{"id":358072,"date":"2024-06-21T08:46:58","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T06:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/global-christian-forum-dialogue-of-the-heart\/"},"modified":"2024-07-09T09:06:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T07:06:35","slug":"global-christian-forum-dialogue-of-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/global-christian-forum-dialogue-of-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Christian Forum: Dialogue of the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The fourth international six-year meeting of the Global Christian Forum<\/em> took place in April in Accra, the capital of Ghana, bringing together about 250 people from over 50 countries, representatives of various Churches and global ecclesial networks and organizations.<\/p>\n\n

The event is always held in a different city and on a different continent. Four members of the Focolare Movement attended the event in Ghana. <\/p>\n\n

Alongside the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Global Christian Forum<\/em> is perhaps the only other platform through which unity among the Churches is promoted on a global scale. Founded in 1998, it aims to promote dialogue with the vast world of Pentecostal Churches and \u2018Free Churches\u2019, most of which are not affiliated with the WCC. The approach has been and remains a dialogue \u201cof the heart\u201d rather than a theological dialogue. As the current Secretary General, Casely Essamuah, of Ghanaian origin, explained in Ghana: \u201cIt is a space for a profound encounter of faith. This is how we learn to discover the richness of Christ\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

Central to these meetings is the exchange of personal \u2019faith stories\u2019 in small groups which was a significant feature in Accra. Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, representative of the Methodist Church at the WCC explained, \u201cSeeing Christ in others is the goal of this exercise. Letting the Holy Spirit guide our words and listening carefully to the stories of others.\u201d This truly gives rise to a spiritual friendship and a fraternal unity that generates great joy among all\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

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The theme chosen for the meeting was \u201cThat they may all be one, so that the world may believe\u201d (Jn<\/em>. 17:20). Billy Wilson, president of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, highlighted three aspects of this unity: it is above all relational; it is realized in the mission: \u201cso that the world may know and believe\u201d and it is spiritual, like the relationships between the persons of the Trinity. <\/p>\n\n

This gathering in Ghana was an experience of great spiritual richness, reflecting an image of the Church of the future that is already being realized through such encounters.<\/p>\n\n

Enno Dijkema<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A time of deepening, prayer and sharing: The Global Christian Forum convened in Ghana to foster and promote \u201cdialogue of the heart\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":358055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2814,3195],"tags":[2838,3196],"class_list":["post-358072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dialogo-interreligioso-2","category-ecumenism","tag-in-dialogo-2","tag-ppg-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}