Pastoral counselling of multi-religious families based on examples from Bielsko-Żywiec diocese

Abstract

The area of Bielsko‑Żywiec diocese is inhabited by about 50,000 members of the Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession. This fact has indisputable merits in the ecumenical movement, especially in pastoral counselling of marriages of different Christian denominations. In Cieszyn Silesia, the beginnings of the movement go many centuries back. Nevertheless, history shows that the religious relationships were totally different from the present ones, which are full of respect, tolerance, brotherhood, and engagement in the common faith testimony. The Catholic and Protestant Churches have a shared ecumenical activity, where the first place is reserved for the pastoral counselling of multidenominational. There is still a long way to go for the ecumenical ministry of the multidenominational families before it becomes a fully‑fledged unit in the pastoral work of the Churches. There is a constant need for ecumenical education, for learning the Church’s teachings, for information about the achievements in the ecumenical dialogue. Tolerance, respect, acceptance, humbleness and love, and common testimony are values which are indispensable in the pastoral counselling of religiously mixed families. These values should continually be developed in multidenominational families.