Exploring Ecumenism

Elements of Mission 3: Morality

I illustrated a recent post  with Dore's engraving of Satan from Milton's Paradise Lost.  Why?  Because Satan was at the time of Jesus known as the angel of Rome.  His speciality was as upholder of the law.  He insisted upon total obedience.  I'm not at all sure how he mutated into the Hammer Horror monster of popular mythology.  The point is when we think about doctrine and morality we usually think in Satanic terms.  Once I know the truth, everyone else is by definition wrong.  We saw the consequences of this in the totalitarian regimes of the last century.  Christianity offers a radical alternative to these absolutes and this is what Radcliffe  was talking about at the CTE Forum  a few weeks ago.

He went on to describe how the media pressure church leaders to make statements on ethical issues and then take furious issue once they do.  For them morality is even worse than doctrine.  They expect churches to take moral stances.

Elements of Mission 2: Doctrine

Timothy Radcliffe's  key idea here is 'faithful questioning'.  Faithful questioners are rooted in their community and engage from that perspective in rational debate. Radcliffe does acknowledge of course that churches have not always been noted for their practice of rational debate but we would do well to try to get hold of what he's driving at.

He argues that the vigour of the churches relates to their powers of rational debate.  Churches lose vigour through silence; they fear to speak out because it might threaten their unity (the unity of their tradition even before they embark on ecumenical conversations). 

Elements of Mission 1: Community

Over the next few posts I will comment upon the three elements of mission Timothy Radcliffe suggested at the CTE Forum recently.  Here they are:

1. Community
2. Doctrine
3. Morality

Radcliffe had a great deal to say about the second two and virtually nothing to say about the first because it presents no problem for our culture.  So, that is where I will start.

Arguments For and Against Ecumenism

I received a comment the other day which asked for positives and negatives about ecumenism to enable the reader to come to a conclusion.  I'm not sure I can achieve the last part because ecumenism is in its nature something we all have to make a decision about.  The aim of this post is simply to suggest some things you may wish to consider if you are unsure about ecumenism.

Mythos and Logos

I want to conclude this sequence about communion by explaining what I think about it.  This is what works for me.  I don't insist it is the answer for anyone else but if you find it helpful ...

Hope in God's Future

It is easy to get frustrated at the churches' lack of urgency about climate change.  I have raised the issue a few times in ecumenical meetings and the sense I get is that many do not see the relevance of climate change to ecumenism or indeed church life in general.

It is most encouraging to find the Joint Public Issues Team of the Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches have produced a report Hope in God’s Future: Christian Discipleship in the Context of Climate Change.

A Question of Christian Ethical Priorities

We're straining at gnats and swallowing camels.  As I've explored ethics over recent posts, it seems as if the churches will focus time and energy on any ethical issue so long as it is not about the use of wealth to exploit other people and the environment.  (The Eleventh Earl of Mar's photo says it all.)  Indeed, the appetite amongst some Christians for these peripheral ethics is to the extent that it sometimes feels as if issues are being invented as further distractions.  Whilst a few verses in the Bible about sexuality are blown up into a major issue that threatens the integrity of the churches, exploitation, an issue present on almost every page, can go unacknowledged in a month of sermons.

On Being Born Again

If we are to take a radical approach to ethics, we need to understand what Christians mean by conversion.  Let us start with the story of Nicodemus at John chapter 3:1.  The most significant thing about Nicodemus is that he comes by night.

Righteousness, Justification and Faith in Jesus

Today I want to follow up yesterday's post by asking how Paul understood faith and belief.  The photo, by Niall McAuley, is from SS Peter and Paul's church, Athlone, completed in 1937. This window is in the porch.  It shows Paul's letter to the Romans.  (His other letters are under his cloak.)

My argument is based upon a passage in John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L Reed's In Search of Paul, page 381 onwards.  In this passage they discuss Romans 3:26:

... it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.  (NRSV)

Using the Pastoral Cycle

I first encountered the pastoral cycle during my study year, 1981-2, at the Urban Theology Unit.  In those days theology was still seen as something studied at university and the idea of 'doing theology', as an activity available to all, was new and exciting.  Central to this was the idea of praxis, that interaction  between action and reflection at the heart of the pastoral cycle.