The Commission on Faith and Witness met in Montreal, March, 1999. Papers prepared by members of the Commission on various aspects of Christian discipleship served as the starting-point for what developed into a rich dialogue on the meaning of Christian discipleship today. The essays will be reworked in light of the dialogue, and published in the future.

In November, 1998, Commission members shared both personal reflections and their churches' doctrinal statements on Jesus Christ. This dialogue raised members' awareness of their common christological meeting-place. This was the first stage of discussions aimed toward the development of a resource on Christian discipleship that will take shape in connection with the churches' reflections on the year 2000 in the spirit of "jubilee", with its emphasis on motifs of sabbath rest and metanoia and the liberation of captives. What does the year 2000 have to do with "ordinary people in ordinary time", with the concrete, lived experiences of Christians seeking to follow Jesus Christ?

Jesus' question, "who do you say I am" is one that needs to be posed and answered in every generation

Who is this Jesus who announces "today the Scripture is fulfilled in me", and how do we follow him?

• What does it mean to live in the Year of the Lord's Favour?
  
  
• How does Jesus proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favour?
  
  
• What aspects of our contemporary culture present difficult challenges to that proclamation?
  
  
• What critical dimensions of our Canadian context cry out to be illuminated by our christology?
  
  
• What does it mean to pray "thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven"?
  
  

The intent of the CFW is to produce an ecumenical resource for Christian discipleship that might be available for use during Lent of the year 2000, or from Advent 2000 to Easter or Pentecost 2001. The Commission identified a number of concerns that will guide the development of the proposed resource"

• the work of the CFW is concerned with empowering ordinary people in ordinary time, "equipping the saints" for discipleship
  
  
• that the focus on discipleship functions as concretized christology (we know Christ in following him)
  
  
• that the resource assist Christians in "traditioning", passing on the lived faith to the next generation, and so any materials produced must be inter-generational
  
  
• that, in the process of reflection and dialogue the CFW pay careful attention to cultural realities that present difficult challenges, i.e. pluralism, economic and environmental crises
  
  

Two regional working groups were established, to continue to develop the project between the regular biannual meetings of the CFW. These groups will meet to work on the questions listed above, and will share their developments with each other at the next meeting of the Commission, planned for November 9-10, in the Toronto area.