Reflection text
This week’s service was prepared by our brothers and sisters of the Community in Bethanien, Switzerland.
A shared commitment by the catholic and protestant churches of Germany in 2017 (500th anniversary of the Reformation)
We want to take practical steps to transform our prayers, our teaching and our actions in a spirit of fraternal ecumenism.
Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to make the fundamental points of our faith that we hold in common our first priority, and to keep moving forward on the path of ecumenical apprenticeship. We commit ourselves to deepen the points we have in common in our understanding of the doctrine of justification, as has been documented in the « Shared Declaration », and to use them to clarify our conception of the Church.
Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to witnessing to God together in this world of ours’. As far as is possible we commit ourselves to act together and actively to support each other, notably in the areas of loving kindness and servanthood, social justice, the maintenance of peace and respect for the rights of man.
Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to promote and to step up the culture of dialogue and of cooperation at every level of church life. To do this we want to be inspired by the Charta Ecumenica, to which we are committed.
We will take special care over those prayers which are said for our ecumenical partners during the religious offices.
Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to abstaining from everything that could give rise to new dissensions between the Churches. We commit ourselves to search fordialogue before taking decisions about the ethical questions which divide us.
Trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to bring all the help needed to interconfessional marriages, so as to strengthen their shared faith and to promote the religious eduction of their children. We commit ourselves to make the ecumenical attitude within interconfessional mariages bear fruit at the heart of our Churches.
Trusting the power of the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to do all that we possibly can so that progress can be made on the pathto the visible unity of the Churches. We commit ourselves to put theological dialogue to the service of this task more intensively than ever before.
We make these commitments before God.
May He be with us so that we hold on to them and that he may give us his peace to achieve them.
Intercessions
1. On October 11th the official inauguration took place of the underwater exhibition « Lumeum », in the former swimming pool of Bethanien monastery, in the presence of Monseigneur Joseph Maria Bonnemain of Korea and representatives of the Reformed and Evangelical Churches. It gave the opportunity to help visitors discover the life of the Swiss worker for peace, Nicolas of Flue and his wife Dorothy Wyss, in a new and creative way.
Lord, we pray that this work may touch visitors who are often searching for meaning more and more, in particular the young.
2. On October 31st 1517, Martin Luther fixed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg church. This would be the point of departure for the Reformation and the separation of the Western Churches. Since then, more and more people have worked to reestablish the unity of Christians.
Lord, we pray that one day we will rediscover the unity that you will ; breathe, Lord, with your Spirit on the faithful and on the leaders of our Churches.
3. « In the name of the Lord. Amen » It is with these words that the treaty of 1291, the foundation of Switzerland, began. The device inscribed on the ceiling of the federal Palace « One for all, all for one », the neutrality of the country and the spirit of Nicolas de Flue and of Henri Dunant have since then helped keep Switzerland uninvolved in wars and forged a spirit of peace and solidarity.
Lord we pray that these values which are threatened today may continue to inspire the inhabitants, the male and female politicians of this country and of all our countries.