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Who Cares About Communion? with Christopher Wells
Episode 1291st August 2024 • The Living Church Podcast • The Living Church
00:00:00 00:52:58

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What is Christian Communion? And who cares? 

If you listen to this podcast, you probably do. 

Today we're not talking about the Lord's supper, but the longing for and practical work toward Christian unity. What does this have to do with the average Christian? Or the average pastor trying to focus on local ministry? How do Anglicans care about (and struggle with) Christian unity especially? What the heck is a Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral?

Joining us to discuss is Dr. Christopher Wells. Christopher is Director of Unity, Faith and Order for the Anglican Communion. He oversees the Communion’s ecumenical relations and serves as secretary of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO). For 13 years, Christopher was executive director and publisher of the Living Church Foundation.

Here are some key terms we'll learn about today, answering some of our questions above:

The ecumenical movement or ecumenism 

The Lambeth Conference 

Lambeth Conference 1920 

Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 

Vatican II 

Primate 

Today we'll learn how any ecumenical work must serve the life of the average Christian, or it's no good. We'll find out why ecumenical work is putting Christopher more in touch with his evangelical side. And we'll ponder why "Anglican" exists in the first place. Is it to tickle our "via media" fancies, or to become another religious option? Or might we learn to serve Christian unity so well that one day, maybe, Anglicans work themselves out of a job?

We hope you enjoy the conversation. 

Read the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.

A few other cool documents on Christian unity: 

Register for the Human Pilgrimage conference. 

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