Holiness is key issue for new ecumenical group
The Layman Online, January 9, 2001
A new ecumenical movement that declares that “unity is intrinsically related to holiness” was organized in January on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
Dr. Thomas Gillespie, president of Princeton Theological Seminary, is one of the 16 members of the board of the new Foundation for a Conference on Faith and Order. Another leading educator on the board is Dr. Richard Mouw, who is president of Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
The organization’s founding document acknowledges that “the church’s unity is deeply wounded and its evangelism and holiness of life both suffer. If we are saved from disobedience, it will be the gift of the Father by the Spirit, in response to the Son’s petition.”
The foundation already has attracted representatives from mainline denominations, Roman Catholicism, Orthodox communions, the United Church of Canada, Pentecostalism and evangelical congregations. A few hours after he resigned as Episcopal bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Richard Grein became moderator of the foundation.
One of the leaders of the foundation is Dr. William G. Rusch, a Lutheran who is director of the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches. Rusch proposed the foundation’s plan to hold a major faith and order conference in 2004.