Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT)

September of 1992
The Evangelicals and Catholics Together meet in New York “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” (ECT):

A group of leading American Roman Catholics and Evangelical Protestants joined together in September of 1992, to seek unity between their two groups. They decided this step as “essential for continued missionary expansion into the third millennium.” They acknowledged that past conflicts were seen as crippling the progress of the Gospel.

“Involving, as it did, both evangelical and Roman Catholic leaders, it
was truly a monumental statement…it was an ecumenical document of supreme importance since it represented a combined effort by leading spokesmen to ‘bury the hatchet’…and work together as ‘teammates’ instead of antagonists…It laments the division between them and proposes a moratorium on Catholic /evangelical conflict.”
—E.D. Pickering, “Hold Hands with the Pope”

Evangelicals and Catholics Together:
The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium: Introduction

We are Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics who have been led through prayer, study, and discussion to common convictions about Christian faith and mission. This statement cannot speak officially for our communities. It does intend to speak responsibly from our communities and to our communities. In this statement we address what we have discovered both about our unity and about our differences.

We are aware that our experience reflects the distinctive circumstances and opportunities of Evangelicals and Catholics living together in North America. At the same time, we believe that what we have discovered and resolved is pertinent to the relationship between Evangelicals and Catholics in other parts of the world. We therefore commend this statement to their prayerful consideration…”

Participants
Mr. Charles Colson, Prison Fellowship
Fr. Avery Dulles, S.J. Fordham University
Dr. Kent Hill, Eastern Nazarene College
Dr. Richard Land, Christian Life Commission of the S. Baptist Convention
Dr. Larry Lewis, Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention
Dr. Jesse Miranda, Assemblies of God
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Institute on Religion and Public Life
Mr. Brian O’Connell, World Evangelical Fellowship
Mr. Herbert Schlossberg, Fieldstead Foundation
Dr. John White, Geneva College National Assoc. of Evangelicals

Endorsed by
Dr. Bill Bright, Campus Crusade for Christ
Professor Robert Destro, Catholic University of America
Fr. Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J. Fordham University
Mr. Keith Fournier, American Center for Law and Justice
Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School
Dr. Os Guinness, Trinity Forum
Mr. Ralph Martin, Renewal Ministries
Dr. Richard Mouw, Fuller Theological Seminary
Dr. Mark Noll, Wheaton College
John Cardinal O’Connor, Archdiocese of New York
Dr. Thomas Oden, Drew University
Dr. James J. I. Packer, Regent College (British Columbia)
The Rev. Pat Robertson, Regent University
Dr. John Rodgers, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

The main thought of the ECT statement is:

(1) The Past must be forgotten.
(2) There is more that unites Evangelicals and Catholics than divides them.
(3) All Catholics/Evangelicals regarded as brothers/sisters in Christ.
(4) Together the two groupings have strength.
(5) A commitment to a common task of evangelising the non-believing world.—Dr. Brian Green

1994
Evangelicals and Catholics Together
Geoff Thomas, June 1994 (Reprinted from Evangelical Times)

Evangelicals and Catholics together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium, is the title of the twenty-five-page document which has been brought out and signed by a group of Roman Catholics and evangelical Christians in the USA…

About this joint document Evangelicals and Catholics Together…U.S. presidential candidate Pat Robertson says, “The time has come when we must lay aside minor points of doctrinal differences and focus on the centralization of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1995
Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission
by Charles Colson (Editor), Richard J. Neuhaus (Editor) published 1995

January 19, 1995
Statement By Protestant Signers To ECT

We Protestants who signed ECT, took this action to advance Christian fellowship, cooperation, and mutual trust among true Christians in the North American cultural crisis and in the worldwide task of evangelism. The same concern leads us now to elucidate our ECT commitment.

Signed by:
William R. Bright
Charles W. Colson
Kent R. Hill
James I. Packer

February 1995
Letter from Dr. Bill Bright announcing that key Protestant leaders have met and reconciled

excerpt:”…We met in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the home of Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries, on January 19, 1995…

“The January 19 gathering included Colson, Campus Crusade for Christ’s founder Bill Bright, and theologian J. I. Packer (all ECT signers), along with ECT critics MacArthur, Ligonier Ministries’
R. C. Sproul, apologist John Ankerberg, author Michael Horton,
and pastor D. James Kennedy, who hosted the meeting at his
Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Moody Bible Institute president Joseph Stowell moderated, with assistance from church historian John Woodbridge.

March 1995
Evangelicals Clarify Accord with Catholics By Joe Maxwell 1995

Catholic-evangelical signers address areas of controversy
By Martin King March 1995

1996
ECT meeting 1996

They met in the fall of 1996, and decided that future progress depended upon the two groups reaching a consensus on two matters: the meaning of salvation and the doctrine of justification.

1997
Second ECT statement 1997:

Their 1997 statement, titled “The Gift of Salvation,” noted a number of beliefs on which they had reached a consensus…

Evangelicals
Dr. Gerald L. Bray (Beeson Divinity School)
Dr. Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ)
 Dr. Harold O. J. Brown (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)
Mr. Charles Colson (Prison Fellowship)
Bishop William C. Frey (Episcopal Church) 
Dr. Timothy George (Beeson Divinity School)
 Dr. Os Guinness (The Trinity Forum) 
Dr. Kent R. Hill (Eastern Nazarene College)
 The Rev. Max Lucado (Oak Hills Church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas)
 Dr. T. M. Moore (Chesapeake Theological Seminary)
 Dr. Richard Mouw (Fuller Theological Seminary)
 Dr. Mark A. Noll (Wheaton College) 
Mr. Brian F. O’Connell (Interdev)
 Dr. Thomas Oden (Drew University) 
Dr. James I. Packer (Regent College, British Columbia)
 Dr. Timothy R. Phillips (Wheaton College)
 Dr. John Rodgers (Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry) 
Dr. John Woodbridge (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)

Roman Catholics
Fr. James J. Buckley (Loyola College in Maryland)
 Fr. J. A. Di Noia, O. P. (Dominican House of Studies) 
Fr. Avery Dulles, S. J. (Fordham University) 
Fr. Thomas Guarino (Seton Hall University)
 Dr. Peter Kreeft (Boston College)
 Fr. Matthew L. Lamb (Boston College)
 Fr. Eugene LaVerdiere, S. S. S. (Emmanuel)
 Fr. Francis Martin (John Paul 11 Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family)
 Mr. Ralph Martin (Renewal Ministries)
 Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (Religion and Public Life)
 Mr. Michael Novak (American Enterprise Institute) 
Fr. Edward Oakes, S. J. (Regis University)
 Fr. Thomas P. Rausch S. J. (Loyola Marymount University) 
Mr. George Weigel (Ethics and Public Policy Center)
 Dr. Robert Louis Wilken (University of Virginia)

2001
ECT meeting: Oct 2, 2001

“Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail: Evangelical Conversations” was a two day meeting held at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. Included were sessions “devoted to conversations among evangelicals and fundamentalists, Pentecostals and mainline Protestants.”

Richard John Neuhaus, president of The Institute on Religion and Public Life…said that an important part of the 1994 statement was that conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics recognized each other as brothers and sisters in Christ…He maintained that Christian unity is necessary, “because we are one. From the Catholic point of view, the goal of Christian unity is the full communion of all Christians…”

2002
Third ECT document

The third major ECT statement was titled “Your Word is Truth.”

Charles Colson and Richard John Newhaus published a book by the same name: “Your Word Is Truth: A Project of Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, (2002)

Emergent/Eccumenical Sites
The Emerging Church: Conversations, Convergence and Action

Emergent Village Weblog