standing Commission – 30 September – 7 October 2000, Matanzas, Cuba , F&O Paper 188, 22. 40 For a brief report see Minutes of the Faith and Order Standing Commission, 9-16 January 2002, Gazzada, Italy , Geneva, WCC, 2002, F&O Paper 191, 30. 41 T. F. Best (ed.), Faith and Order at the Crossroads – The Plenary Commission Meeting , WCC, Geneva, 2005, F&O Paper 196, 175-200. 42 The Nature and Mission of the Church , Geneva, WCC, 2005, F&O Paper 198. 43 T. F. Best (ed.), Faith and Order at the Crossroads – The Plenary Commission Meeting , WCC, Geneva, 2005, F&O Paper 196.

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