Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 49:2, Spring 2014 193 THE HOLY SPIRIT AND LIVED COMMUNION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTERNATIONAL BILATERAL DIALOGUES* Jeremy M. Bergen PRECIS The movement from the unity the churches already have in Jesus Christ to the lived communion in which such unity would be fully realized is often understood in terms of the work of the Holy Spirit. An examination of this theme in the reports of international bilateral dialogues from 1982 to 2012 results in an outline of an implic- it ecumenical pneumatology. In particular, the dialogues discern the work of the Spirit in the practice of dialogue, wrestle with how the Spirit may have been active in or despite historical moments of division, identify the Spirit with the present work of healing memories, link the Spirit of unity with the church in mission, and reflect on the experience of koinonia/communion and reception of the gifts of the Spirit. The modern ecumenical movement is widely interpreted as a sign of the movement of the Holy Spirit for the unity of the church. 1 The international Methodist-Roman Catholic dialogue explicitly identified the ecumenical movement as “itself a grace of the Holy Spirit for the unity of Christians.” 2 This link is perhaps obvious given the intimate association of the Spirit and unity in texts such as 1 Cor. 12:12–13 and Eph. 4:1–6, as well as in the Second Vatican Council’s Unitatis redintegratio: “It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the Church as a whole, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful. He brings them into intimate union with Christ, so that ______________ *The author dedicates this essay to the memory of Professor Margaret O’Gara (1947–2012), of the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto. 1 See Michael A. Fahey, “The Ecumenical Movement Inspired by the Holy Spirit,” in D[oris] Donnelly, A[delbert] Denaux, and J[oseph] Famerée, eds., The Holy Spirit, the Church, and Chris- tian Unity: Proceedings of the Consultation Held at the Monastery of Bose, Italy (14–20 October 2002) (Leuven: Leuven University Press; and Leuven, Paris, and Dudley, MA: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2005), pp. 119–136. Also see Ralph Del Colle, “The Holy Spirit and Ecumenism,” Ecumenical Trends 29 (June, 2000): 90–96; Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “The Ecumenical Potential of Pneumatolo- gy,” Gregorianum, vol. 80, no. 1 (1999): 121–145; and Philip J. Rosato, “Called by God, in the Holy Spirit: Pneumatological Insights into Ecumenism,” The Ecumenical Review 30 (April, 1978): 110– 126. 2 Methodist-Roman Catholic Joint Commission, “The Apostolic Tradition,” fifth series (1991), no. 94, in Jeffrey Gros, Harding Meyer, and William G. Rusch, eds., Growth in Agreement II: Re- ports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical Conversations on a World Level, 1982–1998, Faith and Order Paper 187 (Geneva: WCC Publications; and Grand Rapids, MI, and Cambridge, U.K.: Wil- liam Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000) (hereafter, GA II), p. 615. A similar expression is found in the International Reformed-Catholic Dialogue, “The Church as Community of Common Witness to the Kingdom of God,” third phase (2007), no. 197; available at http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pon tifical_councils/chrstuni/alliance-reform-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20070124_third-phase-dialogue_ en.html.