United Methodist-Catholic Dialogue Continues To Explore The Church In Each Place And In All Places

WASHINGTON (October 22, 2003) -- The United Methodist-Catholic Dialogue continued work on the theme of The Church in Each Place and in All Places, at an Oct. 2-5 meeting at St. Paul's College here. Bishop Walter Klaiber, United Methodist bishop of Frankfurt, Germany, presided. Auxiliary Bishop Frederick F. Campbell of St. Paul and Minneapolis is Catholic cochair.

At this meeting, the dialogue began to move from mutual learning and formulating common themes in understanding the doctrine of the Church, to summarizing the learnings of this round of research and beginning to provide an outline of a draft report.

Dr. Dennis Doyle of Dayton University and Dr. Karen Scheib, Emory University, presented a common paper summarizing the results of the dialogue and suggesting elements for a draft report outline. Dr. Elaine Robinson, Bright Divinity School, Texas Christian University, presented a synthesis of the personal responses of the participants in the dialogue to their own process of engagement in this round of theological research and conversation. An outline was produced and passed on to the drafters for elaboration.

The next meeting will be in Washington in March, at which time the dialogue team will look at a first draft of a statement from the discussions thus far.

The United Methodist-Catholic Dialogue, established in 1966, meets twice a year. It has issued reports entitled "Shared Convictions about Education," 1970; "Holiness and Spirituality of the Ordained Ministry," 1976; "Eucharistic Celebration: Converging Theology-Divergent Practice," 1981; "Holy Living and Holy Dying," 1988; "Yearning to Be One," 2000; and "Methodist-Catholic Dialogues: Thirty Years of Mission and Witness," 2001.