‘The feelings of joy and satisfaction expressed by families at the celebration strengthened the
relationship of a wider circle of neighbors:
we became friends and friends of Jesus.’
In Peru, a first communion ‘first’
Lutheran and Roman Catholic children hold candles during a Dec. 7 first communion service.
Q&A: Two Lima clergy talk about their grassroots ecumenical efforts
In December 2014, Roman Catholic priest Marco Agüero Vidal and
Pedro Bullón, a pastor of the Peruvian Lutheran
Evangelical Church, jointly celebrated an ecumenical
first communion service of children in the Pamplona Alta neighborhood in the San Juan de Miraflores district of Lima, Peru. In
this interview provided by Lutheran World Informa- tion, the Lutheran World
Federation news service, the church leaders high- light landmarks in their journey toward “living a grassroots ecumenism.”
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www.thelutheran.org
What were some highlights of the first communion service for Roman Catholic and
Lutheran confirmands? Vidal and Bullón: We worked
together with first communion material provided by the Roman Catholic parish because of the versa- tility and approach to the Peruvian reality and its various scenarios (family, neighborhood, individual situations, etc.). Tis was the begin- ning of the first steps of a mutual recognition by both parties, with plans for a more official recognition in the near future. Te feelings of joy and satisfac-
tion expressed by families at the cel- ebration strengthened the relation- ship of a wider circle of neighbors: we became friends and friends of Jesus.
Since you began, what have been some of your activities? We began collaborating during
the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January 2012. We wanted to do something that was beyond praying together. … In the same week we visited each other in our parishes. It was an unforgettable experience because the people on both the Lutheran and Roman Catholic sides wanted us to have more of such meetings. Tat encouraged us to cross
the threshold of living together as an interconfessional community toward a more liberating experience of the grace of God. Te activities that we have carried out together in the community of Pamplona Alta include: • Study of the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (signed by the Lutheran World Federation and Vatican in 1999).
• Promoting and supporting the formation of a Joint Commission (Peruvian Episcopal Conference and Peruvian Lutheran Evangeli- cal Church) to receive the 2013 document “From Conflict to Communion—Lutheran- Catholic Common Commemora- tion of the Reformation in 2017” (published by the Lutheran-
SEAN HAWKEY/LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION
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