DIALOGUE

Ecumenism, which is understood as inter-church co-operation as the result of common witness, continues to characterize the Protestant world. The Waldensian Synod has encouraged ecumenical activities particularly at local congregational levels ensuring that theological issues are always present in debates. Evangelicals believe that faith in the Gospel is more important than formal unity and that ecumenism cannot be reduced to just a gathering of believers without pondering the problems of faith in our times.

For decades the Waldensians have actively participated in ecumenical dialogue with both other Protestant churches as well as Orthodox ones. The Waldensian Church is one of the founders of the Ecumenical Council of Churches which, at present, numbers more than 340 churches of different denominations in 120 countries world-wide.
Since 1990, the Waldensian Evangelical Church is in full ecclesiastical communion with the Baptist churches which belong to Unione Cristiana Evangelica Battista d'Italia ( Italian Baptist Union). One of the most visible signs of this communion is the weekly Evangelical newspaper "Riforma", which is edited jointly by Baptists, Methodists and Waldensians.

Relationships with the Roman Catholic Church, which have been difficult because of divergent dogmatic points of view and different attitudes towards society, became more mutually respective after Vatican II. One of the most important documents of the official dialogue with the Italian Episcopalian Conference is "A Common Text for Pastoral Guidance in Marriages between Catholics, Waldensians and Methodists", approved in 1997 and followed by the Applied Text in 2000.