Fr. Jim Loughran, SA and Fr. Tom Orians, SA, Director and Associate Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute (GEII), along with Fr. Jim Puglisi, SA, Director of Centro Pro Unione, the Friars ecumenical research and action center in Rome, all traveled to Silver Spring, Maryland in mid-April for the National Workshop for Christian Unity.
This annual gathering of ecumenical representatives, ecumenists, and interested members from all churches, is presented by the Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical & Interreligious Officers (CADEIO), where Fr. Jim Gardiner, SA and Fr. Wil Tyrell, SA both serve as regional representatives.
The workshop opened on Tuesday morning with the annual Graymoor breakfast, hosted by the Friars. Participants look forward to this opportunity to network among ecumenical friends, explore topics of religion and politics, equity and justice, and an increasingly complex multi-faith landscape in the nation.
The Graymoor breakfast was followed by a Workshop Plenary on Justification, Justice & Sanctification, where Fr. Jim Loughran served as the Catholic participant in a panel discussion. The other panelists were Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran.
The primary focus for the 2018 workshop, which was working together on a common journey as followers of Jesus to heal wounds of discord and separation so that the world may believe, is a cause that is at the very foundation of the Society of the Atonement. The Friars have been leaders in promoting Christian Unity since the founding of the Society of the Atonement in 1898.