BRITAIN
In March 2004 the Revd David Coffey, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and as Free Churches Moderator a President of Churches Together in England and of the Association of Interchurch Families, addressed the London meeting of AIF. The Association been invited to take part in a small consultation in September 2004 that will follow up the effect of One Bread One Body and the responses to it made by AIF (see Interchurch Families 7,2 Summer 1999 pp.10-15), l’Arche and Hengrave, an ecumenical community. Two Catholic bishops will take part, and two representatives of each of the three groups.
GERMANY
The annual conference of the German network of interchurch families took place at Braunfels bei Wetzlar, 6-8 February 2004, on the theme: The Church: which paths lead to unity? Claire Malone-Lee represented English-speaking interchurch families. The main speakers were Pastor Manfred Kock, until recently Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, and Dr Dorothea Sattler, a young Roman Catholic theologian who is Professor of church history and theology at Münster. Manfred Kock told the story of his grandmother, who had been Roman Catholic; her marriage had not been recognised by the Catholic Church and she had become an outstandingly devout member of her adopted parish. To her great joy, she was able to return to the sacramental life of her own church at the age of sixty. He spoke of five stepping stones on the path to unity. First, great gratitude for all that had been achieved since Vatican II. Second, to engage deeply with problems, not accepting superficial compromise. Third, greater understanding and respect for the way each church understands itself as church. Fourth, for each church internally to explore the positions of the other, and allow them to shed light on their own life. Fifth, to live the tension between the already and the not yet – and this is where he situates interchurch families. Professor Sattler followed this up by speaking of the existential importance of interchurch family experience in the ecumenical movement. There is now a small change in the official title of the network; it has become NetzwerkOekumene: konfessionsverbindende Paare und Familien in Deutschland.
IRELAND
The Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association (NIMMA) is celebrating its 30th year in 2004. Ken Dunn recalls 1974 in a short piece in NIMMA’s March Update. A weekend conference for mixed couples was organised by Corrymeela, and the couples were so pleased to meet that they immediately formed an Association. ‘We called ourselves ‘Mixed Marriage’ and not ‘Association of Interchurch Families’ because we wanted to be open to all sorts – both practising, one practising, neither practising’. The first NIMMA residential conference was held in 1976, led by John Coventry, SJ from England and Canon Edgar Turner. 2004 is a year of celebration, with a Festal Evensong of Thanksgiving at St George’s church, Belfast on 25th January, and the launch of the new revised and very well produced version of the booklet Mixed Marriages in Ireland taking place in the Long Gallery at Stormont on 7th April. The revised leaflets ‘Introduction to NIMMA’, ‘Getting Married’ and ‘Baptism’ will also be distributed. At the annual conference 22-23 May on ‘Mixed Marriage and Identity’ the speakers will be Dr Sduncan Morrow, Chief Executive of Community Relations Council and Dr Rosie Burrows of Barnados, who has recently done research on Parenting in a Divided Society.
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
Following the Rome Gathering in July 2003, interchurch families were determined to work together on a global level, although no formal international structures exist. An opportunity came when we were invited to respond as interchurch families to the Antelias report of the World Council of Churches concerning the re-configuration of the ecumenical movement. The network set up to respond to the ecumenical structures on the European level (see pp.4-5) has been extended to Australia, Canada and the United States. We hope to send a short response to the WCC by June.
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