FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Dr. Kimberly Reisman Joins World Methodist Council Delegation to Vatican
Vatican City – October 23, 2017 – World Methodist Evangelism Executive Director, Dr. Kimberly Reisman, traveled to Italy last week with a World Methodist Council delegation to mark 50 years of Methodist-Catholic dialogue.
According to a statement by the World Methodist Council, on Thursday, October 19, “a delegation consisting of the World Methodist Council (WMC) Steering Committee, Pastor Mirella Manocchio – President of L’Opera per le Chiese Evangeliche Metodiste in Italia (OPCEMI), as well as members of the Methodist Roman Catholic International Commission for dialogue (MERCIC) met with Pope Francis in the Consistory Hall at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, Rome. Bishop Ivan Abrahams, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council, delivered an address to the Pope, to which the Pope responded.”
World Methodist Council General Secretary Dr. Ivan Abrahams commented in his address, “Catholics and Methodists have much to learn from each other. We walk side by side, each in service to the world in our response to climate change, human trafficking, abuse of human rights and global terror. In our responses to these challenges, we are called to be a church with fast feet and extended hands, to be in solidarity and embrace the poor and marginalized.”
Pope Francis noted that, “when we see others living a holy life, when we recognize the working of the Holy Spirit, in other Christian confessions, we cannot fail to rejoice.” He further noted, “when, as Catholics and Methodists, we join in assisting and comforting the weak and the marginalized – those who in the midst of our societies feel distant, foreign, and alienated – we are responding to the Lord’s summons.”
Dr. Reisman and the delegation closed the day in an ecumenical evening prayer marking the occasion led by His Excellency The Most Reverend Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
Formal Methodist-Catholic dialogue began in 1967.
Contact:
Shirley Dominick
PO Box 8142
Lafayette, IN 47903 USA
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