LEADING Christian theologians from across the world will gather in the North-East later this month for a landmark conference.

The conference will include a keynote address by a senior figure from the Vatican, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Cardinal Kasper will open the conference on January 12 after receiving an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Durham University.

The six-day conference - called Catholic Learning: Explorations in Receptive Ecumenism - has been organised jointly by Durham University's department of theology and religion and Ushaw College, the Roman Catholic seminary for the North of England, just outside Durham.

More than 130 invited church leaders are expected to attend the event, hosted by Father Terry Drainey, rector of Ushaw College, including representatives from Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Orthodox and free church traditions.

Among the participants will be Archbishop Mario Conti, of Glasgow, Bishops Terence Brain, of Salford, Kevin Dunn, of the Hexham and Newcastle diocese, Michael Evans, of East Anglia, Patrick O'Donoghue, of Lancaster, and Bishop of Durham Tom Wright.

They will be joined by church figures from France, Italy, Germany and the US.

Conference organiser Dr Paul Murray, lecturer in systematic theology and director of the Catholic learning and receptive ecumenism research project at the university, said the conference and honorary degree were a recognition of Cardinal Kasper's significant contribution to contemporary Catholic theology and ecumenical matters.

He said: "The event will be focused on exploring a creative way forwards in current ecumenical relations and how the long journey that is required can be a time of fruitful growth and mutual learning."

During the next year, links between the university and the college are to be cemented with the establishment of the Durham Centre for Advanced Catholic Studies, which will work closely with the Catholic Church while retaining full academic independence.

The centre is designed to develop an international forum for the critical and constructive exploration of issues within contemporary Catholicism.