Worcester, MA --- Fr. George H. Tavard, A.A., an ecumenist of international note, will deliver the annual Bishop Flanagan Ecumenical Lecture, entitled "Toward the Third Millenium: Recent Ecumenical Developments," on Monday, November 22, 1999, at 7:00 p.m. in the College's La Maison Salon.

Fr. Tavard, a native of France and an American resident since the 1950's, is the author of over forty books and hundreds of articles of both a scholarly and popular nature, many of which bear directly on ecumenism. He served as a theological expert, or advisor, to the Second Vatican Council from 1962-1965, and has been active in national and international dialogues between Roman Catholics and Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists. In recent years, Fr. Tavard has been a visiting professor of Theology at Marquette University, at Regis College in Toronto, and at the Catholic University of America. Currently residing at the Assumption Center in Brighton, MA, he devotes his time to writing and to taking part in international dialogue meetings.

The annual Bishop Flanagan Ecumenical Lecture series honors the memory of Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan, a Vermont native who served as the second bishop of Worcester from 1959-1983, and did much to foster ecumenism on both the national and local levels. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Bishop Flanagan worked to promote better understanding and cooperation among Christians of different churches in the Worcester area. In collaboration with other local religious leaders, he played a part in making Worcester nationally known as the "the ecumenical city." Bishop Flanagan passed away in 1998.

The Flanagan Ecumenical Lecture series began in 1993, and is now part of Assumption College's Ecumenical Institute, which was recently refounded.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

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