Ecumenical Parish Partnerships at Local Level

Ecumenical relationships between parish members and parishes of different confessions are maintained and shaped at local level. Four churches in North Rhine-Westphalia are inviting more intensive cooperation between Evangelical and Catholic parishes. In 2005 the Arch­bishopric of Paderborn, the Diocese of Muenster, the Evangelical Church of West­phalia and the Lippe Regional Church signed guidelines for „ecumenical parish partnerships at local level“.

A small brochure provides specific suggestions on how the community may be shaped in three areas on the way towards a visible unity:

• Learning to know and understand each other
• Community in spiritual life, in prayer and church service
• Cooperation in church and society.

Local churches are encouraged to meet each other and to show ecumenical commitment in order to secure results and to develop them further continuously. The guidelines may also serve as a basis for contractual agreements.

Ecumenical parish partnerships are in principle open to further parish cooperative partners who are members of the Council of Christian Churches (ACK).