Roman Catholic Bishop William Skylstad (left) and United Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker, at St. Paul's College in Washington, are co-chairpersons of the latest dialogue between the two churches.
A UMNS photo by the Rev. W. Douglas Mills.

By Linda Bloom*
Feb. 25, 2009 | NEW YORK (UMNS)

For more than 40 years, United Methodists and Roman Catholics in the United States have conducted dialogues on topics ranging from public education to Holy Communion.

The topic of the current dialogue, Round 7, combines the religious and the secular:  “The Eucharist and Care for God’s Creation.”

Roman Catholic Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., and United Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker of Lakeland, Fla., are serving as co-chairpersons for the new dialogue, which had its first meeting in Washington in December.

The dialogue is facilitated by the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We have outstanding theologians on both sides,” Whitaker said about the participants. “It’s a very impressive group.”

Environmental concerns have been a topic of conversation among religious leaders around the world, according to Skylstad. “Stewardship of our environment and ecumenism fit very well together as a project in which we can work together in solidarity and common responsibility,” he said.

“Care for God’s creation has become a central theme in contemporary Christian theology,” the dialogue’s stated rationale said.

“As Methodists and Catholics, we look to our scriptures, our moral teachings, and in a particular way, our worship as important sources for theological reflection on the challenges of environmental responsibility and ecclesial action to address the threats to the global crisis.”

The focus on worship is a new perspective, Whitaker pointed out. Few people “are looking at Christian responsibility for the natural world in light of Eucharistic worship,” he said. But there is a way to consider the earth “as a sacramental means in which God encounters us,” he added, which calls for an ethical response.

If the desire of Christians to improve the environment is not grounded in such a world view, they are not likely to sustain their stewardship activities or take them far enough. “What is really needed is a transformation of people’s consciousness,” Whitaker said.

"Few people are looking at Christian responsibility for the natural world in light of Eucharistic worship."
--United Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker

Even the language of the Eucharist has “cosmic dimensions,” according to Whitaker. A vision of a God whose glory fills heaven and earth “requires us to change our relationship to the world and a lot of our practices.”

The Rev. James Massa, executive director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Conference of Catholic Bishops, noted that the “liturgical enactment of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross requires the cultivation of soil – and by extension, a planet – that is healthy enough to yield the wheat that becomes the ‘one loaf’ consecrated at the Eucharist.”

The dialogues between United Methodists and Roman Catholics in the United States first began in 1966 and each round of dialogue “has its own reason for being,” according to the Rev. W. Douglas Mills, an executive with the Commission on Christian Unity.

Skylstad originally had been part of Round 6, the dialogue that concluded in 2005, but withdrew after being elected president of the Catholic Conference of Bishops. “Each round has included a new group of people,” Mills explained. “In this particular round, none of the United Methodists have been in previous rounds.”

The committee will meet each June and December at St. Paul’s College in Washington. United Methodist-related Wesley Theological Seminary will serve as a host for those meetings. “On the average, rounds last four to five years,” Mills said.

As a practical matter, Whitaker hopes a resource will emerge from the Round 7 dialogue that Catholic parishes and United Methodist congregations can read and share together.

In addition to Whitaker and Mills, United Methodist members of Dialogue 7 are the Rev. Edgar Colon-Emeric, Duke University Divinity School; the Rev. Karen Westerfield-Tucker, Boston School of Theology; and Sondra Wheeler, the Rev. Kendall Soulen and the Rev. Bruce Birch, all of Wesley Theological Seminary.   

Besides Skylstad and Massa, Catholic participants are the Rev. Drew Christiansen, associate editor of America Magazine; Msgr. Kevin Irwin, School of Theology and Religious Studies at Catholic University of America; the Rev. John Hart, Boston University School of Theology; Connie Lasher, executive director of the John Paul II Institute for Theology & Environmental Studies; and Angela Russell Christman, director of the Catholic Studies program at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Related Articles

Commentary: Ecumenism not optional for Christians

World Methodists approve further ecumenical dialogue

United Methodists, Catholics finish sixth round of dialogue

Methodists advocate for Christian unity with new pope

Resources

Commission on Christian Unity

Conference of Catholic Bishops: Methodist dialogues