LCC meeting with Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome

Cardinal Kurt Koch, Fr. Augustinus Sander, and Rev. Nolan Astley meet in Rome to discuss confessional Lutheran dialogue with Roman Catholics. (Image: PCPCU).

ROME – Rev. Nolan Astley, Senior Pastor at Holy Cross (Kitchener, Ontario) and former First Vice-President of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC), recently visited Rome for meetings with the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) on August 21, 2019.

The meetings were an opportunity to discuss LCC’s ongoing national ecumenical dialogue with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). During his visit to Rome, Rev. Astley met with Cardinal Kurt Koch (President of the PCPCU) and Fr. Augustinus Sander (Official of the PCPCU).

“It was good to meet with Cardinal Koch and Fr. Sander to discuss the growing friendly relations between confessional Lutherans and Roman Catholics,” said Rev. Astley. “Our conversations in Canada have been invaluable in breaking down old misconceptions, and finding out just how much we have in common—even as we acknowledge the differences which still exist.”

The dialogue between Lutheran Church–Canada and the Conference of Catholic Bishops officially began in 2013, and takes place regularly in Ontario. Rev. Astley has been a member of those meetings since their inception.

LCC’s dialogue with the CCCB has also been complemented by additional dialogue between confessional Lutherans and Roman Catholics in other countries, like Germany, as well as on the international level. The International Lutheran Council began informal dialogue with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity  in 2015. The concluding meeting of this dialogue is scheduled for September 2019, and there is expectation that the working group will recommend the ILC and PCPCU raise the status of the dialogue to a formal ecumenical dialogue.

———————

Print this article