This year marks the 40 th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) which was held from 1962-65.

A council is a special gathering of the Church's bishops. When this gathering involved the Churches of the East and West it was called an ecumenical council.

However, since the schism of 1054 between the Churches of the East and the West, there has not been an ecumenical council in the strict sense. Vatican II (to which Eastern Church representatives were invited as observers) was a “pastoral council”.

Its intention was not to condemn but to reconcile, not to withdraw within the safe confines of its boundaries but to open the doors of the Church to the fresh breath of the Spirit.

Forty years on, it is important to review briefly the impact of the Council as it pertains to the Caribbean .

Vatican II produced some watershed documents, the most far-reaching being on the sacred liturgy. In the area of liturgy the Caribbean Church ranks very high; our liturgies are lively and appeal to the young, much like the liturgies of the churches of Africa and Latin America .

At the recently concluded World Youth Day in Cologne , participants from Africa found some parts of the German liturgy dull, short and overly solemn.

We here in the Caribbean can identify with that comment for our liturgies are rooted in our lively, indigenous cultural heritage reflecting a multiplicity of musical traditions. We must be careful, however, because the vitality of our celebrations often precludes moments of silence.

DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

The Council also returned the Bible to its central place in the life of the Church. However, Caribbean Christians were Bible-loving people long before the council.

They appeal to the Bible in song and literature but especially in arguments on politics and economics. Under the impact of lectio divina as well as Bible courses offered at various venues the Caribbean Catholic Church has become more Bible-centred.

However, the average Catholic still needs to have a deeper understanding of the Bible – its origins, geographical context, literary genres involved and the major emphases of the different books.

There also needs to be a greater correspondence between the Bible and life: we must live what we read and practise what we preach.

Nostra Aetate , the document on the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions, is setting the tone of Church for the 21 st century. The Church now finds itself with its doors wide open to the currents of thought emanating from other religions. Nostra Aetate states: “The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions” (n. 2)

The challenge is to know what is true and holy in the religion of others while not losing conviction in the claims of our own. The Council therefore envisions a dialectic: we become more deeply rooted in our own faith while becoming familiar with the teachings of others.

This is a challenge we have not yet picked up; we continue to remain ignorant about the basic precepts of Islam, Hinduism as well as the Spiritual Baptist and Orisha faiths, even though we have lived well alongside disciples of these faiths.

As we mark the 40 th anniversary of Vatican II, let us recommit ourselves to following the general directions offered by the Council for the good of the Church and the building up of the kingdom.