jepta 2001 21 - European Pentecostal Theological Association

Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue:
Some Pentecostal Assumptions
Cecil M. Robeck, Jr.
It is an honor for me to have been invited to address the members of the European
Pentecostal Theological Association during the first year of the third "Christian"
millennium.' It is an honor, because I am not a citizen of Europe, though over the
past decade I have averaged about six weeks a year in Europe. It is an honor,
because I have subscribed to the EPTA Bulletin, now the Journal of the European
Pentecostal Theological Association from the time of its inception, and I have
read your papers and listened in on your conversations for two decades. I have
learned a great deal from you and I am thankful to have had that opportunity.
It is also an honor to be asked to address you on the topic of the International
Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue. I have been a member of that Dialogue
since 1985, and I have served as co-chair of the Dialogue since 1992. Through
my years of involvement with the Dialogue, I have found that Pentecostals as
well as many Evangelicals have questions about it, some of which are based upon
a genuine interest in these discussions. Others are based upon ignorance of the
situation, or they arise out of personal pain, or out of fear of what might be its
outcome. It is my hope that in this short presentation I will be able to answer
some of your questions about why I am involved in this Dialogue. I also hope
that this short introduction will facilitate a fruitful discussion concerning the
Dialogue itself, and perhaps raise interest on the part of other European
Pentecostal groups becoming part of that discussion.
As we begin our time together, I want you to understand four things about me.
First, I am a committed classical Pentecostal both by experience and by tradition.
I do not make any apologies for being Pentecostal, nor will I compromise on the
core essentials of what it means for me. I believe that my Pentecostal experience
and training have contributed significantly to my ability to serve successfully in
the International Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue and elsewhere in the
global Church. It is Pentecostals who brought me to faith, Pentecostals who have
nurtured me in my faith my entire life, and Pentecostals who taught me that
regardless of the personal cost involved, I was to be faithful to whatever call God
gave to me. The latter part has been the most difficult to live out, especially
when Pentecostals have not always understood the call that God has given to me,
or even agreed that God could have given such a call. In any case, I have tried to
be faithful to my heritage, and 1 have allowed my leaders to discern, with me,
what God has said to me regarding my call to ecumenical ministry.
Second, I am by training, a historical-theologian. I focused my studies in the
' Paper presented at the EPTA Conference, Bucharest, Romania, April 2001.