Yesterday, I presented a rather idealistic view of the prayer life of churches together. This may be as it should be but in practice ecumenism can be a treadmill, the constant repeating of annual ecumenical events. From the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, through the Lent Walk, Pentecost Sunday and then carols outside the supermarket.
It seems almost as if prayer together is too much trouble and so our Practice becomes drudgery, rather than a response we take from reflection together on the reality presented by our place.
Linthicum uses the word 'practice' but I think if we are prepared to pray together, then we will find the routine of ecumenism will be transformed into Praxis, integrated action and reflection.
There are many ways churches together might choose to respond, some I've already mentioned:
- Providing unstructured meeting places
- Offering hospitality to local people and those who from time to time are in need of real support
- Providing sanctuary from the despair of modern life, a place where people can experience something of God's call
- Through community development, offering people some sense of control over what can be random or chaotic lives
Churches together can offer some or all of these or perhaps other things entirely. The area sets the agenda. The churches respond out of what they have in terms of people, property and finance.
Many churches do this type of thing on their own; perhaps ignoring or duplicating the work of other churches in their area. This is a luxury we can no longer afford. Divided churches, perhaps acting on rivalries from many decades ago are no longer a luxury we can afford. The problems that will face the churches through climate change, peak oil, immigration, the pressures of multicultural society and of course the credit crunch require careful discernment and co-ordination of effort. We owe our communities that much at least.
I understand that Daniel Berrigan, the American Jesuit and Peace Activist, was involved in the production of the film – “The Mission”, starring Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro; “Well, I've been in several filmsincluding documentaries, but the big blockbuster, I was hired as advisor to the actors, I was trying to make Jesuits out of them.”
They were filming in Columbia and one day Berrigan took them into the slums of a town called Cartegena. There he met a priest who told him ‘I wonder if we folks here are really Catholics’. Berrigan asked the priest what he meant, the priest replied ‘We seem too little interested in people’.
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