Isaiah envisioned all the nations streaming toward the mountain of the Lord’s house. The Catholic Church and four U.S. Reformed churches were in the house of Lord together, at least for baptism, when the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) approved an agreement last week to recognize baptisms performed by four Protestant denominations, a move that one archbishop called “a milestone on the ecumenical journey.”

The agreement is the result of six years of study and discussion between the representatives of the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Presbyterian Church-USA, the Reformed Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church, and the United Church of Christ. In calling the vote a milestone, Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, chairman of the USCCB Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, went on to say, "Together with our Reformed brothers and sisters" from the four churches, "we Catholic bishops can once again affirm baptism as the basis of the real, even if incomplete, unity we share in Christ."

The agreement had already been ratified by the Presbyterian Church. With the USCCB approval, any baptisms performed in either Catholic or Presbyterian churches will be mutually recognized, as long as the proper formula is used and documented.

The other three Protestant communities are to consider the agreement at their national meetings in the coming months. Gregory explained that the agreement will "allow Catholic ministers to presume that baptisms performed in these communities are 'true baptism' as understood in Catholic doctrine and law."

Source: Articles by Nancy Frazier for Catholic News Service, Religion News Service
via Ecumenical News International, and Global Zenit News