Exploring Ecumenism

Violence and Ecumenism

As a child I heard the story of St Francis of Assisi and how he founded the Franciscan Order of friars.  I remember being impressed by the church in Assisi when I visited as a young teenager in the 1960s.  Especially, the statue with the live doves living in the nest in his hands.

I also remember a young couple kissing in the square outside the church.  A monk or priest took off his belt and set about them.  Presumably this was an act of love because if they carried on in this way it would be hellfire for them.

Inheritors of a Common Past

Following on from my last post , it is important to underline that we are all inheritors of the Christian past.  It may be tempting to turn on one tradition or another and blame them for the absurdities, and of course the violence, of the past.  In this and the next few posts, I want to explore how we deal with our past today.

Let me start with the Catholic Church .  There are 2 billion Christians in the world and half of them are Catholic.  We (I write as a Protestant) have to concede they must be doing something right.  Whatever you think of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, it cannot be true that so many Christians have got it wrong. 

The Shadow of Imperialism

Continuing with my posts about the history of Western European Christianity, today I want to offer a few examples of how imperialism overshadowed its development.

In an earlier post  I described how I see Paul building up the early Christian Church, within but subversive of the Roman Empire.  The paradox is, it seems to me, this shaped the Church so that it became receptive to take over by Emperor Constantine.

Faith and Power

The next few posts will be based on part IV of Diarmaid MacCulloch's book, A History of Christianity .  This section covers the Church in Western Europe during the Dark and Middle Ages.  The posts will not be a commentary or a review of the book.  They will use these chapters as a departure point to explore some aspects of modern ecumenism.

This first in this series hardly touches on the book at all.  MacCulloch makes only a passing mention of the Synod of Whitby in 664 CE. 

The Church of the East

One of the contributions Diarmaid MacCulloch has made through his book, A History of Christianity , is to make accessible, not only the broad sweep of Christian history but also those dimensions of history long forgotten by the modern churches.

One example of the latter is the impact of the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE).  MacCulloch provides a lucid account of what was a somewhat involved theological dispute.  It was about the nature of Jesus and whether he was of one nature (like water mixed with wine) or two natures (like water mixed with oil).  At the time, the disputes between these two views were exercising theologians throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

A History of Christianity

I have been reading Diarmaid MacCulloch's A History of Christianity  for the past 6 weeks.  I haven't got very far, it has 1016 pages and I'm on page 398.  One problem is it's a very heavy book (about two house bricks) and so not really practical to take on the train.  I read it while the computer boots up each day.  I worry my computer is rather slow but if I get it fixed, I'll never finish the book!

And I want to finish it because it is a brilliant book.  It is very well written and although some of the complexities require careful reading, it is because they are complex, rather than a fault in the writing.  This book makes accessible a great deal that puts Christian history into perspective.  It should be essential reading for ecumenists.

Studying Scripture Together

In a recent post  I suggested bible study as a 'risky but serious study of the Gospel bringing together experiences of the spirit in the word with the best of biblical scholarship'.   

This post relates to my recent review of the essay  by Dr Cheryl Bridges Johns, where she compares the gifts of the north and the gifts of the south.

For me, something did not feel right about this comparison of gifts and I want to explore it further in this post.  Of the South, Johns writes:

Glimpsing into this window of opportunity, we see a Christianity that takes Scripture seriously.  Taking Scripture seriously is not the same as being fundamentalist.  Many in the Global South are quick to point out that they are not "fundamentalists"in the sense that they hold to a rigid legal code.  Rather, Scripture is viewed as a living of the Spirit for the present time.  This is especially true among Pentecostals where there is a fusion between Spirit and Word.

Ecumenical Reception: a Cinderella Discipline?

I wrote about ecumenical reception  about a year ago and I return to it for just one post.  This links with recent posts about the Global Christian Forum  and its implications for local ecumenism.

A helpful text about ecumenical reception is Ecumenical Reception: Its Challenge and Opportunity  by William G Rusch.  It is rather dry although persistence might reward the reader with a few interesting insights.

Participative Ecumenism

A few posts ago , I mentioned the use of participative methods as one of the distinctive features of the Global Christian Forum .  The intention has been to distance the Forum from formal talks about Faith and Order.

I have noticed a few other straws in the wind:

Reframing Ecumenical Theology in Local Churches

I was asked in a comment to my last post : how might we reframe our theology of ecumenism in real life terms for the average person in the pew?  This is of course in the context of the Global Christian Forum  and the increasing sense of Christianity as a global movement of people.

In my last post, I suggested local ecumenism in Britain might have more in common with global than national ecumenism.  This means local churches are perhaps less interested in the faith and order approach to ecumenism than they are in the practicalities of joint mission.