Samford hosts BWA, Catholic Church ‘talks’

Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Birmingham’s Samford University, recently hosted the first of five official theological conversations to take place between Baptists and Roman Catholics from 2006 to 2010.
   
The conversations are sponsored by Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and are a follow-up to talks that took place in the 1980s. 
   
Meeting Dec. 10–15 at Beeson, the 23 Baptist and Catholic theologians and church leaders from around the world discussed shared beliefs and ecclesial differences.
   
The leaders are seeking “greater mutual understanding on a variety of issues,” said George, the only Alabama participant. “I think the first meeting went well. We discussed important issues and talked about areas of agreement and of differences.”
   
While the overall theme for the conversations is The Word of God in the Life of the Church: Scripture, Tradition and Koinoina, the focus for this meeting was on the authority of Christ in Scripture and tradition.
   
BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz said, “It is indeed important that we talk with one another, that we listen to one another and that we pray for progress in mutual understanding.
   
“In these days of renascent world religions and terrorism and religious persecution, it is important for men and women of Christian faith to talk with one another,” he added. 
   
Bishop Arthur Serratelli, bishop of Paterson, N.J., is co-chairing the meetings with Paul Fiddes, principal of Regent’s Park College of Oxford University in England. Fiddes also chairs the BWA Commission on Doctrine and Inter-Church Cooperation.
   
The next meeting will be in Rome Dec. 3–7, 2007. At the conclusion of the five-year conversation process, an official report of the findings will be released. (TAB)