From the Rector
Christian Unity
Last month I spent more than a week at the National Workshop on Christian Unity in Chicago. I represented our Diocese as Ecumenical Officer and have been appointed to the national board of Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical and Interfaith Officers (EDEIO) as Coordinator of Province VIII which includes 17 Dioceses west of the Rockies, Hawaii, Alaska, and Taiwan.
In Chicago we heard an update on the global dialogue between the Orthodox and Anglican Church from one of the participants, the Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer. We also had a workshop on interim sharing of Holy Communion between the Methodists and Episcopalians. Delegates represented the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Quakers, American Baptists, and the historic black congregations, CME, AME, and AME Zion, among others.
The word Ecumenical refers to the wholeness and unity of the church. Why does the church spend so much time and energy on this?
Well, in the Gospel of John Chapter 17, Jesus prays for his followers “that we may all be one.” Jesus also said “to love one another then you prove to be my disciples.” The recent fist fight between Greek and Armenian clergy in the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem brings scandal to the Gospel and points to the need for unity and love.
Christian unity, the bond we share as Christians is apparent but hard to achieve on the ground. We see the signs of God working in other churches. We honor the baptisms of other churches when we invite all baptized Christians to Holy Communion. Intellectually, we recognize members of other churches as brothers and sisters in Christ. Our differences and divisions we see often as the result of human frailty.
The danger of dismissing divisions between churches as the result of human error and therefore somehow inevitable, (after all we’re only human), is that it can so easily lead to indifference and even slide into contempt for other Christian bodies and the way they think and do things.
The Apostle Paul wrote about the variety of spiritual gifts. If we are charitable we can see that diverse Christian groups give evidence of different gifts. Some examples are: the Roman Church with its sense of order and a rich tradition of contemplation and meditation; the Orthodox with their liturgy and the mysticism of the Desert Fathers and Mothers; the Lutherans witness to justification by faith, the Reforming Churches and their zeal for correcting error; the Quakers and Mennonites and their commitment to peace and justice. The list could go on. Maybe you can think of some more examples.
Our salvation comes from Christ. The Holy Spirit bestows gifts. In that light it’s helpful to recall St. Paul’s words writing in the 4th Chapter of I Corinthians addresses church dissension: “Who made you so important? What have you got that was not given to you? And if it were not given to you, then why do you boast as if it were your own?”
Words that can help point us to unity come again from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, this time from the famous 13th chapter on love: “If I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or cymbal clashing” and “these remain: faith, hope, and love, the three of them; and the greatest of these is love.” Charity and love as we seek church unity glorifies God and helps spread the Gospel.