Dialogue Document
Ministry in the Church 1970
Ministry in the Church: Presbyterian & Reformed-Roman Catholic Dialogue, May 14, 1970
The following statement was issued by the Theology Section of the Reformed-Presbyterian and Roman Catholic Consultation at Morristown, New Jersey, May 14, 1970.
"For varying periods of time members of our consultation have discussed ways and means by which our ministries could be united and each of us led to a deeper knowledge and love of the other. Our concern in the early meetings was to see how the road lay to fun intercommunion. But it soon became clear that this end lay far beyond us, because the traditions of which we are a part have been separated for centuries and because there was not full acceptance amongst us of each other's ministries. At this point, therefore, in our discussion we moved away from churchly questions and asked, instead, particular and practical questions about the church's ministry to the world. But this in turn forced us to inquire why in fact we remain separated from one another when the world's needs are so great, and to see if there may be a way of reconciliation. One inescapable fact of our present situation is the division of the church, a division which is a symbol of, but also a scandal in, an alienated and divided world. We know that we are charged with the responsibility of bringing healing to the broken human family, but we also know that in its own life the church has contradicted and frustrated this purpose.
The common purpose which we have shared together since 1965 has made a genuine dialogue possible between us and brought us to a meeting of minds on many matters of faith and ministry. In talking to one another we each came to recognize in the ministry of the other rich and necessary elements which both of us affirm."