Centre for Catholic Studies

Phase One: Catholic Learning

In January 2006, the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, in collaboration with Ushaw College, the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, and a number of other sponsoring bodies (including the Diocese of Durham and St. John’s College, Durham), hosted an international research colloquium on the theme Catholic Learning and Receptive Ecumenism to mark the award of an honorary Doctorate of Divinity to Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The colloquium brought together 150 theologians, ecumenists and ecclesiastics from across the traditions (and a great many of them of international standing) in order to explore a fresh way of conceiving the ecumenical task fitted for the contemporary situation – referred to as Receptive Ecumenism. The essential principle 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 more intimate relationship.

The January 2006 project tested this strategy in relation to the host tradition, Catholicism, hence the full title: Catholic Learning and Receptive Ecumenism. It was experienced by all as a remarkable, graced happening. Senior theologians, ecumenists and ecclesiastics variously spoke of the event and the fresh thinking it introduced as ‘historic’, ‘groundbreaking’, ‘opening a new chapter in ecumenism’, and as ‘providing the much needed model for future initiatives’. A major volume of essays, Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning, (Oxford University Press, 2007/2008), is flowing from the project, the publication of which will be marked by a further international conference in January 2009. In addition, a number of other parties have taken the initiative in organising other related publications and conferences.
As the above indicates, the January 2006 project had many strengths and there are some real lasting gains that have flowed from it in terms of the fresh thinking that it introduced. As recognition of this, by the conclusion of the January 2006 colloquium there was considerable enthusiasm expressed by Bishop Tom Wright (Anglican Diocese of Durham) and Bishop Kevin Dunn (Catholic Diocese of Hexham & Newcastle) – both of whom had been full participants throughout – and similarly by Dr Roger Walton of the Wesley Study Centre, that the very significant energy generated by the event should be focussed and sustained through further high-profile research initiatives in ecumenism in partnership with the Department of Theology and Religion of Durham University.

Equally, alongside its many strengths, there were also some significant limitations in the January 2006 project, most notably in terms of the relative lack of broad involvement of and ownership by the local Church. Although many of the participants, both those locally-based and those from further a field, brought with them considerable experience of local ecumenism – either alongside their various other roles and expertise or, in the case of the various local or regional ecumenical officers who participated, as their primary context – the event was predominantly an international academic conference drawing together theologians, ecumenists and ecclesiastics of international standing to pursue fresh thinking. In the light of some significant conversations during and after the colloquium with participants primarily involved in local ecumenism, it very quickly became apparent that there was both a real need and great potential for a subsequent, much more practically-focussed and fully collaborative research project exploring the relevance of the thinking behind Receptive Ecumenism to life “on the ground” in the local churches of the north-east. Such a project, it was imagined, would both: a) enable the participant traditions to explore the challenges and practical benefits associated with committing to receiving of each other’s gifts; and b) test and extend the thinking behind Receptive Ecumenism in very practical ways that could act as a model of good practice to be offered to both the academic and ecclesial communities well beyond the north-east of England.

Further Information

For those who would like further information on this project and the thinking behind it, the following documents are also available here: