The Vatican and the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Tuesday revealed details of the 21 June landmark visit of Pope Francis, a visit the WCC described as “a gift to churches”.
“The visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to the World Council of Churches in the year of our 70th anniversary, is an historical milestone in the search for Christian unity and for the cooperation among the churches for a world with peace and justice,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary, at a press conference.
Due to illness, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was represented by Rev. Dr Andrzej Choromanski of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who is also a consultant on the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission.
“I think His Holiness wanted to participate in this anniversary to express his gratitude to the ecumenical movement that the WCC has made over 70 years as part of the world church movement,” Choromanski.
“His Holiness is very much invested in the cause of Christian unity. He has said we should aim for an ecumenism that involves us walking together. When we walk together we pray together.”
Tveit said, “This is a unique opportunity to share our gifts of fellowship with one another and with all our churches around the world. The relationships locally and globally will not be the same after this event”.
“Therefore, we in the WCC are immensely grateful to His Holiness Pope Francis that he accepted our invitation to come to the WCC this year.”
The landmark 21 June visit is only the third by a pope to the WCC, and the first time that such an occasion was dedicated to visiting the council.
As Pope Francis begins the fifth year of his papacy, the WCC is marking its 70th anniversary, and the pope’s visit will cap celebrations of the ecumenical legacy. More on this here.
Imagine that. Protestants who were running and hiding from the Papacy are today reuniting with the papacy.
saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Rev. 13:3.
In homage to the Papacy the United States will not be alone. The influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion, is still far from being destroyed.
In the last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of controversy throughout all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious leaders will unite to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as milder measures fail, the most oppressive laws will be enacted. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the land ought not to be tolerated. . . . Romanism in the Old World, and apostate Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those who honor the divine precepts.
The so-called Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive actions. Men in authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after the example of the Papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Every nation will be involved. [Rev. 18:3-7 quoted.]
The warning of the third angel [of Revelation 14] . . . is represented in the prophecy as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.
In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes–those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation 13:16), to receive “the mark of the beast,” yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds “them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2, 3.
From Maranatha – Page 189 Ellen White.
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