What is it like in that church across the street? When "that church" is Roman Catholic and the person asking the question is a Protestant, this question can be very hard to answer. Do you actually know what Catholics do? Do you know what they believe? What difference does it make? Rev. Dr. Robert LaRochelle is extraordinarily well qualified to answer the question. He grew up and was educated in the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained a deacon. Eventually he chose to move to a Protestant denomination and is now an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. But he isn't an angry ex-Catholic. In this book he will list for you the key beliefs and practices that distinguish protestants from Roman Catholics. But this book is not just a catalog of differences and similarities. Bob LaRochelle approaches this topic with a serious interest in dialog, in learning from one another, and in ecumenical outreach. This book is intended for any Christian, but it will be especially useful to parents in multi-faith households, to church congregations with an interest in Christian community, and to religious education programs. It is a companion volume to the forthcoming book What Roman Catholics Need to Know about Protestants, also by Bob LaRochelle.

The first general survey of relations between Protestants and Catholics in America during the past half century will be welcomed not only by social historians but by clergymen and laymen interested in the development of constructive interfaith relations. Lerond Curry has traced the major trends in this fifty-year period and analyzed the underlying factors that influenced them. Much of his account is based on correspondence and personal interviews with people who took part in the events and movements he describes. The rapid growth of Catholic population just before World War I, along with increasing urbanization and tensions related to the war itself, produced a period of intense religious conflict often expressed in violence. After the campaign of 1928, religious leaders made earnest efforts to ameliorate these conflicts, but with the appointment of a United States representative to the Vatican in 1939, hostilities again arose. Nevertheless, Curry finds that in the middle fifties more mature interfaith relationships began to appear, and after Vatican Council II, Protestant-Catholic dialogue developed a new depth.

Being Moses the stone upon which Christ would have built his Church, the Ten Commandments is what ties together Judaism, Christianity, Islam and many other faiths. In a world where everything seems to constantly change, or flowing as Heraclitus used to observe, the pivot of human condition never changes throughout all epoques.

There is no doubt that ecumenism occupies a prominent place in the history of the church in the twentieth century: countless churches have been renewed through encounter with Christian brothers and sisters in other confessions and cultures. But it is not clear that this ecumenical impulse will continue to figure prominently in the church's story. In this book, Michael Kinnamon argues that the ecumenical movement, which has given such energy and direction to the church, needs to be reconceived in a way that provides renewing power for the church in this era - and he shows how this might happen. He names the problems with ecumenism, identifies strengths and accomplishments upon which the church now can build, and suggests practical, concrete steps we can take in the direction of revitalization, especially at the local level.

About the Contributor(s): Brian Arthur Brown is the designer of A Diagram of Sources of the Pentateuch, featured in the sequel to this book, Forensic Scriptures. A minister of the United Church of Canada, he lives in Niagara Falls with his wife, Jenny.

FEW BOOKS ON episcopacy deal with the inner life or practical problems of being a bishop, but this volume gives an inside view. It describes the initial challenge of adjusting to a new role with little preparation, and indicates the main ongoing pressures. This account combines personal experience with theological reflection. Convinced that being comes before doing, David Tustin first considers vital elements in the bishop's personal way of life: inner life, outer lifestyle, home and hospitality, and careful use of time. The rationale of what bishops actually do is then examined in seven key areas, together with suggestions about translating ideals into reality: teamwork; caring for people within and beyond the church; conducting worship; spreading the Christian message; sending new ministers; building bridges in society and within the church; fostering visible Christian unity. Emphasis is laid on bishops sharing their ministry with others, and reaching out beyond the church. This book offers examples of good practice. It draws together resources useful for new bishops, including excerpts from classic writers (Gregory the Great and Bernard of Clairvaux) and pointers to an ecumenical range of contemporary material unlikely to be in the hands of most readers. It is relevant to all who share in senior church leadership. A bibliography and index are included. DAVID TUSTIN was Bishop of Grimsby from 1979 to 2000, and since retirement has been an assistant bishop in the diocese of Lincoln. He was awarded a Lambeth DD in 1998 in recognition of his contribution to Christian unity, both in this country and internationally.

One of the most divisive issues in Western Christianity since the Reformation is the question of how humans are justified by God. In 1999, after many decades of ecumenical dialogue, Lutherans and Roman Catholics have declared that this issue of 'justification by faith' is no longer a cause of division between them. One of the fascinating features of this Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) is that it expresses a 'differentiated consensus' on justification. The method of differentiated consensus is generally regarded as an important methodological step forward in the ecumenical dialogue. It has been used and referred to in ecumenical documents published after 1999. But what are its meaning and implications? This study attempts to clarify the method of differentiated consensus by (1) investigating the process of doctrinal rapprochement which led up to the JDDJ, (2) examining the way the consensus takes shape in the document itself, (3) analyzing arguments offered by critics and advocates of the official dialogue and (4) reflecting on the concept of doctrinal difference.

For as long as Christian churches and communities have been divided, there are those who have looked for ways to heal the fractures. Callan Slipper offers five ways for Christians to approach one another on the path toward unity. (1) Recognize the need; (2) start from being united; (3) proceed one person at a time, with love; (4) don't make yourself the measure of truth. Truth is a person. It is Jesus; (5) embrace the cross, and let Jesus' love transform division. His observations come from years of experience with ecumenists, and his optimism that unity is inevitable is evidence that faith and hope undergird the challenges that abide our daily choice to build Christian unity by the way we love one another.

In the last century, amazingly, world Christianity's center of gravity has effectively moved from Europe to a point near Timbuktu in Africa. Never in the history of Christianity has there been such a rapid and dramatic shift in where Christians are located in the world.Wesley Granberg-Michaelson explores the consequences of this shift for congregations in North America, specifically for the efforts to build Christian unity in the face of new and challenging divisions. Centers of religious power, money, and theological capital remain entrenched in the global, secularized North while the Christian majority thrives and rapidly grows in the global South. World Christianity's most decisive twenty-first-century challenge, Granberg-Michaelson argues, is to build meaningful bridges between faithful churches in the global North and the spiritually exuberant churches of the global South.

This volume is the second in a series of publications on the interface between ecumenical theology and social transformation in the (South) African context. It explores the underlying tensions in the ecumenical movement from within the South African context by analysing various notions of what ecumenicity entails. It includes a leading essay by Ernst Conradie and 13 responses to the theme by experts in the field.