Why
Ecumenism and
Living
Together in
Unity Matters
.
by Bob
Tedesco
A Spiritual
Perspective on Ecumenical Cooperation
- We were created by
the Lord for the Lord.
- We will spend
eternity in heaven.
- Catholics,
Protestants and Orthodox will be in
heaven.
- Our lives on earth
should prepare us for heaven.
- Therefore,
ecumenical prayer, service, and
cooperation prepare us for heaven.
The
logic above can easily be dismissed as
the simplistic exercise of the mind of
an engineer. Certainly the logic is
incomplete. There are other important
reasons for ecumenical cooperation.
When all of the dust settles and all
of the protests have been presented,
it remains an outrageous scandal that
many Catholics, Protestants, and
Orthodox still avoid each other like
the plague. It is a scandal to the
Gospel and an insult to Jesus’ prayer
for unity. Even in settings that hope
to be or claim to be ecumenical, there
is often a smugness that blocks
Christian brotherhood. “Are you
saved?” or “How can you be in that
church and be saved?” are questions
that sometimes surface in ecumenical
settings.
The Gift of
Ecumenism Begins with Pentecost
The first experience of Pentecost was
that of Jews from many places and of
many languages who were surprised to
hear their native language being
spoken (Acts 2:8). Then, at the house
of Cornelius, another Pentecost
happens as the Gentiles receive the
Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44). The Jewish
believers were “amazed” (vs. 45).
Peter, recognizing the Holy Spirit in
them, ordered them to be baptized (vs.
48).
Finally, in Acts 15, we have some Jews
teaching,
“You cannot be saved unless you are
circumcised...” (Acts 15:1 Today’s
English Version). Another “ecumenical”
crisis threatening the work of the
gospel; another distinctive taking
center stage; another competing
viewpoint being presented as
essential; another “ecumenical”
challenge. Fortunately the early
church dealt with its Jewish/Gentile
challenges, although it had some
setbacks.
Call
to Ecumenical Life
Together in
Sword of the Spirit
In the Sword of the Spirit,
we believe in the need for
ecumenical cooperation in
support of the Gospel and as
an expression of the
intrinsic unity that is the
work of the Holy Spirit. We
believe this word of
ecumenical cooperation is a
part of the modern Pentecost
that we see sweeping the
globe. We are privileged to
be a part of this
grass-roots ecumenical
movement that has emerged in
the last few decades after
hundreds of years of
Christian division.
Some of our communities are
ecumenical in membership and
by design. Some of our
communities are
denominational in membership
and by design. All of our
communities are ecumenical
in ethos, and our regional
and international events can
be quite a blend of
denominational expressions
from around the world.
We believe that the
ecumenical reality is an
element of the nature of the
modern Christian church and
that ecumenical cooperation
is being restored by the
Holy Spirit in our time.
Some
Statements on Ecumenical Cooperation
from Catholic,
Orthodox, Anglican, and Evangelical
Leaders
Address
by Pope Francis at the Ecumenical Center in
Geneva, June 21 2018
After so many years of ecumenical commitment,
on this seventieth anniversary of the World
Council, let us ask the Spirit to strengthen
our steps. All too easily we halt before our
continuing differences; all too often we are
blocked from the outset by a certain weariness
and lack of enthusiasm. Our differences must
not be excuses. Even now we can walk in the
Spirit: we can pray, evangelize and serve
together. This is possible and it is pleasing
to God! Walking, praying and working together:
this is the great path that we are called to
follow.
And this path has a
clear aim, that of unity. The opposite path,
that of division, leads to conflict and
breakup. The Lord bids us set out ever anew on
the path of communion that leads to peace. Our
lack of unity is in fact "openly contrary to
the will of Christ, but is also a scandal to
the world and harms the most holy of causes:
the preaching of the Gospel to every creature"
(Unitatis Redintegratio, 1). The Lord asks us
for unity; our world, torn by all too many
divisions that affect the most vulnerable,
begs for unity.
Dear brothers and
sisters, I have desired to come here, a
pilgrim in quest of unity and peace. I thank
God because here I have found you, brothers
and sisters already making this same journey.
For us as Christians, walking together is not
a ploy to strengthen our own positions, but an
act of obedience to the Lord and love for our
world. Let us ask the Father to help us walk
together all the more resolutely in the ways
of the Spirit. May the Cross guide our steps,
because there, in Jesus, the walls of
separation have already been torn down and all
enmity overcome (cf. Ephesians 2:14). In him,
we will come to see that, for all our
failings, nothing will ever separate us from
his love (cf. Romans 8:35-39).
Address by Archbishop Welby at the Ecumenical
Center in Geneva, February 2018
One of the great gifts of
the ecumenical movement is that it has allowed
Christians from different denominations, who might
once have kept separate from one another, to get
to know one another. There were times before, say,
the 1960s, when people of one denomination might
never have entered the church building of another.
Indeed many may have feared to go in either for
fear of either being turfed out or, worse,
contaminated by the place itself. Then something
changed. Christians found common cause in all
sorts of forums – political life; spirituality and
prayer; community service; education; children’s
work...
In the early days of his
pontificate, which started two days before I took
up my present office, Pope Francis made several
public statements in which he used the metaphor of
the sheep, the shepherd and the sheepfold. I had
cause to look at these statements again last year
when I was invited to write a reflection on them
for a collection of reflections on the words of
Pope Francis.
The most famous of these
statements was when he exhorted the clergy, the
pastors, to have the ‘smell of the sheep’, so
close were they to their people, the flock. But in
other statements he spoke of the sheepfold as
being like the Church. His interesting take on
this is that as well as the traditional
understanding of the absolute need to go out and
seek the lost to bring them back into the safety
of the sheepfold, he saw that it was possible for
the sheepfold to be as a frontier, a barrier – not
only keeping out the wolves but also other sheep.
The state of the Church
today is such that in many places – particularly
in Europe – we can see ninety-nine outside the
fold and only one inside. It’s almost true in
England: 1.7 percent of the population attend the
Church of England.
The task is great. It is
appropriate, right and imperative that the
churches work together to seek out the lost
wherever they may be. To find that when we bring
them into the safety of the fold should be one
fold, not many – and that the flock is one flock,
with one shepherd, the Good Shepherd himself, who
prays that we may be one.
Joint
Declaration by Pope Francis and
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
(25 May, 2014)
Like our
venerable predecessors Pope Paul VI
and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras
who met here in Jerusalem fifty
years ago, we too, Pope Francis and
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,
were determined to meet in the Holy
Land "where our common Redeemer,
Christ our Lord, lived, taught,
died, rose again, and ascended into
Heaven, whence he sent the Holy
Spirit on the infant Church"...
Our
fraternal encounter today is a new
and necessary step on the journey
towards the unity to which only the
Holy Spirit can lead us, that of
communion in legitimate diversity.
We call to mind with profound
gratitude the steps that the Lord
has already enabled us to undertake.
The embrace exchanged between Pope
Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras
here in Jerusalem, after many
centuries of silence, paved the way
for a momentous gesture, the removal
from the memory and from the midst
of the Church of the acts of mutual
excommunication in 1054. This was
followed by an exchange of visits
between the respective Sees of Rome
and Constantinople, by regular
correspondence and, later, by the
decision announced by Pope John Paul
II and Patriarch Dimitrios, of
blessed memory both, to initiate a
theological dialogue of truth
between Catholics and Orthodox.
Over these
years, God, the source of all peace
and love, has taught us to regard
one another as members of the same
Christian family, under one Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to love
one another, so that we may confess
our faith in the same Gospel of
Christ, as received by the Apostles
and expressed and transmitted to us
by the Ecumenical Councils and the
Church Fathers. While fully aware of
not having reached the goal of full
communion, today we confirm our
commitment to continue walking
together towards the unity for which
Christ our Lord prayed to the Father
so "that all may be one" (John
17:21).
Joint Statement by Evangelicals
and Catholics Together
on The Christian Mission in the
Third Millennium: Conclusion
“We do know that his promise is
sure, that we are enlisted for the
duration, and that we are in this
together. We do know that we must
affirm and hope and search and
contend and witness together, for we
belong not to ourselves but to him
who purchased us by the blood of the
cross. We do know that this is a
time of opportunity—and, if of
opportunity, then of
responsibility—for Evangelicals and
Catholics to be Christians together
in a way that helps prepare the
world for the coming of him to whom
belongs the kingdom, the power and
the glory forever. Amen.”
Pope
Benedict XVI January 25,
2007
“Ecumenism is a deep
dialogical experience; it is
listening and talking to one
another, knowing each better.
It is a task that everyone can
accomplish, especially in
terms of spiritual ecumenism
based on prayer and sharing
that are now possible between
Christians. I hope that the
yearning for unity, translated
into prayer and fraternal
collaboration to alleviate
man’s suffering, can spread
more and more at the parish
level as well as in Church
movements and religious
institutions.”2
Ut
Unum Sint [That All Be Made One]
an encyclical letter by Pope John Paul
II
Chapter 1:
The Catholic Church’s Commitment to
Ecumenism
Section 20:
“Thus it is absolutely clear that
ecumenism, the movement promoting
Christian unity, is not just some sort of
appendix which is added to the Church’s
traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is
an organic part of her life and work, and
consequently must pervade all that she is
and does.”
“What unites is much greater than
what divides us.” Pope John Paul XXIII
“When brothers
and sisters who are not in perfect
communion with one another come together
to pray, the Second Vatican Council
defines their prayer as the soul of the
whole ecumenical movement.”
Section 22:
“If Christians, despite their divisions,
can grow ever more united in common prayer
around Christ, they will grow in awareness
of how little divides them in comparison
to what unites them.”
Section 40:
“Relations between Christians are not
aimed merely at mutual knowledge, common
prayer and dialogue. They presuppose, and
from now on, call for every possible form
of practical cooperation at all levels:
pastoral, cultural and social, as well as
that of witnessing to the gospel message.
This
cooperation based on our common faith is
not only filled with fraternal communion,
but is a manifestation of Christ himself.
In
the eyes of the world, cooperation among
Christians becomes a form of common
Christian witness and a means of
evangelization which benefits all
involved.”
John Paul II January 22,
2003
“In fact, the present division
constitutes a ‘scandal’ for the
world and ‘harm’ for the preaching
of the Gospel.”
“The Catholic Church is
“irrevocably” committed to the
ecumenical way and the full unity of
Christians.”2
“This commitment is decisive for two
fundamental reasons: on the one
hand, unity expresses fidelity to
the Gospel; on the other, as the
Lord himself has indicated, it is a
condition in order that all will
believe that He is the one sent by
the Father.”2
Common Declaration of
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and
Pope John Paul II
4. “In this perspective we urge our
faithful, Catholics and Orthodox, to
reinforce the spirit of brotherhood which
stems from the one Baptism and from
participation in the sacramental life. In
the course of history and in the more recent
past, there have been attacks and acts of
oppression on both sides. As we prepare, on
this occasion, to ask the Lord for his great
mercy, we invite all to forgive one another
and to express a firm will that a new
relationship of brotherhood and active
collaboration will be established.
Such a spirit
should encourage both Catholics and
Orthodox, especially in the cultural,
spiritual, pastoral, educational and social
fields, avoiding any temptation to undue
zeal for their own community to the
disadvantage of the other. May the good of
Christ’s Church always prevail! Mutual
support and the exchange of gifts can only
make pastoral activity itself more effective
and our witness to the Gospel we desire to
proclaim more transparent.”
5. “We
maintain that a more active and concerted
collaboration will also facilitate the
Church’s influence in promoting peace and
justice in situations of political or ethnic
conflict. The Christian faith has
unprecedented possibilities for solving
humanity’s tensions and enmity.”
[This
article is adapted from Essays on
Christian Community, by Bob
Tedesco Copyright 2010]
Top
illustration (c) from
bigstock.com
|
