Fr. John Crossin, OSFS, Remembered

On April 18, 2024, the Washington Theological Consortium (WTC), held a special symposium in Washington, D.C. to honor the legacy of the renowned Catholic ecumenist, and former Director of Spiritual Care for Saint Luke Institute (SLI), the late Fr. John Crossin, OSFS. A panel of presenters, including Kathleen Hope Brown, D.Min., current Director of Spiritual Care for SLI, discussed the connections he developed both theologically and pastorally in his ecumenical work. Dr Brown specifically focused on the links between that work and his spiritual integration efforts working with clients at SLI.

Fr. Crossin died in 2023 at the age of 75. In addition to his role at Saint Luke Institute, he was also Executive Director of the WTC from 1998-2011. He served as Executive Director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. and, in 2014, was named by Pope Francis as a consultant to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. Author of many books, his last, and the focus of the WTC presentation, was entitled Moving into the Ecumenical Future: Foundations of a Paradigm for Christian Ethics.

In her presentation as part of the panel, Dr. Brown drew out points from Fr. Crossin’s work around the topic of “Ecumenism as Spiritual Friendship: Spirituality as Our Common Language.” She noted, “John and I had many conversations about spirituality, spiritual companionship and spiritual friendship, and I remember him saying that he found, in his ecumenical work, that spirituality is our common language. We can have many differences about theological and biblical interpretation, about liturgy or organizational issues, but our spirituality, our experience of God, is at a level much deeper than all of those differences. The spiritual friendship that John mentions so frequently in his book is capable of bridging differences, when it is offered with humility, compassion, and a willingness to listen at least as much as we talk.”

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The Washington Theological Consortium is a community of theological schools of diverse Christian traditions—with partners in education, spirituality and interfaith dialogue—that supports ecumenical unity and interfaith understanding within the Greater Washington, D.C. area.

Read Dr. Brown’s presentation.

Video from the WTC event will soon be available and will be posted here.