Sermon for the 80th anniversary of the Ecumenical Institute October 7, 2026

Sermon for the 80th anniversary of the Ecumenical Institute October 7, 2026

msc

Wed, 10/07/2026 - 10:37

By Rev. Dr Odair Pedroso Mateus

Dear sisters and brothers,

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us now and ever more. Having served Bossey for 16 years, particularly in the chair of ecumenical theology, I wish to express to the Bossey faculty my deep gratitude for the invitation to bring you a brief message on this festive occasion.

I also take this opportunity to bring you greetings from the parish council of Saint Peter’s Cathedral of Geneva, which I co-preside. You are welcome to pay a visit to Saint Peter’s Cathedral, the mother church of John Calvin’s Reformation.

I. “In One Body through the Cross”

Twenty-three years ago, a group of sixteen renowned theologians and ecumenists based in the United States published a manifesto about the crisis of the ecumenical movement and the World Council of Churches’ role in the crisis. That manifesto, usually known as “The Princeton Proposal”, was part of a wider debate, sparked by the publication a few years earlier of Konrad…