Exploring Ecumenism

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. 

Local and Global Ecumenism

Reading about the Global Christian Forum  has helped me think about local and national ecumenism in Britain.  It appears local ecumenism has more in common with global ecumenism than the national  ecumenical work of the denominations.

It seems local and national ecumenism have had less in common in recent years.  Think back to the English Covenant in the early eighties and then the 'Not Strangers but Pilgrims'  process in the late eighties.  The latter involved many local churches in meeting over Lent 1986 to discuss the future of ecumenism in Britain.  This process led to the Swanwick Agreement  and the new ecumenical instruments.

Distinctive Features of the Global Christian Forum

So, what is distinctive about the Global Christian Forum ?  The GCF has been extremely successful bringing together Christians including those from traditions which were and remain sceptical about ecumenism.  This is true not only of the Limuru meeting of 2007 but also of four earlier regional meetings in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.  It is also true of an earlier meeting in Pasadena, which was taken to cover North America.

The Reconciling Mission of Global Christianity

The second of the papers from the plenary sessions at the  Global Christian Forum  meeting in Limuru 2007, by Dr Cheryl Bridges Johns , a Pentecostal scholar, underlies this post.  It is called 'When East Meets West and North Meets South: The Reconciling Mission of Global Christianity' and can be found on page 93 of  Revisioning Christian Unity .

Johns makes two assumptions: that the 'mainstream' ecumenical paradigm is no longer viable to meet the challenges of the 21st century; and that when global Christians are honoured as equal partners, their gifts are adequate for the tasks of unity and mission.