The "Domestic Church" Project - Overview

In the autumn of 2005, members of the Interchurch Families International Network (IFIN) had opportunity to meet with several staff of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU). In the course of that meeting, it was suggested that we interchurch families help the Church explore the concept of the term "domestic church" as raised in the Second Council of the Vatican.

Thus began a project which has born great fruit, in discussions among families and groups and organizations of interchurch families, in reports on these discussions, and in papers presented at various conferences and published in various journals.

These reports and papers are now being gathered in one place as a gift to interchurch families and to the churches of which we are members. As people read and reflect on these articles, we hope fruit will be borne in two ways. The first is that interchurch families may become ever more convinced of the great call and gift that is theirs as domestic churches, a gift which bears fruit in bringing their churches together in love. The second is that their churches will come to recognize, call forth and celebrate the gift of unity that is being realized in their midst in the life of interchurch families, a gift for all the churches of which these families are members.

Several of the papers are not available for publication. They are still listed here, however, as they helped to inform interchurch families to whom they were presented, and at times raised insights and questions which bore fruit in other papers which were in fact published.

The papers, published and unpublished, are listed below in chronological order.

We who live the rich wonder of interchurch family life trust you find in these papers solid material for reflection, and a sense of joy at the Spirit of God working to make us all one in Christ.

         Living in the Domestic Church - A UK perspective, 2016.

Interchurch Families and Christian Unity (Rome document, 2003)

Report on the AIF Groups, Spring 2007 (Dr. Ruth Reardon)

Conjugal and Ecclesial Communion - (Dr. Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 44:3, Summer 2009 - used with permission)

Interchurch Families as Domestic Church: More Real Than Imperfect? (Ray Temmerman)

Loving the universal church through a spouse's church (Jean-Baptiste Lipp)

Are Interchurch Families Domestic Churches (Dr. Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi)

Interchurch Families - A Test Case for the Domestic Church (Dr. Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi -awaiting publication)

Domestic Church Report – AAIF-Nov 2007 (Rev. Dr. George Kilcourse)

Being One at Home: Interchurch Families as Domestic Church (Dr. Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi, One In Christ Vol 42 No 2 2008. reprinted with permission)

Interchurch Families as Domestic Church (Klemens and Elisabeth Betz, ARGE-2009)

How Do Children Become Active Subjects within the Domestic Church? Reflections on a Neglected Subject within Roman Catholic Ecclesiological Discourse on the Domestic Church, Dr. Peter De Mey. Children’s Voices. Children’s Perspectives in Ethics, Theology and Religious Education (Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium, 230), ed. Annemie Dillen & Didier Pollefeyt, Leuven, Peeters, 2010, 295-306. Published electronically with permission from Dr. Peter De Mey, Annemie Dillen, and Peeters Publishing..

The Ecumenical Household as Domestic Church? (Dr Bernard Prusak, Leuven 2010)

Interchurch Families as Improbable Grace (Rev. Dr. George Kilcourse, Leuven 2010)

Interchurch Couples: Witness to Communion (Dr Mary Marrocco, Leuven 2010)

Interchurch Families: an indispensable microcosm (Jean-Baptiste Lipp, Leuven 2010)

Interchurch Families as Domestic Church: Familial Experiences (Ray Temmerman, Leuven 2010)

Interchurch Families as Domestic Church: Familial Experiences and Ecclesial Opportunities (Ray Temmerman, 2011)

Domestic Church: A Review of Documents, Papers, and Presentations (Ray Temmerman, 2012)