Ecumenical

"All denominations are respected, and no influence is brought to bear against the religious convictions of any student."

These words come from the 1912 Mount St. Charles Bulletin.  They attest to Carroll College’s hospitality to people from other (or no) faith traditions since its inception, and they anticipate by fifty years the Catholic Church’s commitment to ecumenism expressed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially Unitatis redintegratio (Decree on Ecumenism), and Nostra aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions).   While the word ecumenism more properly refers to the relationship among Christians, it is also frequently used as a synonym for interfaith relations.

The following principles inform Carroll College’s commitment to ecumenism:

  • We recognize and celebrate all that is true, good, and beautiful in non-Catholic traditions
  • We possess a genuine desire to understand non-Catholic perspectives
  • We are committed to dialogue with other religions in charity and humility
  • We share a commitment with all persons of good will (religious and non-religious) to the common good of society

Carroll College has expressed this commitment in the following ways:

  • An interfaith prayer room on campus
  • Panel discussions on the relationships among different religions
  • Sponsoring a Jewish Passover seder and Holocaust Remembrance Service
  • Sponsoring Native American events such as an annual Round Dance
  • Praying for Christian Unity during the annual Octave for Christian Unity

Helena Area Churches

Helena is home to over thirty churches representing over fifteen denominations.  Click on the links to take you directly to more information about each church.

Baptist

Catholic

Church of Christ

Church of the Nazarene

Christian and Missionary Alliance

Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches

Disciples of Christ

Episcopalian

Evangelical Covenant Church

First Assemblies of God

Foursquare Church

Grace Communion International

Latter Day Saints

Lutheran

Methodist

Non-Denominational

Pentecostal

Presbyterian

United Church of Christ

 Universalist Unitarian

Catholic Teaching about Other Christians and Other Religions

Protestants

The Catholic Church affirms "that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ's body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church" (Unitatis redintegratio, #3).

Judaism

"When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People, 'the first to hear the Word of God.' The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews 'belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ,' 'for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #839)

Islam

"The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day" (Lumen gentium, #16).

Other Non-Christian Religions

"Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing ‘ways,’ comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men" (Nostra aetate, #2).

"Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.  Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel" (Lumen gentium, #16)