This post relates to the fourth critical issue in Called to be One: What Now?, Denominationalism and Local Ecumenism .
Building on my last post , let me approach consumerism from a different direction.
Christianity is a faith rooted in history. Its strength is its ability to adapt to new situations, to be contextualised, or incarnated, in the particular.
Of course, some traditions claim their faith is timeless and must not adapt to context. But the reality is as faith spreads, it spreads in particular, not generic ways. The success of many missions was rooted in local people taking on the faith and moulding it to their own culture. Christianity is good at this, whether or not the missionaries or evangelists approve.
All institutions invite loyalty. This does not mean institutions should be unquestioned, indeed some would argue questioning is a sign of loyalty. The point is, to be a Christian, you are part of something with a history, with crazy beliefs, with maddening habits and formalities.
So, the question becomes: do we attain unity by attempting to reconcile these traditions, which are rarely even reconciled internally, or does the future lie in abandoning old institutions and starting over? This debate has always been, and continues to be, acted out in numerous ways around the world.
Local Ecumenical Partnerships are on the frontline of the movement for reconciliation between traditions. At one time they were radical flowers of progress. Today they seem more like isolated islands, abandoned equally by their parent churches and the growing numbers of Christians Together who see formal, structural ecumenism as irrelevant.
This underlines the urgent need for conversations between mainline churches and the growing informal networks of Christians. The aim is not conversion from one ecclesiology to another but to bring together their strengths, in order to generate new approaches to ecumenism.
Comments