Fax Electronically Sign Justification with airSlate SignNow

Fax electronically sign justification

well there's no question that there's great divisiveness in the world there's great divisiveness in the church I mean we keep dividing the church keep doing the things out of the Reformation but this is a counter witness and this is the other side of the story that we really are in a dramatically different place [Music] well I think it's providential that all this is coming together in the year that we focus on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation because what I think all of us agree is that while there are great values in the Reformed Reformation and the reformed tradition that ultimately one of the great tragedies of that is that it also led to the division of the churches though the Reformation celebration has been an impetus to all of us to really work and see if we can find some concrete ways to make this come alive this is a day of great joy for us it represents the coming to fruition of decades of ecumenical dialogues this joining in of the doctrine on justification our association with that and the signing of the Wittenberg witness represent long and thoughtful conversations over time the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification they were formed were invited to associate much earlier but we had questions we thought why why sign on to a document written by others can we add our own distinctive reformed voice well I remember back particularly a meeting of the General Council not of the General Council of the executive committee that we held in Taiwan over a decade ago in which this was the the joining of the joint declaration was one of the really big issues in front of us and there was a great sense of that this was a major step forward in the ecumenical movement that all of a sudden the issue that caused the Reformation if you would the theological issue had been overcome and we were in one place but at that point there was some hesitation in the executive committee largely from a number of churches in the global South that there were some real issues of tension between the Catholics and Protestants in their life and witnessed together and praise God there's less of that now and that's part of why we're at at a new day today was a wonderful day it was a very touching day we celebrated worship together as Reformed Christian Catholic Christians Lutheran Christians Methodist Christians as people of different denominations all together around the one Lord Jesus Christ and of course also it was a day of friendship it was a day of brotherhood and sisterhood around Christ many human relations joined into the praise of God by giving a witness of unity this is the best basis for the future that's why I go with great hope into the future there was also a fairly strong feeling at that point that really a key doctrine that from the reformed perspective out of the Reformation was really this doctrine of sanctification and there was a connection there between the commitment to justice and the justice was seen as our prime commitment and a feeling that the joint declaration could have been stronger in that area and so those two hesitations you know we interested process it was clear that there was not a unanimity but now looking back to it as we have stayed in that dialogue some very important things have happened on the ground there's a growing sense I mean part of this is with Pope Francis part of this is with our life that our churches really are part of one one Catholic Church and with a small estate we had a wonderful service celebrating our communion and the coming together of churches the Methodists the Lutheran the Catholic and so on and really this is like an reincarnation of the Reformation as we celebrate 500 years of the life formation that started here with Martin Luther it is my hope looking forward that we are beginning a new journey towards a new communion towards a new church that is united that has come together to agree and we pray that this journey will continue it's wonderful to be here in Wittenberg it's a special day of course the signing of the WC RC associating with the JD DJ the joint declaration on the doctrine of justification as a Roman Catholic this is a wonderful joy to have been part of this day bringing it all together but also looking toward the future as well to see what we can do together and going beyond that with regards to working towards Christian Union and there's been a real receptivity in the default development and further development of the joint declaration that this unique reform commitment of justification link with justice can be emphasized and that is in the you know in the in the documents that lead us to affiliate with the joint declaration offering that gift to the broader community is made possible and so I'm very grateful that we have come to this point but it's taken a while to get there and I hope it's only a step on the way to the further unity that God intends for our churches [Music]