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The Association of Interchurch Families in England (founded 1968) has always wanted to know what was happening to similar families in other countries. In 1969 the second national conference included speakers from Holland and France, priests involved in the pastoral care of interchurch couples.
Rydal 1980International conferences in Britain and Ireland, 1982-1994
From then on, English-speaking international conferences were held every two
years, and the French foyers mixtes, based on Lyon, regularly sent two French
couples as participants. The following conferences were held between 1982 and
1994:
Virginia 1996
In 1996, largely thanks to Fr George Kilcourse, who had participated in Lingfield
1988 and subsequent conferences, and had been joined by a few other Americans
and a Canadian couple, Joy and Edouard Bédard, the ninth conference moved
to the United States. It was held at Norfolk, Virginia, on the theme Interchurch
Families: catalysts for Church Unity. Some Canadian interchurch families participated.
Meanwhile, the first francophone international meeting had been held at Versailles in 1995, and a second at Lyon in 1997. Previously, French-speaking conferences were held regionally in different parts of France, in Switzerland and in Italy (see Interchurch Families 2000,10,2, pp.9-10, for the series of Franco-Swiss-Italian conferences held in northern Italy between 1970 and 1999). There was a third francophone conference at le Rocheton, near Paris, in 2000. A fourth is planned for 2004.
First World Gathering of Interchurch Families, Geneva 1998
Virginia 1996, the first international English-speaking conference held outside
Europe, and Lyon 1997, the second francophone international conference, were
followed in 1998 by the first World Gathering of Interchurch Families, organised
in Geneva by French and Swiss foyers mixtes. It was the first bi-lingual conference,
with French and English on equal terms, and some German used too. The theme
was Interchurch Families and the Churches (see Interchurch Families 1999, 7,
1).
Edmonton 2001
Following Geneva, the French did not wish to commit themselves to a conference
in Canada, but French- and English-speaking groups agreed to follow up Geneva
1998 together, with a second world gathering in or near Rome in 2003. The Canadians
planning Edmonton 2001 were very ready to provide English-French simultaneous
translation, but it was not needed since the Canadian interchurch family groups
have as yet no wholly French-speaking couples in membership. Two of the main
speakers were, however, French-speaking Canadians, Brother Gilles Bourdeau OFM,
Director of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal, and Bishop Marc Ouellet
PSS, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Their
addresses were given in English.
Edmonton 2001 was thus the tenth in the series of English-speaking international conferences that have brought together interchurch families mainly from Britain and Ireland, North America and Australia. There have regularly been a few others, and Edmonton was enriched by participants from Germany and Austria, besides a Ghanaian priest working in Canada who presented a beautiful Ghanaian cloth to interchurch families worldwide. It was used as an altar-cloth in Edmonton and will go to Rome. The January 2002 number of Interchurch Families (10,1) was devoted to the Edmonton conference.
Second World Gathering of Interchuch Families, Rome 2003
As for Geneva 98, we are using in English a direct translation of the French
description Rassemblement Mondial to distinguish this multilingual gathering
from the series of English-speaking international conferences from Rydal to
Edmonton. The planning group (Preproma) is working in four languages: English,
French, German and Italian; these will be the languages of the conference. The
first meeting of the planning group was held in Luserna near Torre Pellice in
July 2001 and decided the theme of Rome 2003: United in baptism and marriage:
interchurch families/ foyers interconfessionels/ konfessionsverbindende familien/
famiglie miste interconfessionali – called to a common life in the Church
for the reconciliation of our churches.
The second full meeting of Preproma took place in Lyon in July 2002. The four language-group co-ordinators have met several times. A preparatory group has worked on the paper printed in this number of Interchurch Families (pp.1-7) by email and postal correspondence, with a final meeting in Zurich in September 2002. The Rome World Gathering will take place in the Better World Centre at Rocca di Papa, 24-28 July 2003. There is regularly updated information on the interchurch families world web site,
Vol 11, # 1, January 2003
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