Churches push forward with ecumenical vision

|PIC1|Representatives from across the denominational spectrum gathered in Delhi for the last four days to hash out a plan for the Global Christian Forum over the next three years.

The Global Christian Forum programme, which opened on Saturday, took as its main focus the recommendations of last year's forum in Limuru, Kenya, and the reports of the evaluation process from 1998 to 2007 as delegates reflected on the needs of the global church and its vision for reaching out to people in the 21st century.

The gathering brought together sixty representatives of the historic Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Evangelical movements to share their future goals and participate in forum discussions on nurturing a broader ecumenical movement.

Hubert van Beek, Secretary of the Global Christian Forum, told Christian Today: "With this meeting we will leave the experimental past and move into more visible ways in actively serving the global church."

The gathering, hosted by the Evangelical Fellowship of India, explored themes including evangelism, proselytism, mission and dialogue, and poverty and social justice.

The GCF meeting also finalised the formation of a partially renewed and enlarged GCF Committee that will assume its responsibilities for the year 2009. The new committee will consist of members appointed by the various global churches and church bodies at the forum, including the World Council of Churches.

The forum exists to create an open space for representatives from a broad range of Christian churches and interchurch organisations, which confess the triune God and Jesus Christ as perfect in His divinity and humanity, to gather in order to foster mutual respect, to explore and address together common challenges.