France’s Protestant Federation and the Assembly of Orthodox bishops sent their wishes to Monsignor Andrè Vingt-Trois, congratulating him for his election as President of France’s Bishops’ Conference. “We know that, as has been the case of your predecessors, you will be a capable and sensitive interlocutor in following with inspired sense of responsibility, openness and fraternity, the path of dialogue undertaken a long time ago within the Council of Christian Churches in France as also among the representatives of our Churches in France”, wrote Metropolitan bishop Emmanuel, President of Orthodox Bishops. “We know that your assignment “, wrote the President of the protestant Federation pastor Gill Daudè – is limited to the Catholic world only, but it also has the vocation to serve Christian unity going beyond confessional boundaries, in view of a deeper testimony to our contemporaries”. The pastor also sent a message of greetings to Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, thanking him for the contribution given during the years of his presidency to CEF for the “progress of unity between out two Churches”. Metropolitan Emmanuel and pastor Gill Daudè were invited to speak at the French Bishops Assembly held in Lourdes on October 4-8.
