Concrete steps are already being made under the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' new National Ecumenical Strategy (NES), publicly unveiled mere weeks ago on Nov. 24, said Regina Archbishop Don Bolen.

Bolen, chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity, Religious Relations with the Jews and Interfaith Dialogue, said approximately 33 per cent of dioceses across the country have a bishop-appointed ecumenical officer, and diocesan shepherds are acting upon advice in the NES and from the Holy See to make this a priority.

“A Vatican document, the Decree on Ecumenism, calls on every diocese to have an ecumenical officer, but churches are pulled in many different directions and bishops often feel a shortage of staff to undertake everything,” said Bolen. “We've (now) had a little upsurge, an uptick of ecumenical officers.

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“One of the things we’ve committed to was to help form them in terms of the various tasks and undertakings that an ecumenical officer should engage in and how they go about it. That work is now underway.”

Ad-Intra Formation (the Church building up its own members from within) is a core pillar of the NES. Alongside the appointed ecumenical officer, the strategy calls for the development of resources for any Catholic stakeholder involved directly or indirectly with ecumenism. There are to be continued growth opportunities and toolkits made available to clergy. And potentially, diocesan or eparchial ecumenical commissions could be established.

Spiritual ecumenism is another important dimension of the newly unveiled strategic plan. One of the specific tasks under this priority is revitalizing the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity — scheduled in 2026 from Jan. 18-25 — in the years to come.

“In some sense, that's slowed down in recent decades,” said Bolen. “Some of those gatherings are pretty small right now. We're wanting to give renewed encouragement to Week of Prayer celebrations.”

Augmenting this long-standing initiative, dioceses and parishes will also encourage visits to other Christian churches, especially to partake in special festivals or services. Bishops and clergy are to increasingly meet with leaders of other Christian denominations for prayer, support and consultation.

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The NES also calls for an audit to discern which dialogues the CCCB has with various churches and ecclesial communities should continue, and if there is a need to initiate new discussions.

The fourth priority is a stated rededication to the Lund Principle, endorsed by Pope Francis. It is a call “to do all things together except where deep differences require that we act separately.”

Bolen emphasized that there is nothing in the NES “which is encouraging us to force ecumenical relations.” Rather, it is about knowing those areas of commonly held faith and acting out of them in terms of witness and mission and prayer and study.”

An unforeseen opportunity for ecumenical solidarity has emerged in recent weeks in the form of Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act. The Liberal Party and Bloc Québécois joined to pass an amendment during a justice and human rights committee meeting that will repeal religious speech protections from the Criminal Code if the bill becomes law.

"Anything that hampers religious freedom, we want to speak up together,” said Bolen. “And anything which restricts our rights as faith communities to be a people of faith, we can engage in common witness in that regard and (make) common appeals to the government.”

For much of the past few weeks, Bolen was in Rome. During his sojourn in the City of Seven Hills, he stayed abreast of Pope Leo XIV’s visits to Turkey and Lebanon. There was a moment when the pontiff was in Turkey to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which Bolen said showcased ecumenism at its best.

“You had leaders from 26 different Christian communities who had a prayer service and together recited the Nicene Creed,” said Bolen. “It was an apparently profoundly moving experience to articulate, pray and speak together a document that expresses the heart of our faith, which is what Christian churches hold in common.

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“We want our laity to be able to find those contexts where we can gather with other Christians and witness to our common faith.”

Read the entire NES at cccb.ca.