Exploring Ecumenism

Why I am still a ....

(This is my response to the question implied by ‘Why I am still a ...’ – if you read this please consider leaving your response to the same implied question as a comment.)

I’ve always believed if you’re going to be Christian you have to be something.  Christianity is an incarnational faith embodied in the meeting of believers. 

I was brought up in a family which if it was anything was Unitarian.  Once I became a Christian I drifted into Methodism, although at one time I chose between Methodism and the Society of Friends.  I can’t remember why I chose Methodism; perhaps because it was the more difficult option.

When I trained as a local preacher in the early eighties I remember being told Methodism is a part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and whilst it has certain doctrinal emphases there are no major differences between Methodism and the rest.

It is interesting in recent years, as I have been drawn into the ecumenical scene, I have started to identify, understand and value these emphases. 

From its earliest days Methodism was a society where ordinary people supported each other in their spiritual journey.  This is how John Wesley saw his movement.  There has always been a strand of self-help, not just spiritual, but co-operative ventures supporting the whole person, particularly in the old northern chapel culture.  

Maybe these values are thin on the ground today.  Certainly, they are less understood; the spectre of the sanctimonious teetotal authoritarian Methodist still haunts folk memory alongside the genuine self-help and caring.  I hope there is a future for Methodism as a practical movement who care about each other’s relationships with God as well as the practicalities of faith. 

Ecumenism - New Horizons

Ecumenism is not all about Local Ecumenical Partnerships and the Faith and Order debate. Indeed this is why I wanted to start this blog - to explore some of the wider issues and possibilities - I believe ecumenism has a lot of potential to surprise in all sorts of ways if only we can shift the log jam of debate about church structures. The exploring of each others traditions, the deepening of understanding of our and other traditions can open up many new possibilities. Let's identify the real issues as we search for meaning in the modern (post-modern?) world.

Possible features - this list is an attempt to indicate what I hope to cover.  The aim is to explore possibilities rather than criticise what's happening; to widen the scope of ecumenical conversations, rather than continue the existing ones.

1.     To share stories - this is important but I'm not sure how this will happen on a blog.  It would be good to find out why readers are still with their own tradition (or moving on) and how they got there in the first place. This is a reflection of recent developments in ecumenical work as some of the new Pentecostal churches have started to show interest in ecumenism.
2. Websites, books - where are issues being addresed that open up new horizons?
3.  Ecumenism means the reconciliation of the whole cosmos in God - isn't it time we took this seriously?
4.  If it's not Faith and Order - what are the issues we should be addressing?

5.  Re-framing full visible unity - it's not going to go away - how can it adapt to our changing context? And are there really no credible alternatives?
6.  Exploration of the role of consensus, participation, finding the spirit of the meeting - practical ways to engage people in real conversations. John 1:1 'It all started with a conversation' - my translation.
7.  Deep listening - there's a lot going on in this area, so why are the churches so bad at it?
8.  Complexity theory and ecumnenism.
9.  Starting with the local - why have the fresh expressions become so disincarnate (or have they)? The flight from the technicalities of property and finances - why do we make our spirituality so unreal?