EVANGELICALS, CATHOLICS, AND ORTHODOX TOGETHER:
THE CHRISTIAN MISSION IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

The following statement is the product of consultation, beginning in
September 1992, between Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox
Christians. Appended to the text is a list of participants in the
consultation and of others who have given their support to this
declaration.

INTRODUCTION

We are Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox who have been led
through prayer, study, and discussion to common convictions about
Christian faith and mission. This statement cannot speak officially for
our communities. It does intend to speak responsibly from our communities
and to our communities. In this statement we address what we have
discovered both about our unity and about our differences. We are aware
that our experience reflects the distinctive circumstances and
opportunities of Evangelicals and Catholics living together in North
America. At the same time, we believe that what we have discovered and
resolved is pertinent to the relationship between Evangelicals and
Catholics in other parts of the world. We therefore commend this statement
to their prayerful consideration.

As the Second Millennium draws to a close, the Christian mission in world
history faces a moment of daunting opportunity and responsibility. If in
the merciful and mysterious ways of God the Second Coming is delayed, we
enter upon a Third Millennium that could be, in the words of John Paul II,
a springtime of world missions.” ()

As Christ is one, so the Christian mission is one. That one mission can be
and should be advanced in diverse ways. Legitimate diversity, however,
should not be confused with existing divisions between Christians that
obscure the one Christ and hinder the one mission. There is a necessary
connection between the visible unity of Christians and the mission of the
one Christ. We together pray for the fulfillment of the prayer of Our
Lord: May they all be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so
also may they be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”
(John 17) We together, Evangelicals and Catholics, confess our sins
against the unity that Christ intends for all his disciples.

The one Christ and one mission includes many other Christians, notably the
Eastern Orthodox and those Protestants not commonly identified as
Evangelical. All Christians are encompassed in the prayer, May they all be
one. Our present statement attends to the specific problems and
opportunities in the relationship between Roman Catholics and Evangelical
Protestants.

As we near the Third Millennium, there are approximately I.7 billion
Christians in the world. About a billion of these are Catholics and more
than 300 million are Evangelical Protestants. The century now drawing to
a dose has been the greatest century of missionary expansion in Christian
history. We pray and we believe that this expansion has prepared the way
for yet greater missionary endeavor in the first century of the Third
Millennium.

The two communities in world Christianity that are most evangelistically
assertive and most rapidly growing are Evangelicals and Catholics. In many
parts of the world, the relationship between these communities is marked
more by conflict than by cooperation, more by animosity than by love, more
by suspicion than by trust, more by propaganda and ignorance than by
respect for the truth. This is alarmingly the case in Latin America,
increasingly the case in Eastern Europe, and too often the case in our own
country.

Without ignoring conflicts between and within other Christian communities,
we address ourselves to the relationship between Evangelicals and
Catholics, who constitute the growing edge of missionary expansion at
present and, most likely, in the century ahead. In doing so, we hope that
what we have discovered and resolved may be of help in other situations of
conflict, such as that among Orthodox, Evangelicals, and Catholics in
Eastern Europe. While we are gratefully aware of ongoing efforts to
address tensions among these communities, the shameful reality is that, in
many places around the world, the scandal of conflict between Christians
obscures the scandal of the cross, thus crippling the one mission of the
one Christ.

As in times past, so also today and in the future, the Christian mission,
which is directed to the entire human community, must be advanced against
formidable opposition. In some cultures, that mission encounters resurgent
spiritualities and religions that are explicitly hostile to the claims of
the Christ. Islam. which in many instances denies the freedom to witness
to the Gospel, must be of increasing concern to those who care about
religious freedom and the Christian mission. Mutually respectful
conversation between Muslims and Christians should be encouraged in the
hope that more of the world will, in the oft- repeated words of John Paul
II, “open the door to Christ.” At the same time, in our so-called
developed societies, a widespread secularization increasingly descends
into a moral, intellectual, and spiritual nihilism that denies not only
the One who is the Truth but the very idea of truth itself.

We enter the twenty-first century without illusions. With Paul and the
Christians of the first century, we know that we are not contending
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the
powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6) As
Evangelicals and Catholics, we dare not by needless and loveless conflict
between ourselves give aid and comfort to the enemies of the cause of
Christ.

The love of Christ compels us and we are therefore resolved to avoid such
conflict between our communities and, where such conflict exists, to do
what we can to reduce and eliminate it. Beyond that, we are called and we
are therefore resolved to explore patterns of working and witnessing
together in order to advance the one mission of Christ. Our common resolve
is not based merely on a desire for harmony. We reject any appearance of
harmony that is purchased at the price of truth. Our common resolve is
made imperative by obedience to the truth of God revealed in the Word of
God, the Holy Scriptures, and by trust in the promise of the Holy Spirit’s
guidance until Our Lord returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

The mission that we embrace together is the necessary consequence of the
faith that we affirm together.

WE AFFIRM TOGETHER

Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final affirmation that
Christians make about all of reality.

He is the One sent by God to be Lord and Savior of all: And there is
salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4) Christians are people ahead
of time, those who proclaim now what will one day be acknowledged by all,
that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2)

We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of
Christ. Living faith is active in love that is nothing less than the love
of Christ, for we together say with Paul: “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the
life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2)

All who accept Christ as Lord and Savior are brothers and sisters in
Christ. Evangelicals and Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ. We
have not chosen one another, just as we have not chosen Christ. He has
chosen us, and he has chosen us to be his together. (John 15) However
imperfect our communion with one another, however deep our disagreements
with one another, we recognize that there is but one church of Christ.
There is one church because there is one Christ and the church is his
body. However difficult the way, we recognize that we are called by God
to a fuller realization of our unity in the body of Christ. The only unity
to which we would give expression is unity in the truth, and the truth is
this: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one
hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
(Ephesians 4)

We affirm together that Christians are to teach and live in obedience to
the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible Word of God. We
further affirm together that Christ has promised to his church the gift of
the Holy Spirit who will lead us into all truth in discerning and
declaring the teaching of Scripture. (John 16) We recognize together that
the Holy Spirit has so guided his church in the past. In, for instance,
the formation of the canon of the Scriptures, and in the orthodox response
to the great Christological and Trinitarian controversies of the early
centuries, we confidently acknowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In
faithful response to the Spirit’s leading, the church formulated the
Apostles Creed, which we can and hereby do affirm together as an accurate
statement of scriptural truth:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into
hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is
seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the
living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of
saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the
life everlasting. Amen.

WE HOPE TOGETHER

We hope together that all people will come to faith in Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior. This hope makes necessary the church’s missionary zeal.
But how are they to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how
are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they
to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?”
(Romans 10) The church is by nature, in all places and at all times, in
mission. Our missionary hope is inspired by the revealed desire of God
that all should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy
2)

The church lives by and for the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
(Matthew 28)

Unity and love among Christians is an integral part of our missionary
witness to the Lord whom we serve. A new commandment I give to you, that
you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one
another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have
love for one another. (John 13) If we do not love one another, we disobey
his command and contradict the Gospel we declare.

As Evangelicals and Catholics, we pray that our unity in the love of
Christ will become ever more evident as a sign to the world of God’s
reconciling power. Our communal and ecclesial separations are deep and
long standing. We acknowledge that we do not know the schedule nor do we
know the way to the greater visible unity for which we hope. We do know
that existing patterns of distrustful polemic and conflict are not the
way. We do know that God who has brought us into communion with himself
through Christ intends that we also be in communion with one another. We
do know that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John I4) and as
we are drawn closer to him–walking in that way, obeying that truth,
living that life–we are drawn closer to one another.

Whatever may be the future form of the relationship between our
communities, we can, we must, and we will begin now the work required to
remedy what we know to be wrong in that relationship. Such work requires
trust and understanding, and trust and understanding require an assiduous
attention to truth. We do not deny but clearly assert that there are
disagreements between us. Misunderstandings, misrepresentations, and
caricatures of one another, however, are not disagreements. These
distortions must be cleared away if we are to search through our honest
differences in a manner consistent with what we affirm and hope together
on the basis of God’s Word.

WE SEARCH TOGETHER

Together we search for a fuller and clearer understanding of God’s
revelation in Christ and his will for his disciples. Because of the
limitations of human reason and language, which limitations are compounded
by sin, we cannot understand completely the transcendent reality of God
and his ways. Only in the End Time will we see face to face and know as we
are known. (I Corinthians 13) We now search together in confident
reliance upon God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, the sure testimony of

Holy Scripture, and the promise of the Spirit to his church. In this
search to understand the truth more fully and clearly, we need one
another. We are both informed and limited by the histories of our
communities and by our own experiences. Across the divides of communities
and experiences, we need to challenge one another, always speaking the
truth in love building up the Body. (Ephesians 4)

We do not presume to suggest that we can resolve the deep and
long-standing differences between Evangelicals and Catholics. Indeed
these differences may never be resolved short of the Kingdom Come.
Nonetheless, we are not permitted simply to resign ourselves to
differences that divide us from one another. Not all differences are
authentic disagreements, nor need all disagreements divide. Differences
and disagreements must be tested in disciplined and sustained
conversation. In this connection we warmly commend and encourage the
formal theological dialogues of recent years between Roman Catholics and
Evangelicals.

We note some of the differences and disagreements that must be addressed
more fully and candidly in order to strengthen between us a relationship
of trust in obedience to truth. Among points of difference in doctrine,
worship, practice, and piety that are frequently thought to divide us are
these:

The church as an integral part of the Gospel or the church as a
communal consequence of the Gospel.

The church as visible communion or invisible fellowship of true
believers.

The sole authority of Scripture <(sola scriptura>) or Scripture
as authoritatively interpreted in the church.

The soul freedom of the individual Christian or the Magisterium
(teaching authority) of the community.

The church as local congregation or universal communion.

Ministry ordered in apostolic succession or the priesthood of
all believers.

Sacraments and ordinances as symbols of grace or means of grace.

The Lord’s Supper as eucharistic sacrifice or memorial meal.

Remembrance of Mary and the saints or devotion to Mary and the
saints.

Baptism as sacrament of regeneration or testimony to
regeneration.

This account of differences is by no means complete. Nor is the disparity
between positions always so sharp as to warrant the or in the above
formulations. Moreover, among those recognized as Evangelical Protestants
there are significant differences between, for example, Baptists,
Pentecostals, and Calvinists on these questions. But the differences
mentioned above reflect disputes that are deep and long standing. In at
least some instances, they reflect authentic disagreements that have been
in the past and are at present barriers to full communion between
Christians.

On these questions, and other questions implied by them, Evangelicals hold
that the Catholic Church has gone beyond Scripture, adding teachings and
practices that detract from or compromise the Gospel of God’s saving grace
in Christ. Catholics, in turn, hold that such teachings and practices are
grounded in Scripture and belong to the fullness of God’s revelation.
Their rejection, Catholics say, results in a truncated and reduced
understanding of the Christian reality.

Again, we cannot resolve these disputes here. We can and do affirm
together that the entirety of Christian faith, life, and mission finds its
source, center, and end in the crucified and risen Lord. We can and do
pledge that we will continue to search together–through study,
discussion, and prayer–for a better understanding of one another’s
convictions and a more adequate comprehension of the truth of God in
Christ. We can testify now that in our searching together we have
discovered what we can affirm together and what we can hope together and,
therefore, how we can contend together.

WE CONTEND TOGETHER

As we are bound together by Christ and his cause, so we are bound together
in contending against all that opposes Christ and his cause. We are
emboldened not by illusions of easy triumph but by faith in his certain
triumph. Our Lord wept over Jerusalem, and he now weeps over a world that
does not know the time of its visitation. The raging of the principalities
and powers may increase as the End Time nears, but the outcome of the
contest is assured.

The cause of Christ is the cause and mission of the church, which is,
first of all, to proclaim the Good News that God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and
entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5) To
proclaim this Gospel and to sustain the community of faith, worship, and
discipleship that is gathered by this Gospel is the first and chief
responsibility of the church. All other tasks and responsibilities of the
church are derived from and directed toward the mission of the Gospel.

Christians individually and the church corporately also have a
responsibility for the right ordering of civil society. We embrace this
task soberly; knowing the consequences of human sinfulness, we resist the
utopian conceit that it is within our powers to build the Kingdom of God
on earth. We embrace this task hopefully; knowing that God has called us
to love our neighbor, we seek to secure for all a greater measure of civil
righteousness and justice, confident that he will crown our efforts when
he rightly orders all things in the coming of his Kingdom.

In the exercise of these public responsibilities there has been in recent
years a growing convergence and cooperation between Evangelicals and
Catholics. We thank God for the discovery of one another in contending for
a common cause. Much more important, we thank God for the discovery of one
another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our cooperation as citizens is
animated by our convergence as Christians. We promise one another that we
will work to deepen, build upon, and expand this pattern of convergence
and cooperation.

Together we contend for the truth that politics, law, and culture must be
secured by moral truth. With the Founders of the American experiment, we
declare, We hold these truths. With them, we hold that this constitutional
order is composed not just of rules and procedures but is most essentially
a moral experiment. With them, we hold that only a virtuous people can be
free and just, and that virtue is secured by religion. To propose that
securing civil virtue is the purpose of religion is blasphemous. To deny
that securing civil virtue is a benefit of religion is blindness.

Americans are drifting away from, are often explicitly defying, the
constituting truths of this experiment in ordered liberty. Influential
sectors of the culture are laid waste by relativism, anti-intellectualism,
and nihilism that deny the very idea of truth. Against such influences in
both the elite and popular culture, we appeal to reason and religion in
contending for the foundational truths of our constitutional order.

More specifically, we contend together for religious freedom. We do so for
the sake of religion, but also because religious freedom is the first
freedom, the source and shield of all human freedoms. In their
relationship to God, persons have a dignity and responsibility that
transcends, and thereby limits, the authority of the state and of every
other merely human institution.

Religious freedom is itself grounded in and is a product of religious
faith, as is evident in the history of Baptists and others in this
country. Today we rejoice together that the Roman Catholic Church–as
affirmed by the Second Vatican Council and boldly exemplified in the
ministry of John Paul II–is strongly committed to religious freedom and,
consequently, to the defense of all human rights. Where Evangelicals and
Catholics are in severe and sometimes violent conflict, such as parts of
Latin America, we urge Christians to embrace and act upon the imperative
of religious freedom. Religious freedom will not be respected by the state
if it is not respected by Christians or, even worse, if Christians attempt
to recruit the state in repressing religious freedom.

In this country, too, freedom of religion cannot be taken for granted but
requires constant attention. We strongly affirm the separation of church
and state and just as strongly protest the distortion of that principle to
mean the separation of religion from public life. We are deeply concerned
by the courts narrowing of the protections provided by the free exercise”
provision of the First Amendment and by an obsession with no
establishment” that stifles the necessary role of religion in American
life. As a consequence of such distortions, it is increasingly the case
that wherever government goes religion must retreat, and government
increasingly goes almost everywhere. Religion, which was privileged and
foundational in our legal order, has in recent years been penalized and
made marginal. We contend together for a renewal of the constituting
vision of the place of religion in the American experiment.

Religion and religiously grounded moral conviction is not an alien or
threatening force in our public life. For the great majority of Americans,
morality is derived, however variously and confusedly, from religion. The
argument, increasingly voiced in sectors of our political culture, that
religion should be excluded from the public square must be recognized as
an assault upon the most elementary principles of democratic governance.
That argument needs to be exposed and countered by leaders, religious and
other, who care about the integrity of our constitutional order.

The pattern of convergence and cooperation between Evangelicals and
Catholics is, in large part, a result of common effort to protect human
life, especially the lives of the most vulnerable among us. With the
Founders, we hold that all human beings are endowed by their Creator with
the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The statement
that the unborn child is a human life that–barring natural misfortune or
lethal intervention–will become what everyone recognizes as a human baby
is not a religious assertion. It is a statement of simple biological fact.
That the unborn child has a right to protection, including the protection
of law, is a moral statement supported by moral reason and biblical truth.

We, therefore, will persist in contending–we will not be discouraged but
will multiply every effort–in order to secure the legal protection of the
unborn. Our goals are: to secure due process of law for the unborn, to
enact the most protective laws and public policies that are politically
possible, and to reduce dramatically the incidence of abortion. We warmly
commend those who have established thousands of crisis pregnancy and
postnatal care centers across the country, and urge that such efforts be
multiplied. As the unborn must be protected, so also must women be
protected from their current rampant exploitation by the abortion industry
and by fathers who refuse to accept responsibility for mothers and
children. Abortion on demand, which is the current rule in America, must
be recognized as a massive attack on the dignity, rights, and needs of
women.

Abortion is the leading edge of an encroaching culture of death. The
helpless old, the radically handicapped, and others who cannot effectively
assert their rights are increasingly treated as though they have no
rights. These are the powerless who are exposed to the will and whim of
those who have power over them. We will do all in our power to resist
proposals for euthanasia, eugenics, and population control that exploit
the vulnerable, corrupt the integrity of medicine, deprave our culture,
and betray the moral truths of our constitutional order.

In public education, we contend together for schools that transmit to
coming generations our cultural heritage, which is inseparable from the
formative influence of religion, especially Judaism and Christianity.
Education for responsible citizenship and social behavior is inescapably
moral education. Every effort must be made to cultivate the morality of
honesty, law observance, work, caring, chastity, mutual respect between
the sexes, and readiness for marriage, parenthood, and family. We reject
the claim that, in any or all of these areas, tolerance” requires the
promotion of moral equivalence between the normative and the deviant. In a
democratic society that recognizes that parents have the primary
responsibility for the formation of their children, schools are to assist
and support, not oppose and undermine, parents in the exercise of their
responsibility.

We contend together for a comprehensive policy of parental choice in
education. This is a moral question of simple justice. Parents are the
primary educators of their children; the state and other institutions
should be supportive of their exercise of that responsibility. We affirm
policies that enable parents to effectively exercise their right and
responsibility to choose the schooling that they consider best for their
children.

We contend together against the widespread pornography in our society,
along with the celebration of violence, sexual depravity, and
antireligious bigotry in the entertainment media. In resisting such
cultural and moral debasement, we recognize the legitimacy of boycotts and
other consumer actions, and urge the enforcement of existing laws against
obscenity. We reject the self-serving claim of the peddlers of depravity
that this constitutes illegitimate censorship. We reject the assertion of
the unimaginative that artistic creativity is to be measured by the
capacity to shock or outrage. A people incapable of defending decency
invites the rule of viciousness, both public and personal.

We contend for a renewed spirit of acceptance, understanding, and
cooperation across lines of religion, race. ethnicity, sex, and class. We
are all created in the image of God and are accountable to him. That truth
is the basis of individual responsibility and equality before the law. The
abandonment of that truth has resulted in a society at war with itself,
pitting citizens against one another in bitter conflicts of group
grievances and claims to entitlement. Justice and social amity require a
redirection of public attitudes and policies so that rights are joined to
duties and people are rewarded according to their character and
competence.

We contend for a free society, including a vibrant market economy. A free
society requires a careful balancing between economics, politics, and
culture. Christianity is not an ideology and therefore does not prescribe
precisely how that balance is to be achieved in every circumstance. We
affirm the importance of a free economy not only because it is more
efficient but because it accords with a Christian understanding of human
freedom. Economic freedom, while subject to grave abuse, makes possible
the patterns of creativity, cooperation, and accountability that
contribute to the common good.

We contend together for a renewed appreciation of Western culture. In its
history and missionary reach, Christianity engages all cultures while
being captive to none. We are keenly aware of, and grateful for, the role
of Christianity in shaping and sustaining the Western culture of which we
are part. As with all of history, that culture is marred by human
sinfulness. Alone among world cultures, however, the West has cultivated
an attitude of self-criticism and of eagerness to learn from other
cultures. What is called multiculturalism can mean respectful attention to
human differences. More commonly today, however, multiculturalism means
affirming all cultures but our own. Welcoming the contributions of other
cultures and being ever alert to the limitations of our own, we receive
Western culture as our legacy and embrace it as our task in order to
transmit it as a gift to future generations.

We contend for public policies that demonstrate renewed respect for the
irreplaceable role of mediating structures in society– notably the
family, churches, and myriad voluntary associations. The state is not the
society, and many of the most important functions of society are best
addressed in independence from the state. The role of churches in
responding to a wide variety of human needs, especially among the poor and
marginal, needs to be protected and strengthened Moreover, society is not
the aggregate of isolated individuals bearing rights but is composed of
communities that inculcate responsibility, sustain shared memory, provide
mutual aid, and nurture the habits that contribute to both personal
well-being and the common good. Most basic among such communities is the
community of the family. Laws and social policies should be designed with
particular care for the stability and flourishing of families. While the
crisis of the family in America is by no means limited to the poor or to
the underclass, heightened attention must be paid those who have become,
as a result of well-intended but misguided statist policies, virtual wards
of the government.

Finally, we contend for a realistic and responsible understanding of
America’s part in world affairs. Realism and responsibility require that
we avoid both the illusions of unlimited power and righteousness, on the
one hand, and the timidity and selfishness of isolationism, on the other.
U.S. foreign policy should reflect a concern for the defense of democracy
and, wherever prudent and possible, the protection and advancement of
human rights, including religious freedom.

The above is a partial list of public responsibilities on which we believe
there is a pattern of convergence and cooperation between Evangelicals and
Catholics. We reject the notion that this constitutes a partisan religious
agenda” in American politics. Rather, this is a set of directions
oriented to the common good and discussable on the basis of public reason.
While our sense of civic responsibility is informed and motivated by
Christian faith, our intention is to elevate the level of political and
moral discourse in a manner that excludes no one and invites the
participation of all people of good will. To that end, Evangelicals and
Catholics have made an inestimable contribution in the past and, it is our
hope, will contribute even more effectively in the future.

We are profoundly aware that the American experiment has been, all in all,
a blessing to the world and a blessing to us as Evangelical and Catholic
Christians. We are determined to assume our full share of responsibility
for this one nation under God,” believing it to be a nation under the
judgment, mercy, and providential care of the Lord of the nations to whom
alone we render unqualified allegiance.

WE WITNESS TOGETHER

The question of Christian witness unavoidably returns us to points of
serious tension between Evangelicals and Catholics. Bearing witness to
the saving power of Jesus Christ and his will for our lives is an integral
part of Christian discipleship. The achievement of good will and
cooperation between Evangelicals and Catholics must not be at the price of
the urgency and clarity of Christian witness to the Gospel. At the same
time, and as noted earlier, Our Lord has made clear that the evidence of
love among his disciples is an integral part of that Christian witness.

Today, in this country and elsewhere, Evangelicals and Catholics attempt
to win converts” from one another’s folds. In some ways, this is perfectly
understandable and perhaps inevitable. In many instances, however, such
efforts at recruitment undermine the Christian mission by which we are
bound by God’s Word and to which we have recommitted ourselves in this
statement. It should be dearly understood between Catholics and
Evangelicals that Christian witness is of necessity aimed at conversion.
Authentic conversion is–in its beginning, in its end, and all along the
way– conversion to God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. In this
connection, we embrace as our own the explanation of the Baptist-Roman
Catholic International Conversation (1988):

Conversion is turning away from all that is opposed to God, contrary to
Christ’s teaching, and turning to God, to Christ, the Son, through the
work of the Holy Spirit. It entails a turning from the self-centeredness
of sin to faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. Conversion is a passing
from one way of life to another new one, marked with the newness of
Christ. It is a continuing process so that the whole life of a Christian
should be a passage from death to life, from error to truth, from sin to
grace. Our life in Christ demands continual growth in God’s grace.
Conversion is personal but not private. Individuals respond in faith to
God’s call but faith comes from hearing the proclamation of the word of
God and is to be expressed in the life together in Christ that is the
Church.

By preaching, teaching, and life example, Christians witness to Christians
and non-Christians alike. We seek and pray for the conversion of others,
even as we recognize our own continuing need to be fully converted. As we
strive to make Christian faith and life–our own and that of others–ever
more intentional rather than nominal, ever more committed rather than
apathetic, we also recognize the different forms that authentic
discipleship can take. As is evident in the two thousand year history of
the church, and in our contemporary experience, there are different ways
of being Christian, and some of these ways are distinctively marked by
communal patterns of worship, piety, and catechesis. That we are all to be
one does not mean that we are all to be identical in our way of following
the one Christ. Such distinctive patterns of discipleship, it should be
noted, are amply evident within the communion of the Catholic Church as
well as within the many worlds of Evangelical Protestantism.

It is understandable that Christians who bear witness to the Gospel try to
persuade others that their communities and traditions are more fully in
accord with the Gospel. There is a necessary distinction between
evangelizing and what is today commonly called proselytizing or sheep
stealing. We condemn the practice of recruiting people from another
community for purposes of denominational or institutional aggrandizement.
At the same time, our commitment to full religious freedom compels us to
defend the legal freedom to proselytize even as we call upon Christians to
refrain from such activity.

Three observations are in order in connection with proselytizing. First,
as much as we might believe one community is more fully in accord with the
Gospel than another, we as Evangelicals and Catholics affirm that
opportunity and means for growth in Christian discipleship are available
in our several communities. Second, the decision of the committed
Christian with respect to his communal allegiance and participation must
be assiduously respected. Third, in view of the large number of
non-Christians in the world and the enormous challenge of our common
evangelistic task, it is neither theologically legitimate nor a prudent
use of resources for one Christian community to proselytize among active
adherents of another Christian community.

Christian witness must always be made in a spirit of love and humility. It
must not deny but must readily accord to everyone the full freedom to
discern and decide what is God’s will for his life. Witness that is in
service to the truth is in service to such freedom. Any form of
coercion–physical, psychological, legal, economic–corrupts Christian
witness and is to be unqualifiedly rejected. Similarly, bearing false
witness against other persons and communities, or casting unjust and
uncharitable suspicions upon them, is incompatible with the Gospel. Also
to be rejected is the practice of comparing the strengths and ideals of
one community with the weaknesses and failures of another. In describing
the teaching and practices of other Christians, we must strive to do so in
a way that they would recognize as fair and accurate.

In considering the many corruptions of Christian witness, we, Evangelicals
and Catholics, confess that we have sinned against one another and against
God. We most earnestly ask the forgiveness of God and one another, and
pray for the grace to amend our own lives and that of our communities.

Repentance and amendment of life do not dissolve remaining differences
between us. In the context of evangelization and reevangelization,” we
encounter a major difference in our understanding of the relationship
between baptism and the new birth in

Christ. For Catholics, all who are validly baptized are born again and are
truly, however imperfectly, in communion with Christ. That baptismal
grace is to be continuingly reawakened and revivified through conversion.
For most Evangelicals, but not all, the experience of conversion is to be
followed by baptism as a sign of new birth. For Catholics, all the
baptized are already members of the church, however dormant their faith
and life; for many Evangelicals, the new birth requires baptismal
initiation into the community of the born again. These differing beliefs
about the relationship between baptism, new birth, and membership in the
church should be honestly presented to the Christian who has undergone
conversion. But again, his decision regarding communal allegiance and
participation must be assiduously respected.

There are, then, differences between us that cannot be resolved here. But
on this we are resolved: All authentic witness must be aimed at conversion
to God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. Those converted–whether
understood as having received the new birth for the first time or as
having experienced the reawakening of the new birth originally bestowed in
the sacrament of baptism- -must be given full freedom and respect as they
discern and decide the community in which they will live their new life in
Christ. In such discernment and decision, they are ultimately responsible
to God, and we dare not interfere with the exercise of that
responsibility. Also in our differences and disagreements, we Evangelicals
and Catholics commend one another to God who by the power at work within
us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think”
(Ephesians 3)

In this discussion of witnessing together we have touched on difficult and
long-standing problems. The difficulties must not be permitted to
overshadow the truths on which we are, by the grace of God, in firm
agreement. As we grow in mutual understanding and trust, it is our hope
that our efforts to evangelize will not jeopardize but will reinforce our
devotion to the common tasks to which we have pledged ourselves in this
statement.

CONCLUSION

Nearly two thousand years after it began, and nearly five hundred years
after the divisions of the Reformation era, the Christian mission to the
world is vibrantly alive and assertive. We do not know, we cannot know,
what the Lord of history has in store for the Third Millennium. It may be
the springtime of world missions and great Christian expansion. It may be
the way of the cross marked by persecution and apparent marginalization.
In different places and times, it will likely be both. Or it may be that
Our Lord will return tomorrow.

We do know that his promise is sure, that we are enlisted for the
duration, and that we are in this together. We do know that we must affirm
and hope and search and contend and witness together, for we belong not to
ourselves but to him who has purchased us by the blood of the cross. We do
know that this is a time of opportunity–and, if of opportunity, then of
responsibility–for Evangelicals and Catholics to be Christians together
in a way that helps prepare the world for the coming of him to whom
belongs the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

PARTICIPANTS: Mr. Charles Colson Prison Fellowship Fr. Juan Diaz-Vilar,
S.J. Catholic Hispanic Ministries Fr. Avery Dulles, S.J. Fordham
University Bishop Francis George, OMI Diocese of Yakima (Washington) Dr.
Kent Hill Eastern Nazarene College Dr. Richard Land Christian Life
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention Dr. Larry Lewis Home Mission
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention Dr. Jesse Miranda Assemblies of
God Msgr. William Murphy Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Boston Fr.
Richard John Neuhaus Institute on Religion and Public Life Mr. Brian
O’Connell World Evangelical Fellowship Mr. Herbert Schlossberg Fieldstead
Foundation Archbishop Francis Stafford Archdiocese of Denver Mr. George
Weigel Ethics and Public Policy Center Dr. John White Geneva College and
the National Association of Evangelicals

ENDORSED BY: Dr. William Abraham Perkins School of Theology Dr. Elizabeth
Achtemeier Union Theological Seminary (Virginia) Mr. William Bentley Ball
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Dr. Bill Bright Campus Crusade for Christ
Professor Robert Destro Catholic University of America Fr. Augustine
DiNoia, O.P. Dominican House of Studies Fr. Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J.
Fordham University Mr. Keith Fournier American Center for Law and Justice
Bishop William Frey Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry Professor Mary
Ann Glendon Harvard Law School Dr. Os Guinness Trinity Forum Dr. Nathan
Hatch University of Notre Dame Dr. James Hitchcock St. Louis University
Professor Peter Kreeft Boston College Fr. Matthew Lamb Boston College Mr.
Ralph Martin Renewal Ministries Dr. Richard Mouw Fuller Theological
Seminary Dr. Mark Noll Wheaton College Mr. Michael Novak American
Enterprise Institute John Cardinal O’Connor Archdiocese of New York Dr.
Thomas Oden Drew University Dr. James J. I. Packer Regent College
(British Columbia) The Rev. Pat Robertson Regent University Dr. John
Rogers Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla,
S.J. Archdiocese of San Francisco

Taken from the May, 1994 issue of FIRST THINGS, 156 Fifth Avenue, New
York, Ny 10010
http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9405/articles/mission.html