A conversation with Dr. Paul Murray regarding Receptive Ecumenism, the role of the Spirit in the sharing of gifts and the ecumenical future.
Join us for a conversation with Dr. Paul D. Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean-Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, UK, on the topic of Receptive Ecumenism, its pneumatological underpinnings and the unique opportunities this provides for new ecumenical endeavors, particularly between Catholics and those within the Evangelical and Pentecostal streams of Christianity.
Founded on the assumption that the way forward in the ecumenical journey requires a transformative learning from our ecumenical partners, Dr. Murray will focus on the relationship between such receptive ecclesial learning and the work of the Spirit within this process. Significant attention will be given to the implementation of Receptive Ecumenism on a parochial or congregational level along with the possibilities this strategy has for inviting new communities to the table who are not yet present in the ecumenical project. Following the lecture, time will be allotted for dialogue between participants and Dr. Murray.
For more information on Receptive Ecumenism and Paul Murray please see the information below from the Centre for Catholic Studies:
Receptive Ecumenism
The essential principle behind Receptive Ecumenism is that the primary ecumenical responsibility is to ask not “What do the other traditions first need to learn from us?” but “What do we need to learn from them?” The assumption is that if all were asking this question seriously and acting upon it then all would be moving in ways that would both deepen our authentic respective identities and draw us into a more intimate relationship.
The diagnostic task of Receptive Ecumenism is undergirded by characteristic methodological principles, which can be variously expressed such as:
- in becoming all that we are called to be, we must own the responsibility that we can only change ourselves rather than others, that we are being resourced for this, and that this task takes time;
- a commitment to learning from and across our denominational differences in a mutually enriching way that fosters growth within traditions by finding the beauty of another tradition’s focus;
- the need to summon churches to return to their core callings in fresh ways that appropriately cohere with the form and patterns of received tradition;
- the importance of engaging a future-oriented understanding of the Christian tradition as a dynamic web that is open to growth and change;
- recognising that the ecclesial dimension of conversion includes the ongoing development of the organizational, structural, cultural, and practical aspects of the church;
- embracing the unilateral willingness of ecclesial conversion for the sake of the ongoing flourishing of one’s own tradition in love;
- calling the churches to grow visibly together in structural and sacramental unity with the Triune God.
Dr. Paul Murray is Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean-Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University. The CCS is the UK’s first permanent center devoted to pioneering research, teaching, and outreach in Catholic theology in the public academy, and is the international center of many of the research initiatives on Receptive Ecumenism. The author and editor of many books and essays, including: Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism (Oxford University Press, 2008), and his forthcoming monograph provisionally entitled Healing the Wounds of the Church: The Theology and Practice of Receptive Ecumenism, Paul Murray has also served on the editorial board of Concilium International and in 2011 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the third phase of work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.
