Bonds of friendship and enriched life together, by Sue Heuver
Life in Triumph of the Cross ecumenical community and in the North American Region of the Sword of the Spirit has brought me wonderful friendships with brothers and sisters from many Christian traditions. Each one has enriched my own walk with God.
When I prayed with Debbie, an Orthodox Christian, I was moved by her reverence and the way she began her prayer with repentance by proclaiming Psalm 51. Donna and Jeanne, two Catholic women, spurred me on as they each spent years caring selflessly for family members through debilitating illnesses. Deena, a Reformed Christian, inspired me to root myself in Godâs word by studying Scripture and to prioritize my marriage and family while serving in my community and parish. Mike, a Baptist, bonded with my husband over farming, heavy machinery, and serving the poor. Our children served with Mike on mission trips and came home grateful and energized by helping people in need.
Jennifer, a Lutheran sister in my own community, has become a trusted, beloved friend. We began by taking walks, pushing strollers and trading prayer intentions. We grew to rely on each other in our service and our call as wives and mothers. Amid our differing beliefs and practices, we have celebrated together her childâs adoption, first communions, weddings, and confirmations. We have shared lifeâs joys and sorrows. It is âfor such a time as thisâ that God brought us to ecumenical communityâand it has been very good!
One day, Jesusâ prayer, âthat they may all be one,â will finally be answered. We will join with believers from every nation, race, tribe, and tongue to praise our God, who saved us by his death and resurrection. On that day, we will share fully in the gifts that our brothers and sisters bring to the body of Christ. Through my ecumenical friendships, I have tasted and seen!
Evangelicals and Catholics together in fraternal love, by Emilio Rivera
My name is Emilio Rivera. I am an Evangelical Christian, and I have been a member of a Pentecostal church since my childhood. Some time ago, God did something very important and new in my life, when he called me to be part of Arbol de Vida, an ecumenical community in Costa Rica.
My nuclear family is Evangelical, although the rest of my relatives are Catholic. Because of negative experiences with some of them and how they expressed their Catholicism I came to regard it erroneously. Both family tensions arising from denominational issues, and mutual ignorance, strengthened this perception. When I compared my Christian life and my ecclesial commitment with the lives my relatives led, I always thought that they came up short, while I lived my Christianity in the right way.
But my life took a turn when I became acquainted with âCristianos en Marcha,â an ecumenical outreach of the community. There, I got to know young Catholic students who had, by far, a deeper relationship and experience of God than I was used to see in my immediate context. Also, it was encouraging to see Evangelicals and Catholics sharing the same space of prayer and worship in fraternal love.
Soon after, I felt that the Lord was calling me to belong to the community and embrace its way of life. I serve a lot in my church and there âI had everything I needed,â so it was difficult to divide my time in both places. But, one day when I attended Mass with my Catholic friends in the outreach, God used the priestâs message to confirm my call and helped me make the decision.
Living in an ecumenical community is a true blessing and one of my best decisions. Here, I can appreciate the way Catholics express their faith and draw closer to God. As an evangelical who lives and prays for unity, that is something I treasure in my heart.
Love and unity in the power of the Holy Spirit, by Stacey Barajas
My name is Stacey Barajas. I grew up in the Work of Christ Community, which is made up of Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Christians. My husband Francisco is from Mexico, and we have 3 bilingual sons.
I teach Spanish classes and a Mexican culture class at Michigan State University, where my community has an active University Christian Outreach (UCO) chapter. As you can imagine, I find myself constantly translating and moving back and forth between two different languages and two different cultures. It often reminds me of what we can experience as members of an ecumenical community.
I grew up in a community neighborhood. Among the families there was a great mix of Protestants and Catholics. We kids often asked questions and made comments about the differences in our church traditions and practices.
Before I was old enough to understand any of the important differences that exist among Christians, or to grieve the brokenness that exists in the body of Christ, I experienced love and unity in the power of the Holy Spirit. Later, as a teen and young adult, I received a lot of helpful teaching about ecumenism. One fun experience of this was in my University Christian Outreach (UCO) womenâs household in college. We had Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox women living together, so we made and used three different Advent wreaths!
Today, I feel equipped to flow culturally & linguistically between different environments, some that include just people from my Catholic tradition and others which do not. I had a Russian Orthodox student in my Mexican Cultures class who made fascinating comparisons between Mexican Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy. Because of my community experiences, I was able to understand and affirm his contributions to our class discussions.
I greatly treasure the international, intercultural, and ecumenical life we have in the Sword of the Spirit. My life is richer for it, personally and professionally.
These three reflections on Unity and Shared Life Together, by Sue Heuver, Emilio Rivera, and Stacey Barajas are excerpted from the © Sword of the Spirit Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: January 18 â 25 2025.
Top image credit: Members of communities in North America gather for a time of praise and worship during a regional conference, photo courtesy © Sword of the Spirit archives.
The Sword of the Spirit is a network of charismatic and ecumenical covenant communities and movements around the World.