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This is not a topic I know a great deal about and so I'm preparing this post as a request for help tracking down material for future exploration.
Usually we think of ecumenism as an exercise in ecclesiology. We seek unity between churches, denominations or traditions. This is a formal approach to unity. It involves negotiated agreements between traditions.
My question: does culture have a role creating divisions or supporting unity between Christians?
Inculturation is the process whereby cultures that pre-exist the arrival of the Christian message, take it on board. Traditional missionary activity perhaps tried to introduce western traditions into places. Today the focus is upon cultures interpreting the faith in their own way, although I suspect this is something of a generalisation.
Does culture simplify or complicate the quest for unity? If our major divisions are between the continents, so Anglicans on one shore have more in common with Catholics on the same shore than they have with Anglicans an ocean away, does this mean the quest for unity must be harder? I'm thinking for example of the differences between African and American Anglican churches over sexuality. This is a well known example but there must be others where Christian cultural traditions are growing further apart. To what extent, does culture account for the differences between African and American Anglicanism, rather than theological emphases or tradition?
Or perhaps as Roman Catholicism, a single tradition, can embrace cultures all over the world, unity between very different Christian cultures is possible. The success of this church, with its centralised Magisterium, may imply all Christians should be a part of it but this would deny the witness of many Christians who seek freedom to worship outside of a centralised authority.
And what about local cultural differences? Do inner city churches in Britain have more in common with each than with rural or suburban churches in the same city?
How does culture influence the ways we express our faith?
One further point. Unity or reconciliation? This topic resonates with the idea of a global church. Where are the voices who are not heard? Can Christians on the margins, whose voices are not heard, find solidarity with each other? Or do they face one another through veils of incomprehension?
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