Last month the bishops of Canada released a document that seemed to reiterate their belief in the role of ecumenical social action. In the first paragraph of “The Co-Responsibility of the Lay Faithful in the Church and the World,” they state that, “our response to God’s call is always lived out in harmony with the other parts of the Body of Christ.”
But that same month, the bishops voted to withdraw from KAIROS, Canada’s largest ecumenical social justice organization, the same group that emerged from the ecumenical coalitions that the bishops had always helped form, govern and finance
Now, many are struggling to comprehend the contradictions between our church’s history, our bishops’ words, and their deeds.