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This article revisits the debate leading to the inclusion of the notion of a "hierarchy" of truths in the Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism to show that it not only concerns the presentation of Catholic doctrine in ecumenical dialogue but that it extends to all of Catholic teaching and practice and ought to serve as a guiding principle in the assessment of ecumenical agreements. Further, it argues that the soteriological criterion or horizon for properly weighing the truths of faith has yet to be fully received. The recent recognition of consensus on the basic truths relating to the doctrine of God's saving grace between Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Reformed, and Catholic Communions represented by the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification has brought us into a new context, one that invites a more intentional application of this principle for the mutual recognition of shared faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evelyn Underhill (1875–1925) was an Anglican "Spiritual Ecumenist" who viewed prayer as central to Church unity. As Secretary of the Spiritual Entente, a prayer movement in the early 1920s, Underhill wrote a leaflet outlining its four aims. First, the Entente was to include members of any nationality, class, or form of Christian faith, yet loyal to their own Church affiliation. Second, the objective was to hasten the coming of God's Kingdom by promoting spiritual unity between Christians. Third, prayer and work were central to achieving this goal. Fourth, "spiritual understanding" rather than critique was key to unity. Underhill's four convictions were "lived" throughout her life and repeatedly emphasized in her retreat talks and letters. Underhill's "Spiritual Ecumenism" is part of her spiritual legacy. She provided spiritual understanding and generous hospitality to Christians from all parts of the Church while also staying true to her Anglican identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article starts from the theology of the Tanzanian-born Charles Nyamiti (1931–2020), as one of the most creative in his generation of African theologians. Nyamiti proposed that ancestral veneration is a foundational human relationship which reflects divine realities. Thus, he proposed an understanding of the Trinity where the Father is the Ancestor, the Son is the Descendant, and the Holy Spirit is the mutual Oblation connecting the two. Because an ancestor does not exist as an ancestor without sacred ritual communication, the Holy Spirit becomes thus absolutely necessary for the Godhead. We maintain that Nyamiti's ancestral approach describes an African logic of gift-giving. Translating his theological contribution into gift-language preserves the theological insights while solving some of the logical problems with the ancestral imaginary, such as how the Father who never died is supposed to be the Ancestor. Through gift-language, Nyamiti's theological insights, which are based on African relational ontologies, become more readily applicable in World Christianity and have potential to transform ecumenism into a vibrant and inclusive embodied pneumatic action for abundant life. In other words, Nyamiti's theological heritage invites theologians to envision Christian faith beyond the confines of Hellenistic-based philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spiritual restlessness of millennials rests on a legitimate search that is hardly satisfied by the structure that we find in traditional religions. Yet, the preponderance of ecumenical initiatives in contemporary society means that there are forms of spiritual ecumenical practices that might serve as a solution. Beyond serving the central interest of ecumenism, namely Christian unity, these forms of ecumenical spiritualities may provide spaces for the millennial encounter with the divine in a way that holds their constant spiritual "negotiation" in balance with the need for some form of "habitation" that institutional religion provides. This article investigates how spiritual ecumenism is best suited for responding to the quest of millennials, and it equally provides concrete examples to justify such a claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the question of authority based on receptive ecumenism, which is developed by British theologian Paul Murray. Topics include the differences of the views on authority of the Episcopal/Anglican church and the Roman Catholic church, the alleged monarchical approach of the Catholic Church of authority, and the differences in the authority of the laity and the ordained.

In the article, the author answers the comments regarding her book "Questioning Authority: The Theology & Practice of Authority in The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion." She claims that the book aims to inspire conversations on ecclesial authority. Other topics include receptive ecumenism, baptismal ecclesiology in the Catholic Church, and Anglicanism.

This paper considers the origins and development of Mindolo Mission of the London Mission Society in Zambia. First, the factors that led to the formation of the mission are analyzed. Second, the paper traces the shifts in ownership of Mindolo Mission and the negotiations to attain church union and increased ecumenism resulting in the foundation of the Church of Central Africa in Rhodesia (CCAR), United Church of Central Africa in Rhodesia (UCCAR), the formation of Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation (MEF) and the United Church of Zambia (UCZ). Third, the present paper discusses the ownership of the mission land. The paper concludes that Mindolo Mission is an offspring of the ecumenical movement and the churches who were the forerunners of the UCZ and the MEF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critique of mission history often involves perpetuating the overestimated impact of the missionaries from opposite sides. It was not so much the missionaries who mattered, but what mattered more was whether the people were responding to the message or not. Today we see the translating function of the missionaries in a clearer way and the people's reception as the crucial factor in the process of modern Christianization. The World Council of Churches in its declaration "Together Towards Life" (2013) separates mission from its entanglement with colonialism as a mission from the margins by grounding it in the triune God (missio Dei), but it seems to overlook the contributing factor of the people as the human subject of the Christianization process. Instead of following a simple input-impact model, we have to acknowledge more those who were adapting themselves to the Christian faith from within their own context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the efforts of the National Council of Churches in Brazil to endorse the document 'Christian witness in a multi-religious world' and to implement its recommendations in the practice of churches in Brazil. The reception of the document is placed into the historical development of the ecumenical movement in Brazil since an important conference in 1962 in Recife, Brazil, and the impact the Second Vatican Council had in the Latin American country. The focus is then on how the religious plurality in the country started to be perceived. Three examples follow showing how fundamentalist Christian groups oppose other religious expressions in the country and how the churches united in the council are challenged by the spirit of witnessing in respect to embrace pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of discussions on the ecumenical document 'Christian witness in a multi-religious world'. Beginning in Germany, it highlights the attention the document received and tracks some of the arguments through the changing contexts of the last decade connected to the document's invitation for a mission in respect of others. The challenge to implement the recommendations the document offers in a common endeavour to witness to Christ is then emphasized. The reception process for the document is described as an invitation to adopt and contextualize the principles and recommendations in one's own practising of mission and evangelism instead of sending comments on the text for revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christ's call to unity in the Church is an imperative for Christian education today. An ecumenical approach to spiritual formation reaffirms a common shared identity rooted in Christ, and strengthens a common witness in a troubled world. Through an examination of Wesleyan and Ignatian Christian education, a complementary holistic discourse emerges. This article explores a Wesleyan-Ignatian model of spiritual formation that is holistic in nature: engaging cognitive thinking, inward journey, and an outward expression of faith. Furthermore, this article provides a case study applying this ecumenical spiritual formation model in a Jesuit higher education setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, visions of a peaceful new world order led mainline Protestants to manipulate the worship practices of incarcerated Japanese Americans (Nikkei) to strengthen unity of the church and nation. Ecumenical leaders saw possibilities within the chaos of incarceration and war to improve themselves, their church, and the world through these experiments based on ideals of Protestant ecumenism and desires for racial equality and integration. This essay explores why agendas that restricted the autonomy of racial minorities were doomed to fail and how Protestants can learn from this experience to expand their definition of unity to include pluralist representations of Christianity and America as imagined by different sects and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, visions of a peaceful new world order led mainline Protestants to manipulate the worship practices of incarcerated Japanese Americans (Nikkei) to strengthen unity of the church and nation. Ecumenical leaders saw possibilities within the chaos of incarceration and war to improve themselves, their church, and the world through these experiments based on ideals of Protestant ecumenism and desires for racial equality and integration. This essay explores why agendas that restricted the autonomy of racial minorities were doomed to fail and how Protestants can learn from this experience to expand their definition of unity to include pluralist representations of Christianity and America as imagined by different sects and ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that narrativity has the potential to be a key hermeneutical concept in ecumenical theology. Instead of pursuing a complex elaboration of the notion, it will seek to explore various aspects of narrativity. The thesis will be explicated in three major steps, consecutively discussing culture as the general setting of narrativity, explicating narrativity as a concept that can helpfully address some of the major issues in ecumenical theology and proposing transformation as the ultimate horizon of the faith and practice of the Christian koinonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of postdenominational identities has been recognised as a significant development in approaches to mission. These contribute to a deeper form of ecumenism in the way they integrate different traditions in themselves rather than starting from a confessional or correlational outlook. They also seek to develop over time through ongoing dialogue with different traditions. This article examines one such postdenominational identity, the emerging 'renewalist' identity that is particularly shaped by the charismatic tradition. A renewalist approach is contrasted with the ecumenical approaches of Lausanne and the World Council of Churches as represented in their latest agreed statements on mission. We also consider the next stage of renewalist development by asking how it might learn from these mission statements. This article strengthens the claim to significance of postdenominational identities and clarifies the nature of renewalist missiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A short response from an Orthodox perspective to Prof. Dana Robert's paper. It contains some specific information and focuses, not fully highlighted in her keynote address. The present situation in global mission is what the Orthodox expected as the very first step the ecumenical movement should take, as it was requested by the Orthodox even before the 1910 Edinburgh mission conference. The social and economic nuances of the new mission statement are underlined, together with the ecclesial dimension of mission, the implicit liturgical aspect, the explicit environmental and inter-faith consequences of an authentic Christian witness, and the clear connection between mission and unity. A plea is finally made that the missiological consequences of the deification theology of the Orthodox become an integral part of today's world mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author asks if a new ecumenism might be emerging, one that can bring the burgeoning new Pentecostal-charismatic-independent churches of the Global South, most of them non-liturgical or sacramental, together with the traditional churches of Europe and North America that continue to lose members. The article assesses the recent statement of the World Council of Churches, The Church: Toward a Common Vision, seen by many of the new churches as too Western and Eurocentric, and asks if we need a new way of envisioning the ecumenical future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2017 Reformation Centenary is the first commemoration to take place during the ecumenical age and marks fifty years of Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue. The current ecumenical landscape is a tale of two cities, one of ecclesial fragmentation that exists simultaneously with new relationships of communion and ecumenical progress. The way forward requires the discernment of deeper commonalities among ecclesial tradition, a correlation of doctrines, a “pastoral ecumenism,” and a hierarchy of virtues in addition to a hierarchy of truths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of the approach of “receptive ecumenism” are becoming increasingly appreciated within ecumenical circles. A primary focus is the way a particular Christian tradition can learn from another and, in a mutual exchange of gifts, receive gifts that have not been part of one’s own tradition. This essay views this dynamic in terms of recognizing differing “senses of the faith” that the Holy Spirit has brought forth within the baptized of different churches. It proposes that Catholic discernment of the sensus fidelium, as presupposed in Lumen Gentium 12, should also include the sensus fidei of other Christians, and that ecumenical dialogues play a crucial role in that ecclesial discernment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial for ‘One Christ—Many Witnesses: Marking the Completion of the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series’, a special issue to celebrate the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the relationship between mission and Christian unity from the Edinburgh 1910 conference to the present. It then identifies several factors that cohere in recent missiological reflection, and concludes with a scriptural model for our contemporary pilgrimage together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented that is adapted from a January 24, 2015 speech at the 2015 Trinity Institute Conference on the theme "Creating Common Good" by Episcopal Church Bishop Julio E. Murray of Panama. Topics include inequality in relation to neoliberal economics, the AGAPE (Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth) proposal of the organization World Council of Churches, and the marginality of prophetic calls for justice. Also noted are the importance of ecumenism and civil society.

Although the modern ecumenical movement has existed for more than a century, the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement began only some 50 years later. In fact, 2014 commemorates only the 50th anniversary of the promulgation of Unitas redintegratio, Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism. This article traces the ecumenical movement from its beginnings, focusing on the contributions of the World Council of Churches and the progress made by Roman Catholicism. It concludes by pointing to issues which World Christianity is exploring as the ecumenical agenda for the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the relationship between ecumenical dialogues and embodied ecumenical practices. By utilizing Michel de Certeau’s theory of strategy and tactics, the authors construct a hermeneutic that aims at forming ecumenists and clarifying the object of their discourse. Specifically, unauthorized practices of collaboration between denominations (i.e., ecumenical tactics) are seen as a formative source for ecumenical dialogue (i.e., strategic ecumenism). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ecumenical movement, proceeding comparing doctrines and ecclesial structures that divide, has foundered. The article suggests turning to what all churches share in common as a new starting point, namely, an ecclesial spirituality of following Jesus. The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola can help bring this bond of unity to the surface. Negotiating on the basis of this common possession will allow the ideal of a pluralistic unity to take hold and encourage ecclesial structures that protect and honor rather than exclude different church traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wider ecumenical movement, bearing witness to each other in true friendship is a creative gesture inspired by the Holy Spirit. It cuts across religious and denominational divides. The friendship between Gandhi and CF Andrews is invoked as an example of East and West bearing witness to each other. In ancient Asian religious context, mutual witnessing is extended to all sentient beings. From the Orthodox tradition three themes are highlighted as contributing to the Spirit-movement for mutual witness and healing of divisions, namely, Theosis or divinization, the Perfecting work of the Holy Spirit and the Eighth Day. Humanity and the whole creation are involved in the process of divinization. Our mutual relationship is defined by this journey together. The Holy Spirit is continually renewing the creation which is pneumatodynamic, or energized by the Spirit from the beginning to the eschaton. Human beings as leaders and priests of creation are to respond to and cooperate in the perfecting work of the Spirit. The more we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, the more united and reconciled in Christ we become [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a concise statement of salvation as found in the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Bible. After a statement as to the inherent and ecumenical significance of the theme, the term "salvation" is defined and the central events of salvation in the Old and New Testaments are indicated. The thesis is advanced that Articles 9 and. 10 set forth the human need for which divine salvation is needed, and Articles 11 and 12 set forth God's provision of deliverance. Articles 9 and 10 are then cited and expounded, followed by textual support from Scripture. After that Articles 11 and 12 are treated similarly, with texual support following. The article ends with a brief conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International ecumenical networking and the exchange of resources in theological education is an issue for many regions in World Christianity. This article written by the International Program Coordinator of the program on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) in the World Council of Churches, Geneva, introduces two innovative projects which contribute to these objectives in distinct ways: one is the global digital library for theology and ecumenism (GlobeTheoLib) which provides access to a great number of full-text resources for its registered individual users and is operating in a multilingual setting. The other project is the global survey on theological education which is an international research project, born out of the Edinburgh 2010 process and the desire to have more exact empirical data on recent trends, needs and challenges for theological education in the churches within and outside the membership of WCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteenth-century priest, philosopher, and theologian Antonio Rosmini argued that the ordinary way of appointing bishops must be through elections by the local clergy and people. All other procedures, including papal nominations, are extraordinary measures that must be resorted to only as a "lesser evil" when exceptional circumstances prevent carrying out elections. This article recovers and critically assesses Rosmini's insights in favor of episcopal elections, with an eye to their relevance to both the current situation in the Roman Catholic Church and ecumenism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Second World War, the Anglican Communion confronted a changing world, marked by a shift of power away from the historically preeminent churches, challenges to historic approaches to mission, and a global ecumenical movement. At the 1963 Anglican Congress, the Communion responded with "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ," a dramatic call for a new pattern of Anglicanism. The person at the center of this change was Stephen Bayne, an American bishop serving as the first Anglican Executive Officer Bayne crafted a missiology that was both practical and contextual, stressing personal relationships over ecclesial bureaucracy, emphasizing a new model of mission in which all gave and received, and showing how a strengthened Anglican identity could strengthen ecumenism. As the Anglican Communion again faces a challenging world, Stephen Bayne and MRI are important reminders of how the church has confronted change in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catholics and Pentecostals in their various expressions--classical, charismatic, and Neo-Pentecostal--constitute about 75 percent of the total number of Christians today. And Pentecostals continue to grow in number. While the relations between the two traditions have often been troubled and serious theological differences remain, particularly in the area of ecclesiology, Pentecostals are beginning to show a new interest in ecumenism, and new initiatives on both sides are promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the much-postponed subject of papal primacy in the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches finally got to a formal start in 2007, it was set in a wider framework of synodality or conciliarity. Thus the Roman primacy is theologically twinned with the ecumenical councils. In this context the article draws attention to the Council in Trullo (692). Neglected in the post-Tridentine West, in the East it had long been regarded as an ecumenical council. This council is of interest not only for canon law but for theology, liturgy, sacred art, and church history as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issue of Christian unity in connection with the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. It describes the changing attitudes of Evangelicals and Pentecostals to ecumenism. Positive influences from the movements include greater awareness on the role of Holy Spirit in Christian life, more attention being paid to spirituality, and prominence of praise and celebration in Christian worship. Pastoral, biblical and theological challenges to these movements are also examined.

The World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh in June 1910, will be widely celebrated this year as a milestone in both ecumenical and missionary history. This article seeks to delineate more precisely in what respects the conference did mark a new departure. Whilst some of the claims made for its significance are inaccurate, it remains the case that participants in the event returned home captivated by a more expansive vision than was allowed for in the conference's original terms of reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the organization Global Christian Forum (GCF) as a benefit in the history of the contemporary ecumenical movement and from the perspective of the Roman Catholics. It sends the GCF in three views which are as a new phase in ecumenical growth as involved with the changing climax in ecumenical history and as a new sign of the Holy Spirit. The World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910 led to the birth of the modern ecumenical movement. GCF has held meetings in regions of the world including Asia, Africa and Europe.

Whether intentionally or not, Catholic tradition frequently fails to take account of, or to remember, beliefs, practices, or objects previously received by the tradition. Such forgetting proves unavoidable, but it can actually help the tradition as a whole to perdure in continuity with its origins. The theories of Yves Congar, John Thiel, and Kathryn Tanner on Christian tradition could be strengthened by taking into account this role of forgetting. The argument developed in this article could have significant implications, for example, in ecumenism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a personal response to ecumenical life in the UK today by one who has lived ecumenically for a lifetime. It indicates the dynamism of the post-war ecumenical activity and then contrasts it, with some reference to significant events, to contemporary trends such as 'post-denominationalism' and 'neo-denominationalism'. The challenge is to learn from the ecumenically pioneering efforts over the years and to discover afresh 'the pain of our divisions' in seeking the 'unity Christ wills'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in American Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council are best understood by using the model of a river blocked by a dam. When the floodgates are opened, the water rushes out with great energy. Vatican II was an opening of the flood-gates to change, and the stored-up pressure was the result of decades of assimilation of Catholics into American society. Assimilation is continuing, producing more and more convergence between Catholics and Protestants. Today Pope John Paul II is suspicious of trends in the Catholic Churches in modern western democracies, and he has re-closed the flood-gates. Pressures are building up again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines issues that shape the religious outlook of members of U.S. Christian churches. The research was undertaken to explain the increase in the mergers of denominations, a trend the author sees as a move towards ecumenism and signaling a breakdown in distinctions between sets of Christian beliefs. The author seeks information that will resolve questions surrounding the relaxation of traditional church theology, secularization among church members and the degree to which these changes influence denominations.

"Wider ecumenism" goes beyond conventional ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue to conversation with indigenous religions. While many indigenous theologians today readily employ "Western " thought forms, an additional methodology is needed to articulate aboriginal experience. Cast in the form of a narrative of four decades of field work, this article describes such a methodology, incorporating the symbolic theology of 18th-century missionary anthropologist Joseph Lafitau, Bernard Lonergan's ideas on "data of consciousness" and "mutual self-mediation," Antoine Vergote's religious psychology, and the complexities of "ethnographic memory " as described by Clifford Geertz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's assertion that Christians should enter into an inter-religious dialogue by reconsidering faith in the resurrection of Jesus in the contemporary context of religious plurality. In spite of many unanswered and unanswerable questions, the first Christians and, on their testimony, many generations thereafter claimed and continue to claim that this very Jesus is the risen Lord, and this on the basis of their experiences with Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

`Globalization' has become in recent years one of the central themes of social scientific debates. Social theories of globalization may be regarded as specific academic and analytic manifestations of wider forms of `global consciousness' to be found in the social world today. These are ways of thinking and perceiving which emphasize that the whole world should be seen as `one place', its various geographically disparate parts all being inter- connected in various complex ways. In this article we set out how both a general `ecumenical sensibility' involving such ways of thinking, and its specifically academic variant an `ecumenical analytic', are simultaneously responses to `globalizing conditions' and also products of the latter. We demonstrate how social theories of globalization, locatable in the overall set we call the `ecumenical analytic', are reflexive thought-products, in that they both seek to investigate, and are made possible by, `globalizing conditions'. Rejecting the view that both an ecumenical sensibility and an ecumenical analytic are solely products of modernity, we show how such modes of consciousness and analysis were present in the period of Greek history between the death of Alexander the Great and the rise of the Roman Empire. We show how at that period a socio-political situation akin in certain ways to modern `globalizing conditions' generated both an ecumenical sensibility and an ecumenical analytic the latter most forcefully represented by a revolutionary new genre in historiography called Universal History. By examining the ideas of its most famous practitioner, the historian Polybius, we demonstrate that Universal History both provided a framework for understanding what we today would call `globalization', and exhibited a remarkable degree of reflexive awareness about its own conditions of possibility. We seek to show that an attentiveness to `global' processes and a reflexive understanding of what makes that form of thinking possible in the first place, are not solely confined to modernity but were identifiable features of intellectual production in the Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. In this way we argue that scholars today should not imagine that the contemporary 'global turn' in social thought is either unique or wholly historically unprecedented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[The author provides a summary history and theological survey of the contribution of the Faith and Order movement to the goal of full communion, with special emphasis on the participation of Catholic theologians. He addresses methodological issues and ecclesiological developments. Studies on the sacraments, the apostolic faith, Scripture and Tradition, and a variety of contextual issues have contributed to new irreversible relationships among the churches. Research by theologians of Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Evangelical Pentecostal and historic Protestant churches have created a unique body of ecumenical literature.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Points out that the founders of the Church of Pakistan (CoP) dreamed of unity, and that the church's struggle to maintain that unity is instructive for evangelical Anglicans with a concern for mission. CoP as an ecumenically united church created in 1970 from the union of Anglicans, Methodists, Scottish Presbyterians and Anglicans; Church's involvement in societal issues in Pakistan; Theological reflection.

[Theologians have discussed for a century and a half the ecclesial institution of the ordinary universal magisterium of bishops when it functions apart from an ecumenical council. Teaching by bishops from the entire world involves the activity and identity of the bishop and his relationship to other Christians who ponder and teach the faith. Analysis of how grace impacts the bishops in their scattered college has been little developed in theology as well as in the psychology and social interaction of the teaching. The author here looks at this activity of an episcopal teacher within the worldwide college as it flows from human nature and from divine grace.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]